Degree Name

EdD (Doctor of Education)

Program

Educational Leadership

Date of Award

December 1992

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to obtain and analyze information about the perceptions of local school board chairpersons in Tennessee toward school accountability. A questionnaire was designed to gather information from all school board chairpersons in the state of Tennessee. The questionnaire contained 32 attitudinal statements related to school accountability and 11 demographic questions about the chairpersons and the system they represent. The mean score, frequency, and percentage of the responses were computed and analyzed. The Kruskal-Wallis one-was ANOVA was computed to determine if significant differences existed in the mean score of the 32 attitudinal statements based on the 9 demographics which contained more than two subgroups. When only two subgroups were available in the demographics, or the Kruskal-Wallis identified that a significant difference did exist among the subgroups, the Mann-Whitney U - Wilcoxon Rank Sum W Test were computed. The Mann-Whitney U Test identified the differences and pinpointed the subgroups that did have significant differences. Findings derived from school board chairpersons' responses to the questionnaire: (1) Parents are responsible (99.1%) for getting children to attend school. (2) Schools should be equally funded (98.2%) before a school accountability program is implemented. (3) More research on value-added testing needs to be completed before teachers and principals are held accountable by test results. (4) Programs to improve attendance (86.7%) and graduation rates (85.7%) need to be implemented for all school systems. (5) School board chairpersons need more education concerning site-based management and how it relates to accountability.

Document Type

Dissertation - unrestricted

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