Pennsylvania School Districts Research Articles

Teachers' perceptions of school violence

Introduction: Pediatric nurse practitioners, especially those working in the school settings, often interact with children and teachers who confront school violence. This descriptive study was conducted to obtain teachers' insights into the problems of school violence. Method: Voluntary questionnaire surveys were distributed to 536 elementary, middle, and high school teachers in a suburban school district in central Pennsylvania. Seventy-four percent returned usable surveys (n = 393). Data were tabulated and results are presented as percentages, frequencies, and chi-square analysis. Results: Fifty-six percent of teachers believed that violence or the threat of violence had a direct impact on the quality of education they are able to provide. Elementary school teachers were more likely to be victims of a physical assault by a student (P =.0006) and more likely to fear parents (P =.002) than were other teachers. Discussion: Even in suburban schools, teachers are likely to be victimized and fear students or their parents. This fear adversely affects the quality of education provided. Pediatric nurse practitioners play a significant role in addressing this public health concern. J Pediatr Health Care. (2003). 17, 79-83.

A spatial study of teachers’ salaries in Pennsylvania school districts

I explore the relationship among teacher salaries across Pennsylvania school districts. Using techniques developed in spatial econometrics, I find that the error terms in a salary regression are spatially correlated, suggesting evidence of omitted labor market factors. I also find evidence that salaries in nearby, financially similar districts directly influence teacher salaries in a particular district, which is evidence of pattern bargaining or more informal social comparisons across districts. Econometric specifications that ignore these factors overstate the influence of own-district variables, such as economic indicators, on salary.

Improving the Skills of Special Education Paraprofessionals: A Rural School District's Model for Staff Development

Despite an increase in the number of teacher aides in special education classes, there are few training programs available for these aides. Programs specific to rural school districts are noticeably limited. This article outlines a staff development program for special education teacher aides developed by a rural school district in northwest Pennsylvania. The program is designed to be continuous, and is based on best practice as well as suggestions from district staff. After the first year of implementation, the program received positive ratings, both objectively and subjectively, in all areas. The program was also implemented in the St. Marys Area School District at a cost of under $5,000.

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Failing to Implement an IEP: Tips for Secondary School Principals and Guidance Counselors

This article identifies the major reasons why IEPs are not always imple mented as written, and describes the preventive steps that one Pennsylvania school district took to guarantee that all high school spe cial education students receive the services listed on their IEP.

Parental Monitoring and Adolescent Adjustment: An Ecological Perspective

This study uses an ecological framework to examine the associations between parental monitoring and a variety of indicators of adolescent adjustment. Specifically, investigators examined whether higher levels of parental monitoring were associated with higher adolescent grade point average, lower levels of adolescent depression, and lower levels of adolescent sexual activity and minor delinquency, and whether these relations were moderated by gender, grade level, or mothers' work status. Participants were 424 7th to 12th graders from a single rural school district in central Pennsylvania. Bivariate correlations indicated that parental monitoring had strong associations with all indicators of adjustment for both boys and girls, with the exception of boys' depression. Gender and grade level simultaneously moderated the relation between parental monitoring and adolescent delinquency, with the effect of parental monitoring increasing across grade level for boys, and decreasing with grade level for girls. Furt...

Tele-Tutoring - From Learning to Earning

Abstract The West Greene School District (WGSD) in southwestern Pennsylvania has been extremely aggressive in providing exceptional educational opportunities to its students which come primarily from a rural, small-town and post-industrial mining community. The five school systems serving Greene County have been linked with multiple T-l lines making special interest courses available to all students through a sophisticated distancelearning facility. The goals of this program are multiple including motivating students to pursue advanced education, especially in mathematics, computer sciences, engineering, and the basic sciences; enriching the educational experience beyond that commonly available to students in rural communities; and improving the general attractiveness of the region for business growth. RJ Lee Group (RJLG) is a small business located about 60 miles northeast of Greene County specializing in solving materials-related problems. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is often one of the methods used by RJLG.

Examination of Factors Affecting Change in a Pennsylvania School District's Art Program from 1924 to 1992

The history of the art program in a single Pennsylvania school district was examined to discover first, if and when change occurred, and, second, by what means change was either accepted or suppressed. Factors such as state mandates, preservice teacher education, or actions by school administrators are often cited by educational reform advocates as effective means for implementing change. Effects of these three strategies, or factors, were traced through three periods of art programs in the district. It was concluded that state mandates or guidelines, by operating on and through preservice teacher education programs, had only indirect effects on art curricula. Effectiveness of preservice education was unclear. Of the three factors studied, the influence of district administration was most decisive and consistent in affecting change.

Leadership in Community Health: A Case Study

Health care costs can be reduced by better management of scarce health care resources. However, this does not necessarily mean better health for the individual. On the other hand, expansion of health care programs with the goal of prevention can make the individual healthier and in the long-run reduce the cost of health care. The very rapid growth in managed health care plans, with their emphasis on controlling health care costs, may provide an opportunity for an expansion in preventive health care programs. This case study of a new graduate program in health administration examines the results of the role the educational program can play in coalition building among various agencies to better the health of the community. The goal of this program is to produce graduates equipped with administrative skills and a thorough understanding of the value of well developed community wellness programs. The accomplishments of this graduate program include the formation of a proactive regional wellness council, the production of a video tape about reducing adolescent high-risk health behaviors distributed to every school district in Pennsylvania, and the implementation of a number of additional community health initiatives developed by this graduate program. This study provides evidence that a graduate program in health care administration can provide a leadership role in the production of better health for communities overall.

Examination of Factors Affecting Change in a Pennsylvania School District's Art Program from 1924 to 1992

The early 1980s saw a resurgence of dissatisfaction with American public schools, expressed in calls for educational renewal, school restructuring, and systemic reform (Adler, 1982; Boyer, 1983; Goodlad, 1983; National Commission for Excellence in Education, 1983; Sizer, 1984). This echoed a long history of agitation for educational change at the theoretical level (Kliebard, 1991) that was paralleled in the history of art education (Belshe, 1972; Clarke, 1874; Efland, 1989; Logan, 1955; Soucy, 1990; Wygant, 1983). However, a relevant question is whether educational change efforts ever succeeded at the classroom level (Cuban, 1984), and if so, by what means. To understand how educational change was actually accomplished, I examined the art program at Penn Manor, a suburban, middle-class school district in southeastern Pennsylvania in which I taught elementary art classes for 20 years. My objectives were to locate historical trends and influences that shaped the implementation of new approaches to art education. I attempted to trace these processes through various levels, from state educational guidelines, down to the district level, within the broader context of world events and general curriculum history (Marche, 1995). The work of Efland (1990), Rogers (1983), and Fullan (1993), provided bases for a model of change that emerged from this study and has been reported elsewhere (Marche, 1997). Although numerous factors were examined in the original study, this paper will focus on three parameters that operated to promote or prevent lasting curricular change: state mandates or guidelines, teachers' preservice education, and district administration. These factors will be traced through three historical periods at Penn Manor between 1924 and 1992. The paper will conclude with an analysis of each parameter's effect in aiding or impeding change initiatives. Historical Methods My historical inquiry was based upon three types of data: (a) documents obtained from archival as well as public and private sources, (b) interviews with art department chairpersons, students, art teachers, and classroom teachers who are active or retired, and (c) my own personal memories and records. For most of the period examined, primary sources were available, and key individuals were accessible, willing to be interviewed, and ready to share documents and art work. However, because the earliest district art teacher was no longer alive, that period's history was reconstructed from interviews with his former students and colleagues, past newspaper accounts, and collections of student art work. Content analysis was the primary method for analyzing written district art curricula (Holsti, 1969; Merriam, 1990) using categories derived from research questions posed at the study's commencement. Interview transcripts were coded to construct content analysis categories that captured the effect and nature of participants' responses. Due to the subjective nature of historical documents, human memory, and the interpretive nature of all historical writing (Carr, 1961; Hamblen, 1984; Hoffman 1984; Vansina, 1984; Warren, 1978), conclusions were confirmed through multiple sources wherever possible (Cutler, 1984; Merriam, 1990). The question of personal bias, due to my close association with this district, required additional measures including full disclosure of sources (Vansina, 1984), use of indirect questions and multiple, diversified inquiries into each subject (Cutler, 1984), ongoing consultation with respondents, and peer review (Merriam, 1990). Art at Penn Manor, The Painting Master-1924-1960 Starting in 1924, art education in Manor Township was shaped by a single individual, Harry Martin Book. A gentleman-painter and locally popular landscape artist, Book sold his works and lectured about painting throughout the community. Book taught through the Great Depression, World War II, and the start of the Cold War, until the beginning of the Space Age. …

Past Activeness, Solidarity, and Local Development Efforts1

Abstract Actions by local groups and leaders constitute an essential but poorly understood element of many rural development strategies. Previous studies suggest that local development efforts can influence community change, but questions remain about why localities differ in mobilization to achieve development goals. Drawing upon community field theory and human ecology, this study uses data for rural school districts in Pennsylvania to examine the argument that activeness in the past and development of solidarity can contribute to a higher probability of local mobilization than would be predicted by ecological characteristics alone. Hierarchical regressions support this argument for some local actions, while canonical correlations show a generalized pattern strongly associated with past activeness and solidarity.

Mentoring: One District's Success Story

Each year, six full-time mentors work in one Pennsylvania school district. Here's how the program works.

Body fatness, television viewing and calorie-intake of a sample of pennsylvania sixth grade children

The body fatness, television viewing time and calorie-intake estimate of 773 sixth grade, Caucasian children in 12 Pennsylvania school districts were examined to ascertain whether or not relationships existed among these variables. Triceps skinfold and body mass index (BMI) computed as wt/ht2 served as body fatness indicators. Television viewing reported by boys and girls, respectively, averaged 29.6 ± 12.5 and 27.1 ± 11.9 hours/week. Multiple regression models using data from a subsample of 489 children, for whom body fatness measures made three years earlier were available, explained 73% and 58% of the variance in BMI and triceps skinfold, respectively. Television viewing time contributed significantly to each model, but calorie-intake estimate did not. The relationship between television viewing and triceps skinfold emerged among both boys and girls but only in the less affluent school districts, while the relationship between television viewing and BMI occurred only among girls in moderately and less affluent districts. We hypothesize that where television viewing was related to body fatness, its influence was likely mediated through energy expenditure rather than energy intake. This emphasizes the importance of physical activity programs for school children.

Bias in the formulation of local government budget problems

Government budgets are premised on forecasts of revenues and expenditures. These forecasts are subject to both stochastic error and strategic manipulation. Circumstantial evidence in the budgeting literature and in the popular media suggest that government officials routinely bias the forecasts underlying budgets. The research reported here asked three primary questions: To what extent are budget forecasts systematically biased? Why? (Are fiscal and electoral variables systematically related to the magnitude and direction of the biases?) What political and ethical difference do the biases make? From the literature and an analysis of the incentives facing politicians and bureaucrats, we developed hypotheses about budget biases. These hypotheses were tested using time series data for the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1941–1983); the City of San Diego, California (1950–1982); and the Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) School District (1946–1983). In these locales over the periods examined, budgets were systematically pessimistic; revenues were underestimated and expenditures were overestimated. The fiscal and electoral factors hypothesized to account for this pessimism are, however, very mixed in their ability to explain the biases.

The Home Environment of Higher and Lower Achieving Puerto Rican Children

This investigation examines differences in the home environments of a group of higher and lower achieving Puerto Rican fifth and sixth graders (N=57) in a southeastern urban Pennsylvania school district. The process home environment variables were obtained by interviewing the mothers, in their homes, with the aid of the Marjoribanks Family Environment Schedule. Aspects of the home environment investigated were parents' aspirations for their child, parents' aspirations for themselves, concern for the use of language, parental reinforcement of aspirations, knowledge of the child's educational progress, family involvement in educational activities, press for independence, and value orientations.

A three-year school-based nutrition education study

We conducted a three-year nutrition education study in 12 Pennsylvania school districts. Within the districts we assigned schools to either the treatment (nutrition education) or control group and initiated the study with a cohort of third grade children. At the beginning of their third, fourth, and fifth grade years the children completed instruments that assessed nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported eating behaviors. Each year, children in the treatment group participated in 9 to 12 weeks of nutrition education. Compared to children in the control group, those in the treatment group exhibited significantly higher adjusted mean posttest knowledge scores throughout the study. Treatment group children who entered the study with attitude scores in a range where there was room for improvement exhibited a consistent tendency toward greater improvement than controls. This treatment effect was generated mainly in third grade. On one of the three eating-behavior assessments the treatment group moved with greater rapidity than controls toward a more desirable eating pattern, or maintained that pattern better. On two of the four attitude scales children with low third grade pretest (entry) scores exhibited improvements, independent of treatment, through fourth grade. This study shows it is difficult to demonstrate that increased nutrition knowledge dramatically affects nutrition attitudes and eating behaviors. However, taken together, the results indicate a positive nutrition education impact.

Children's changing attitudes regarding alcohol: a cross-sectional study.

A drug and alcohol related questionnaire was distributed to the fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students in an urban school district in Pennsylvania. Based on the responses to the questionnaire, it was concluded that the sixth-grade students were significantly more advanced than the fourth- or fifth-grade students, in terms of conformity to peer pressure and positive attitudes toward the use of drugs and alcohol. It was recommended that prior to the sixth-grade, use of drug and alcohol education curriculum may be useful. Beginning at the sixth-grade and continuing on through high school, sole reliance on drug and alcohol education curriculum as a means of dealing with drug and alcohol use was not expected to produce positive results.

Experimentation with smokeless tobacco and cigarettes by children and adolescents: relationship to beliefs, peer use, and parental use.

Experimentation with both cigarettes and smokeless tobacco by children in grades 3-12 in a school district in Pennsylvania was related to peer experimentation, parental use, and personal beliefs about the harm of the product for both males and females. Experimentation with both products had begun as early as the third grade and increased with age, with a major increase in experimentation during junior high school. Nearly half the males in grades 7-12 did not believe smokeless tobacco was harmful.

A mathematical programming approach to elementary school facility decisions

Beginning in the early 1970's, school districts throughout the United States were abruptly faced with a dramatic decline in enrollments. These declines required that many administrators adjust their planning procedures to include the effects of unused or under-used facilities. The most prominent of these decisions was the closing of selected schools. Most districts addressed this issue by establishing citizen task forces to analyze the current situation, to recommend how school facilities should be reorganized, and to develop the timing of these activities. These citizen task forces clearly operate in a political environment, and are necessarily concerned with qualitative social issues as well as those issues that are traditionally more quantifiable. In this paper we develop and investigate the use of quantitative tools that enhance this decision making process. Specifically, we discuss the development of a zero-one integer program designed to assist in facility allocation problems faced by many school districts. The paper includes a demonstration case study using this model with data from the State College, Pennsylvania school district.

Patterns of Property Tax Exploitation Produced By Infrequent Assessments

Abstract. Out of dace assessments of real property for ad valorem taxation may give rise to systematic inequities in the distribution of the tax burden. One such inequity is the exploitation of a taxing jurisdiction's core area by its periphery. We provide an explanation of how such exploitation may arise. This explanation is tested empirically by observing the patterns of assessment in a sample of Pennsylvania school districts. We find a consistent pattern of overpayments, supporting an hypothesis that core areas are exploited by peripheral areas. The overpayments to school districts could be claimed by city governments.

A Model for Workers' Compensation Group Sell Insurance: The Delaware Valley School Districts Plan

This article describes a workers' compensation self-insurance pool developed by nineteen school districts in southeastern Pennsylvania. It explains why this relatively new risk management tool was chosen, how the program was designed, and the actuarial methodologies applied to ensure the plan's solvency. Associations of this type have been formed only in selected states, due primarily to regulatory constraints. The regulatory issue is examined, and the future potential for this risk management tool is discussed. The spiraling increases in workers' compensation insurance premiums that have occurred in the past decade have caused corporations, municipalities, and other governmental units to view self-insurance as a viable alternative to the purchase of workers' compensation insurance. Several published works [1, 8, 9, 17, 18] have presented impressive arguments for the possible advantages of self-insuring the workers' compensation risk and have detailed the necessary prerequisites for a successful program. A new approach, still in its infancy, is group self-insurance, or pooling. Pools have been formed in both the public and private sectors. Public pools have usually consisted of cities, counties, or school districts which have joined together to provide self-insurance for their members. Wander [119] provides a summary of thirteen of these groups formed between 1974 and 1979. In the private sector, groups usually have developed throgh trade associations. Florida has been a leader in this area, with seventeen separate groups in existnce as of 1979 [6]. The major impediment to the growth of self-insurance pools has been the lack of enabling legislation. Most state laws either have been silent on the issue of pooling or have specifically ruled it to be illegal. With recent pressure Barry D. Smith, Ph.D., CPCU, CLU, FLMI, is currently Assistant Professor of Insurance at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. The author wishes to thank the nineteen member school districts of the Delaware Valley Workers' Compensation Self-Insurance Association for their cooperation and Sandy Palley and Dexter Gresh of Pally Simon Associates, Jenkintown, PA, plan administrators and originators of the plan concepts. 'The author has recently conducted a survey of all state insurance departments [ 16]. As of early 1981, 18 states indicated that group workers' compensation self-insurance was allowed by statute. This group included: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia. In other states, isolated groups may have formed without enabling legislation.