Degree Name

EdD (Doctor of Education)

Program

Educational Leadership

Date of Award

8-2014

Committee Chair or Co-Chairs

Donald Good

Committee Members

Cecil Blankenship, Eric Glover, Pamela Scott

Abstract

The purpose of this study was first to determine the satisfaction level of bus drivers pertaining to school building administration, transportation department, and student behaviors, and second to identify the common behavior management strategies used by bus driver in a particular school system in east Tennessee. I also compared the common behavior management strategies used by school bus drivers who are also employed by the school system in some position in addition to this vocation with school bus drivers who are not employed by the school system other than driving the school bus. I also compared behavior management strategies in the following categories: age, years of experience, and gender.

For this quantitative element of the study, I requested bus drivers who met the criteria complete an anonymous survey. The survey had 20 items that focus on the bus drivers' satisfaction in areas of school building administration, transportation department, and student behavior. Bus drivers responded to each item by selecting responses on a 5-point scale from extremely dissatisfied to extremely satisfied, with neutral being the middle point. A single sample t-test was conducted and the results showed bus drivers were satisfied to a significant extent with school building administration and transportation department, while bus drivers were neither satisfied or dissatisfied with student behavior. Bus drivers also ranked their top five behavior management strategies. Results were categorized by age, years of experience, gender, and whether they were employed by the school system in another position. The overall top five behavior management strategies by bus drivers were 1) Assigning a student to a particular seat, 2) Reporting students to school building administration, 3) Moving a student to a particular seat during the bus route, 4) Use of video surveillance, and 5) Discussing a student's behavior with a parent or guardian.

I also interviewed 10 school building administrators in the same school system for their perspective on student behavior management strategies recommended for bus drivers to use on school buses and also their perspective on the impact student behavior on a school bus has on a student at school. Responses were also solicited from school building administrators of their perspective of driver management practices that seem most and least conducive to managing and preventing behaviors on buses. I recorded the responses given to these questions and listed the responses along with any additional comments from administrators. Most of the responses correspond with the responses bus drivers gave in their interviews. Half of the administrators stated school buses should be operated like a classroom with rules and consequences.

Document Type

Dissertation - unrestricted

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

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