School Organizational Factors Research Articles

School organizational factors as predictors of student achievement: Principals’ perspective

This study aimed to deepen our understanding of how school organization factors can be used to predict students’ academic performance. In particular, factors examined were leadership skills, nature of students, parental involvement and the school environment. Using stratified and simple random sampling, a total of 152 principals were selected for the study. A survey questionnaire was used to collect data whose variance and regression was analyzed using ANOVA. The findings consolidate the importance of leadership skills, nature of students, learning environment and parents in predicting students learning success. All the four aspects of school organization contributed differently to predicting students’ academic performance with the Principals' Leadership Skills having the highest impact while parental involvement made the least contribution. Findings of this study are important to educational administrators to ensure a supportive learning environment for the students. In addition education authorities both at national and local levels should enhance field inspections to rate the learning atmosphere. The study also serves to contribute to the body of knowledge on school organizational factors in addition to triggering the need for more research in this domain.

Investigating School Climate and School Leadership Factors that Impact Secondary STEM Teacher Retention

The present study used 2011–12 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) data to determine the impact of school organizational factors on secondary STEM teacher retention in the post-NCLB era. Researchers utilized teacher and principal instruments from the SASS to measure the retention of grades 9–12 STEM teachers (n = 920). Due to the nested nature of teachers within schools and based on previous retention research, multilevel logistic regression was used to examine the proportion of variance in STEM teacher retention across schools. The study focused on identifying the proportion of variance in STEM teacher retention that was attributable to school differences, as well as the effect of school climate on STEM teacher retention, controlling for teacher and principal characteristics. The study’s most important finding was that having a principal who majored in a STEM subject had a positive and significant effect on the retention of secondary STEM teachers.

Factors relating to teachers’ intention to change school: A multilevel perspective

The high turnover rates in public schools, especially in those hard-to-staff schools, remains a growing problem and has become the largest component of teacher supply problems in the US school system. The purpose of the study was to examine the individual and school organizational factors that were associated with teachers’ intentions to change school by using the dataset of the US TALIS 2013 administrated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The results of the multilevel models showed that although the variance in teacher turnover intentions was, to a substantial degree, explained by the individual variables, the school organizational-specific effects have notably contributed to the outcome as well. Additionally, the analysis of the cross-level interaction has detected both direct and indirect effects of disadvantaged schools on teacher transfer intention. The implications for teacher retention policies have been discussed as well.

The effect of an intervention on physical activity of moderate-and-vigorous intensity, and sedentary behavior during adolescents' time at school.

This study evaluated the effect of an intervention on the engagement in physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) of sixth to ninth grade students during school-time, physical education (PE) classes, and recesses at two public schools in Florianopolis, SC, Brazil. Schools were divided into control and experimental groups. Participants wore accelerometers during school-time, and PA and SB were estimated for school-time, PE classes and recesses at the baseline and after the intervention. The intervention was composed of four components: changes were made in the PE classes, including giving instruction to teachers; sports equipment was made available for use during recesses; educational sessions on the format of classes were conducted; folders and posters were distributed. Data was analyzed using an Analysis of Covariance for repeated measures comparing baseline data with post intervention data, and for independent samples when comparing control and intervention groups. A low proportion of engagement in PA and a large engagement in SB was observed on the baseline. PA decreased in the intervention group during PE classes, while it increased in the control group with regard to school-time, PE classes, and recess. The intervention group accumulated more SB during school-time and PE classes after the intervention, while a decrease in the control group's SB during school-time was observed. The intervention was not effective in increasing PA or decreasing SB. Environmental and school's organizational factors impact how interventions are conducted, and should be considered beforehand.

School organizational factors relating to teachers’ intentions to leave: A mediator model

Structural equation modeling was used to examine a conceptual model specifying hypothesized linkages among teachers’ perceptions of school organizational factors, including classroom context and role stress, and commitment, satisfaction, and intentions to leave. Respondents to survey questions designed to capture the above constructs included 177 teachers in seven high schools in a southern coastal region of California. Structural equation modeling results indicated that all three study predictors (class size, student behavior, and role stress) affected intentions to leave, and satisfaction and commitment mediated the relationship between the school organizational factors and intentions to leave.

Individual and School Organizational Factors that Influence Implementation of the PAX Good Behavior Game Intervention.

Evidence-based interventions are being disseminated broadly in schools across the USA, but the implementation levels achieved in community settings vary considerably. The current study examined the extent to which teacher and school factors were associated with implementation dosage and quality of the PAX Good Behavior Game (PAX GBG), a universal classroom-based preventive intervention designed to improve student social-emotional competence and behavior. Specifically, dosage (i.e., number of games and duration of games) across the school year and quality (i.e., how well the game is delivered) of PAX GBG implementation across four time points in a school year were examined. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the association between teacher-level factors (e.g., demographics, self-reports of personal resources, attitudes toward the intervention, and workplace perceptions) and longitudinal implementation data. We also accounted for school-level factors, including demographic characteristics of the students and ratings of the schools' organizational health. Findings indicated that only a few teacher-level factors were significantly related to variation in implementation. Teacher perceptions (e.g., fit with teaching style, emotional exhaustion) were generally related to dosage, whereas demographic factors (e.g., teachers' age) were related to quality. These findings highlight the importance of school contextual and proximal teacher factors on the implementation of classroom-based programs.

Analisis Kompetensi Lulusan melalui Kinerja Guru di SMPN Wilayah III Cirebon

This study examined the phenomenon of graduates competence in SMPN Cirebon Region III. The purpose of this study is to analyze the organization school factors at SMPN Cirebon Region III, the influence of the organization school factors toward teacher competence, the influence of teacher competence toward teacher performance, and the influence of teacher performance to the graduate competence of SMPN Cirebon Region III. The types of this research are descriptive and verification, collection data used the stratified random sampling, the sample size were 266 respondents. The result of study used path analysis show there is an increased activity of primary and secondary education in the Region III Cirebon, marked by the increasing of achieved results, including APK, the average value of the UN, the average of proceed to SLA non RSBI and RSBI. Another result show that there is a closeness relationship between school organizational factors with very low and moderate relationship. Simultaneously, there is significant influence from all organizational of school factors to teachers competence’. Partially, school culture has a dominant influence than others. The last result show there is a significant influence of teachers’ competence against the teachers’ performance, and there is significant influence from the teachers’ performance against the graduates’ competence.

The Effects of Individual Characteristics, School Organizational Factors, and Teacher Factors on Students' School Violence : A Hierarchical Linear Modeling

본 연구는 학교폭력가해에 대한 학생 개인요인, 학교의 구조적 요인, 교사요인의 효과를 검증하기 위하여 위계적 선형모형을 적용하였고, 이를 HLM 7 프로그램으로 분석하였다. 이를 위해 서울 및 경 기지역 50개 중학교의 총 1,777부 학생자료가 최종분석에 사용되었다. 분석결과, 학생수준 변수에서 폭력에 대한 태도, 아동학대, 비행친구접촉, 학교수준에서는 교사의 폭 력적 훈육이 학교폭력에 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구결과를 바탕으로 학교폭력 해 소를 위한 실천 및 정책방안이 논의되었다.

The effects of individual characteristics, teacher practice, and school organizational factors on students' bullying: A multilevel analysis of public middle schools in Taiwan

This study investigated the effects of individual characteristics (gender, depression, and delinquency), teacher practice (support and maltreatment), and school organizational factors (school size and pupil–teacher ratio) on adolescents' verbal and physical bullying behaviors. A random sample of 1172 7th–9th grade students from 12 public middle schools in Taichung City, Taiwan was selected for this study. A self-report questionnaire survey was administered. The results showed that during the previous semester, 38.7% of the students had ever bullied other students physically while 53.0% had verbally bullied others. Hierarchical linear modeling was employed to conduct a two-level analysis. Individual characteristics including gender, depression, and involvement in delinquent behaviors were found to significantly contribute to both verbal and physical bullying. Teacher's support and maltreatment of students were also associated with the two types of bullying. School size and pupil–teacher ratio, on the other hand, did not significantly contribute to bullying behaviors. Implications were discussed.

Middle Eastern Adolescents' Perpetration of School Violence Against Peers and Teachers

The current study presents the prevalence of students' reports of perpetration of violence toward peers and teachers among 16,604 7th- through 11th-grade Jewish and Arab students in Israel and examines the individual and school contextual factors that explain students' violence. The study explores how students' reports of violence are influenced by individual factors (gender, age, perception of school climate and intervention) and school contextual factors (cultural affiliation, SES of students' families, school and class size, school climate, intervention). Almost one third of all students reported at least one form of perpetration toward peers, and one in five reported perpetration against teachers. Compared to the school climate characteristics, school organizational factors, and cultural affiliation, students' SES has the highest contribution to explained variance in reports of violence toward others. The discussion highlights the need to allocate more resources to schools in low-SES contexts to protect low-SES students from school violence.

A survey of health promotion at international schools.

This study investigated health promotion efforts at international schools serving the education needs of expatriate communities abroad. Factors supporting the implementation of whole-school approaches to health promotion also were examined. Self-completed questionnaires were distributed by a combination of electronic and conventional mail. International school staff in 93 countries (n = 205) completed an adapted version of an instrument used for evaluating the Western Australian School Health Project (WASHP). This survey demonstrated usefulness of the WASHP instrument cross-culturally in a variety of school settings. The level of whole-school approaches to health promotion in the participating international schools varied but tended to be low. Demographic characteristics of schools were not associated with differences in the level of health promotion, with the exception school size. School organizational factors support implementation of health promotion programs.

Encouraging schools to promote health: impact of the Western Australian School Health Project (1992-1995).

The Western Australian School Health (WASH) Project, a school health promotion intervention operating over a four-year period (1992-1995), provided a comprehensive, year-long intervention to help successive groups of schools develop health promotion programs. The WASH Project worked with self-selected school communities and used community development strategies to support participating schools in identifying and responding to health concerns relevant to their students. This paper reports the school impact results of the WASH Project. School impact data involved 24 variables categorized into two areas: school organizational factors supportive of health promotion, and school health promotion factors. Two methods of analysis were used: logistic regression indicating the direction of change, and linear regression indicating the magnitude of change. Results demonstrated that schools successfully made organizational changes, such as the allocation of additional time, personnel, and monetary resources, to support health promotion.

Relation Between Teachers' Professionalism and Job Attitudes, Educational Outcomes, and Organizational Factors

Abstract The relation between teacher professionalism in school and educational process and outcomes, teachers' job attitudes and feelings, and school organizational factors was investigated through a questionnaire survey involving 62 aided primary schools, 58 principals, 1,476 teachers, and 7,969 students of one sponsoring body. The findings show that teachers' professionalism at the school level is positively related to students' affective educational outcomes. In classroom management, teachers with higher professionalism tended to use more professional power, as perceived by students. Teachers in high-professionalism schools seemed to show more positive job attitudes and feelings, higher esprit, and less disengagement. Also, professionalism was strongly associated with school formalization, and all measures of principal's leadership. Furthermore, the stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that principal's human leadership, teachers' disengagement (negative), and school formalization were the strongest predictors of professionalism at the school level. The profiles of high-and low-professionalism schools were contrastingly different in terms of students' educational outcomes, classroom management, teachers' job attitudes and feelings, and school organizational factors. The findings strongly support the importance of teachers' professionalism in the professionalization of teaching and enhancement of education quality.

Gender Differences in Secondary School Teachers' Control over Classroom and School Policy

The study described in this article examined the effect of school gender organization--whether it is a boys' school, girls' school, or coeducational school--on gender differences in teachers' perceptions of organizational control. The study was conducted in U. S. independent schools, both because of the variety of gender organization in these schools and because of the tendency for independent school teachers to have more organizational influence than their counterparts in public schools. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) methods were used to analyze a sample of 629 mathematics and English teachers in a stratified, nationally representative sample of 60 independent secondary schools. In coeducational schools and boys' schools, male teachers perceived greater influence over school policies outside of the classroom than did female teachers. These gender differences were especially great in coeducational schools. In girls' schools the trend was reversed, however, with female teachers experiencing greater influence than male teachers. These findings provide insight into school organizational factors, especially single-sex grouping, that either inhibit or facilitate the empowerment of women teachers.

Effects of school and classroom characteristics on pupil progress in language and arithmetic

Within a random sample of 250 primary schools all 7th grade pupils were selected. These pupils were tested twice (grade 7 and grade 8) on their proficiency in Dutch language and arithmetic. Information on classroom practices and school organization was collected by means of questionnaires from grade 7 and grade 8 teachers and the school principal. The major aim of this study is to detect whether between school differences in progress scores on both subjects (adjusted for intake differences) exist and to what extent these between school differences can be explained by school related organizational factors. It is concluded that between school differences for progress in arithmetic and language do exist. They account for some 12 percent and 8 percent of the total variance in arithmetic and language respectively. Especially school contextual factors, school organizational factors and to a lesser extent classroom organizational factors can explain these between school differences in pupil progress.