Education Reform: How Has Downsizing Affected the West Virginia School Systems?

Autor/in	Arrington, Carolyn R.
Titel	Education Reform: How Has Downsizing Affected the West Virginia School Systems?
Quelle	(1994), (266 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Hochschulschrift; Dissertation; Educational Administration; Educational Change; Educational Finance; Educational Legislation; Educational Policy; Elementary Secondary Education; Enrollment; Reduction in Force; Retrenchment; Rural Schools; School Closing; School Districts; School Personnel; State Aid; Surveys; West Virginia + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Thesis; Dissertations; Academic thesis; Bildungsverwaltung; Schuladministration; Schulverwaltung; Bildungsreform; Bildungsfonds; Bildungsrecht; Schulgesetz; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; Einschulung; Rural area; Rural areas; School; Schools; Ländlicher Raum; Schule; Schulen; School closings; Schließung; Schließung (von Schulen); School district; Schulbezirk; Schulpersonal; Survey; Umfrage; Befragung
Abstract	This paper examines the programmatic, organizational, and administrative changes in West Virginia's 55 school districts resulting from legislatively mandated reductions in personnel between school years 1987-88 and 1993-94. Research involved analyzing enrollment, personnel, and district deficit data; surveying superintendents and directors of Regional Education Service Agencies; interviewing state program administrators; and comparing information from school years 1987-88 and 1993-94. The study found that: (1) school districts failed to reduce staff at the same rate as required by the school aid formula, resulting in deficits, particularly in rural school districts; (2) the net enrollment cap on professional educators in the school aid formula was detrimental to the required minimum of 50 professional instructional personnel per 1,000 students in adjusted enrollment; (3) other sections of WV Code influencing the number of personnel that must be employed were in direct conflict with the school aid formula; (4) the work load was being redistributed to remaining personnel, but districts were not deciding which activities were to be eliminated; (5) the average number of students per school, 341, was higher in school year 1993-94 than it was in 1987-88, but still lower than the number of students per facility recommended by the School Building Authority; (6) there were fewer district level and school level administrators; (7) facility maintenance was suffering due to the large reduction of maintenance personnel; (8) the emphasis in school year 1993-94 on the basics (reading, mathematics, science, language arts, and social studies) was greater than in 1987-88; (9) reductions were made in the number of teachers and course offerings, however, there were few changes in extracurricular offerings; and (10) the number of junior high schools and elementary schools decreased, while the number of middle schools increased by 50 percent. Contains 55 references, 38 data tables and figures, and survey questionnaires. (LP)
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC