The Relationship between Principal Leadership Behaviors and School Climate

The No Child Left Behind Act (2001) revised the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 by making substantial modifications in the major federal programs that support schools‘ efforts to educate all children (U.S. Department of Education, Office of the Deputy Secretary, 2004). Since the inception of this law, demand for greater accountability for student achievement from politicians and legislators has increased exponentially (Carnoy, Elmore, & Siskin, 2003). Strict accountability measures, developed and implemented with limited if any consent or involvement of educators, were imposed on students, teachers, schools, and school districts (Waite, Boone, & NcGgee, 2001). The increased emphasis on accountability heightened the demands on teachers and administrators more than ever before in the history of education in the United States (Carnoy et al., 2003). As increased accountability became the norm, school leadership became more challenging and demanding in order to achieve the newly stipulated accountability (Salazar, 2008)

The Changing Face of the Elementary School Principal

Principals in today’s schools have more experience, have more education, and are of a more advanced age than ever before (National Association of Elementary School Principals [NAESP], 2006). Women elementary principals in the nation have increased from 41% to 56%. Likewise, the age of principals at all levels has increased, as did the percentage of principals who had more than 20 years of experience before entering the position (NAESP, 2006). In addition, the number of elementary principals has increased by 7,000 over the past 10 years (NAESP, 2004, 2005); this number grew to 61,000 in 2003-2004 from 54,000 in 1993-1994. Of these 61,000 principals, approximately 14,000 served schools in rural areas, 17,000 served schools in urban areas, and 31,000 served schools in suburban areas. Thus, more than half of the elementary principals in this country currently serve schools that are classified as suburban. In addition, the number of principals of all levels increased during the same 10-year span from 104,600 to 115,000 and more than half of all principals in the United States work at elementary schools (NAESP, 2005). Therefore, an understanding of the largest group of principals and their characteristics is important for many reasons

Teaching Experiences of African American Educators in the Rural South

A scarcity of research exists regarding the voices of African American teachers who taught in the rural South. In this study, we report the life experiences, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings of three female African American educators as they pertain to their experiences teaching before, during, and after desegregation. Three female African American educators who taught before, during, and after desegregation in the same school district in the rural South were interviewed extensively. Data analysis revealed themes that mirrored those themes found in resiliency research. By examining these resilience themes within the context of this study, a model of adult resilience in teaching emerged

\u3ci\u3eCritical Social Justice Issues for School Practitioners\u3c/i\u3e

Editors: Sandra Harris and Stacey Edmonson Chapter 5: From Ice Raids to Equity: Hispanic Students\u27 Progress through High School in an Immigrant Responsive City, co-authored by John Hill, UNO faculty member. Chapter 9: Focusing School Leadership on Poverty and Ethnicity for K-12 Student Success, co-authored by Jeanne L. Surface, Kay A. Keiser, Peter J. Smith, and Karen L. Hayes. This project was borne of a desire to support these scholar-practitioner leaders. We invited educational leaders to share recent studies which brought issues of social justice to the fore. Certainly, the 20 papers that were accepted as chapters for this book do not address all of the problems with which educators are faced. Nor do the 20 chapters provide definitive answers to these difficult issues. However, they do provide valuable information and ensure that thoughtful, reflective dialogue is occurring regarding critical social justice understandings or misunderstandings.https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/facultybooks/1173/thumbnail.jp

Cross-Sectional Detection of Acute HIV Infection: Timing of Transmission, Inflammation and Antiretroviral Therapy

BACKGROUND: Acute HIV infection (AHI) is a critical phase of infection when irreparable damage to the immune system occurs and subjects are very infectious. We studied subjects with AHI prospectively to develop better treatment and public health interventions. METHODS: Cross-sectional screening was employed to detect HIV RNA positive, antibody negative subjects. Date of HIV acquisition was estimated from clinical history and correlated with sequence diversity assessed by single genome amplification (SGA). Twenty-two cytokines/chemokines were measured from enrollment through week 24. RESULTS: Thirty-seven AHI subjects were studied. In 7 participants with limited exposure windows, the median exposure to HIV occurred 14 days before symptom onset. Lack of viral sequence diversification confirmed the short duration of infection. Transmission dates estimated by SGA/sequencing using molecular clock models correlated with transmission dates estimated by symptom onset in individuals infected with single HIV variants (mean of 28 versus 33 days). Only 10 of 22 cytokines/chemokines were significantly elevated among AHI participants at enrollment compared to uninfected controls, and only 4 participants remained seronegative at enrollment. DISCUSSION: The results emphasize the difficulty in recruiting subjects early in AHI. Viral sequence diversity proved accurate in estimating time of infection. Regardless of aggressive screening, peak viremia and inflammation occurred before enrollment and potential intervention. Given the personal and public health importance, improved AHI detection is urgently needed

School Size and Incidents of Violence among Texas Middle Schools

Article originally published by Journal of Educational IssuesAlthough many studies have been conducted regarding (a) school violence in middle schools and (b) the size of schools, to date, no researcher appears to have examined the role that the size of the middle school plays in determining incidents of violence specifically fighting, assaults, and aggravated assaults. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the incidents of school violence, specifically fighting, assaults, and aggravated assaults, and the size of middle schools in the state of Texas for 3 school years. All 842 middle schools in Texas were included in this study. Compared to small schools, medium schools, and large schools, very small schools had a statistically significantly lower proportion of students involved in assaults, proportion of students involved in aggravated assaults, proportion of incidents of assaults, and proportion of incidents of aggravated assaults. Further, very small schools had a statistically significantly lower proportion of students involved in fights and proportion of incidents of fights than did large schools. A trend emerged across the 4 school sizes for all 6 indicators of school violence, which, in every case, reflected a sharp increase from very small schools to small schools—peaking at small schools. Thus, very small schools appear to be at a greater advantage than are other types of schools with respect to incidents of school violence. Implications of the findings are discussed.Educatio

Academic Achievement for Fifth-Grade Students in Elementary and Intermediate School Settings: Grade Span Configurations

Few researchers have addressed student achievement outcomes as a function of grade configurations for older elementary-aged students. Thus, this study was designed to determine differences between studentsâ Grade 5 reading and mathematics achievement in elementary schools (Kâ5) as compared to intermediate schools (Grade 5, 5â6) for 5 academic years. Using archival statewide data, researchers used a rigorous five-step distance-based formula to match elementary schools to intermediate schools on four demographic/school characteristic variables. Students in K-5 settings attained statistically significantly higher levels of reading and mathematics achievement than did their counterparts, with moderate mean effect sizes of 0.37 and 0.47