Abstract
<p>This study is a report of the relationship between a collaborative school culture, teacher quality and the influence these variables have upon student attendance and suspensions. The research is based upon data gathered from 50 public schools throughout the southeastern United States. Surveys were administered to examine teacher quality characteristics, elements of educational leadership, and components of a collaborative school culture. Data were analyzed in relation to teacher input characteristics such as certification, years teaching, percentage teaching out of field, and highest degree obtained. The findings revealed that as teacher collaboration increased, the model predicted that student suspensions would decrease by 6.709%. In addition, the model predicted that when the percentage of out-of-field teachers within a school increased, student suspensions would decrease by 0.16%. Finally, as the percentage of non-certified teachers within a school increased, the student suspension percentage increased by .22%. The findings offer valuable insight into the characteristics of quality teaching and school culture that demonstrate the greatest impact on student attendance and suspensions and may influence educational policy, teacher training, educational leadership, and school reform initiatives.</p>
Highlights
In this current educational context of high stakes accountability, public schools in the United States are under significant pressure to increase student achievement
The independent variables for this study were six factors of school culture described above as well as characteristics of teacher quality while the dependent variables were student suspension rate and student attendance rate
The first research question asked if there were statistically significant predictive effect of school culture factors, as measured by the School Culture Survey, and the characteristics of teacher quality on student attendance
Summary
In this current educational context of high stakes accountability, public schools in the United States are under significant pressure to increase student achievement. Florida schools face dramatic challenges in these areas each year with nearly 10% of the student population experiencing 21 or more days absent and 172,545 out-of school suspensions (FDOE, 2014) As these challenges mount for schools throughout the state, we look to the literature for solutions including research suggesting elements within the control of schools: (1) the characteristics and quality of its teachers (Darling Hammond, 1997, 2000; Darling-Hammond & Ducommun, 2007; Darling-Hammond, Wilhoit, & Pittenger, 2014), (2) establishing a strong school culture that supports teacher learning and improvement (Deal & Peterson, 1998; Cleveland et al, 2012) and (3) the practices of school leaders in shaping a collaborative school culture (Teske & Schneider, 1999; Cleveland et al, 2012; Hsin-Hsiange & Mao-neng, 2015)
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