Development of a process for Maryland school districts to assess implementation of the National Education Goals and Maryland's School for Success Goals

The purpose of this study was to collect information to measure the perceptions of superintendents and principals about the extent to which they: (1) were aware, (2) were supportive, and (3) have implemented the National Education Goals and Maryland's Schools for Success Goals. In addition, the study examined (1) level of implementation and (2) adequacy of funding for the National and Maryland Goals. Superintendents and principals from Maryland's 23 counties and the Baltimore City school district comprised the population in this study. A questionnaire was designed and administered by the researcher to gather data on education awareness, attitudes and involvement of the National and State Goals. It also gathered data about administrators t experience, size of school, school district, race and gender.

A process was described in which the researcher designed and pilot tested a survey questionnaire. The revised questionnaire was used in a survey of 635 Maryland public school principals and 24 superintendents. Of the 635 surveys sent to principals, 443 or 70% were returned and processed. For superintendents, the return rate was 67% (16 of 24). Superintendents and principals responded to five questions for each of the six national goals and ten Maryland goals. The five questions assessed awareness of the goals on the part of the respondents, the extent to which they supported the goal, the extent to which the goal was currently being implemented, the extent of their personal commitment to implementing the goal and whether adequate funding support for the goal was being supplied. For each of the 16 goals, respondents rated their agreement-disagreement on a 5-point Likert scale. Statistical measures included ANOVA, F-test and t-test.

The results indicated that there were a number of important statistically significant differences between the groups studied. Superintendents and principals differed significantly on level of awareness of the National and Maryland Goals. Superintendents were more informed. Elementary and secondary principals differed significantly on commitment to implementing the goals, secondary principals being more committed. There were statistically significant differences between urban, rural and suburban principals in implementation of Maryland Goals, with suburban principals being more advanced in commitment. Suburban schools were also more in agreement than were rural or urban schools in the area of financial support of Maryland Goals. School size reflected statistically significant differences concerning financial support. Smaller schools were more satisfied than larger ones. Similar differences were found on the basis of race of principal; African-American principals were more content with the level of support of National and Maryland Goals than were Caucasian principals.

The results indicated that questions of awareness, support, degree of implementation, and personal commitment for the National goals correlated significantly with the corresponding Maryland goals. The process and instrument proved to be effective in gathering data related to the research questions.