Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
EdD Program for Educational Leaders
Advisor
Donald D. Gainey
Committee Member
John Lammel
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Committee Member
Claudia Santin
Keywords
accreditation, accreditation status, best practices, collaboration, Commission on Public Secondary Schools, CPSS, decennial evaluation, district staff development personnel, faculty collaboration, high schools, leadership, online exchange, pre self-study assessment inventory, principals, probation, professional development, school improvement, school staff development, staff development, Standards for Accreditation, teachers, warning status, web-board intervention, web-based collaboration
Abstract
This applied dissertation identified and endorsed an initiative to support the Commission on Public Secondary Schools’(CPSS) new Standards for Accreditation and its new decennial evaluation introduced two years ago to its membership. An analysis of the accreditation status of those member schools that had completed the decennial evaluation in 2000 and 2001 revealed that 70 schools had achieved full accreditation while 31 were either placed on warning or probation.
The researcher used two measurements to determine why certain schools of the 101 received accreditation while others did not: (a) a pre self-study assessment inventory of staff development for schools that completed their decennial evaluations during 2000 and 2001 and (b) an open ended inquiry with principals from these schools regarding their facilitation and leadership of staff development prior to their evaluations. These measurements involved teachers, principals, district staff development personnel, and CPSS professional staff.
An analysis of data revealed that although accredited schools as well as those on warning and probation strongly believed that professional development efforts, leadership in facilitating them, and collaboration among faculty are important in preparing schools for their decennial evaluations, only accredited schools demonstrated adherence to the new Standards of Accreditation through observable efforts. However, all schools convincingly indicated that they would find an online exchange of best practices among the CPSS membership most helpful in addressing the current Standards for Accreditation. This study includes the proposal for a web-board intervention.