Date of Award

1996

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Theory, Policy, and Practice

First Advisor

Charles B. Teddlie

Abstract

This study employs both quantitative and qualitative techniques to study the restructuring processes at the district, school, and teacher levels. The quantitative procedures include surveys used to distinguish between teachers's perceptions of highly and moderately restructured schools. Qualitative research techniques included interviews, observations, and document analysis to describe the restructuring. A new instrument, the Attributes of School Restructuring Scale (ASRS), was developed to measure teachers' knowledge about restructuring efforts and their involvement in the restructuring projects. The final version of the ASRS, included 48-items spread across three subscales: Budget/Finance, Governance/Decision-Making, and Curriculum/Instruction. The quantitative results from the statewide study indicated that the ASRS successfully differentiated highly restructured from moderately restructured schools on 36 of the 48 items. Results also indicate that the teachers perceived there to be a greater difference between highly and moderately restructured schools on the individual teacher involvement items than on the school responsibility items (19 out of 24 comparisons). A validation study of the ASRS indicated that it had appropriate item-total score correlations (.30-.65), subscale-total score correlations (.78-.94), and correlations among subscale scores (.56-.67). A series of factor analyses established the construct validity of the ASRS. Internal-consistency estimates of reliability (coefficient alpha) for the modified inventory of 40 items was.91, This validation study established the face validity, construct validity, and reliability of the ASRS. The case studies included five pairs of schools, and the two schools (Pickett and Sherman) from the most restructured district (Wheeler) were compared using a cross-site analysis (All names are pseudonyms). The ten schools selected for this study, were also compared using a cross-site analysis. A distinguishing pattern emerged in this analysis, which indicated that the more highly a school was restructured, the stronger are the dimensions of contrast. District support and refined organizations structures sustained the highly restructured schools through a series of important changes. Results of the cross-site analysis point to a single restructured district and schools, with moderately restructured schools faring less well.

ISBN

9780591288766

Pages

289

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.6364

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