Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
EdD Program for Educational Leaders
Advisor
Dennis Triplett
Committee Member
Harvey Sadoff
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
administrators, adult mentoring, behavior problems, discipline, intervention, mentoring programs, professional development, school discipline, school-based administrators, school-based mentors, secondary schools, students, suspensions
Abstract
This applied dissertation was two-fold. The first part addressed school-based administrators. They were offered opportunities for professional development programs to help them improve intervention services at the school level. The second part was a mentoring program designed to provide students who seemed to be on a path leading to serious behavior problems at school with an adult who provided daily guidance and assistance.
The writer designed and implemented a professional development program for school-based administrators. Seven sessions were held to assist with improvement of their knowledge of school discipline and intervention. In addition, fifteen students from three secondary schools were matched with a school-based mentor in effort to improve their behavior and provide them with daily support and guidance.
An analysis of the data indicated that neither of these interventions worked to reduce suspensions for major offenses at the secondary level. In one school, suspensions for major offenses increased by thirteen percent. In the second school, suspensions decreased by less than two percent. In the third school, suspensions decreased by twenty percent, but the decrease cannot be exclusively attributed to the implementation of this applied dissertation.