Scott R. Sweetland

School Characteristics and Educational Outcomes: Toward an Organizational Model of Student Achievement in Middle Schools

Empowerment is defined and measured in terms of teachers’ power to control critical decisions about teaching and learning conditions. This research first considers the relationship between school climate and teacher empowerment and then the relationship between teacher empowerment and school effectiveness, which includes measures of mathematics and reading achievement in 86 middle schools. The results support the pivotal importance of teacher empowerment in the effectiveness of schools. Finally, a theoretical model is proposed to explain the linkages between organizational characteristics and student achievement.

Toward an Organizational Model of Achievement in High Schools: The Significance of Collective Efficacy

In this study, a theoretical model to explain school achievement in high schools is developed and tested. Collective efficacy is the key variable in a proposed theoretical system that also includes academic press and socioeconomic status. The authors postulate that both socioeconomic status and academic press have positive effects on school achievement in mathematics as well as improve the collective efficacy of the school. Collective efficacy, in turn, is hypothesized to have a positive effect on school mathematics achievement. Finally, the analysis concludes with a discussion of strategies to enhance collective efficacy of schools.

The Development of the Organizational Climate Index for High Schools: Its Measure and Relationship to Faculty Trust.

A parsimonious measure of organizational climate of high schools is developed and tested in this research. The Organizational Climate Index (OCI) captures open and healthy dimensions of high school climates at the student, teacher, principal, and community levels. Next the relationship between the climate of schools and faculty trust is examined in a large, diverse sample of high schools (N=97). Different dimensions of high school climate explain distinct aspects of faculty trust-faculty trust in colleagues, in principals, and in clients (students and parents).

Academic Emphasis of Urban Elementary Schools and Student Achievement in Reading and Mathematics: A Multilevel Analysis.

This research examines the importance of a school climate characterized by high levels of academic emphasis. Effective schools research is reviewed to develop a conceptual model undergirding the measurement of academic emphasis. In addition, social cognitive theory is employed as a theoretical framework explaining the development and effect of academic emphasis on student achievement. With the use of hierarchical linear modeling, the authors show that academic emphasis is important to differences among urban elementary schools in student mathematics and reading achievement. The relationship between current academic achievement and students’ prior achievement and demo- graphic characteristics is also modeled in this study.

Designing Better Schools: The Meaning and Measure of Enabling School Structures

Common usage of the term bureaucracy is pejorative. To most people, bureaucracy is synonymous with red tape, rigid rules, autocratic superiors, and alienated and apathetic employees. But organizations of any size, including schools, have bureaucratic structures because they need appropriately designed formal procedures and hierarchical structures to prevent chaos and promote efficiency. Two conflicting views of the consequences of bureaucracy emerge from the literature. Some studies demonstrate that structure alienates and frustrates, whereas other research finds structure increases satisfaction and innovation. This study is consistent with an earlier attempt to reconcile these two theoretically opposing perspectives by creating and testing a new construct termed enabling structure. Evidence is mounting that schools can be designed with formalized procedures and hierarchical structures that help rather than hinder.

An Analysis of Enabling School Structure: Theoretical, Empirical, and Research Considerations.

The construct of enabling school structure is empirically analyzed in this qualitative study of high schools. First, the theoretical underpinning of enabling school structure is developed. Then, six high schools, which were determined to have enabling structures in a large quantitative study of Ohio schools, were analyzed in depth using semi‐structured interviewing techniques. The inquiry fleshes out the specifics of the performance of principals and teachers in such organizations and describes the dynamics of enabling school structures in terms of their formalization, centralization, and functioning. Finally, the research demonstrates a natural and symbiotic relation between quantitative and qualitative approaches to the study of schools.

The roles of collective efficacy of teachers and fiscal efficiency in student achievement

Purpose – Public schools in the USA face increased pressures for more accountability and improved performance. The objective of this study was to wed two previously separated theoretical strands of educational research – economic theory and organizational theory – by using variables from each theory base to develop, compare, and test a series of explanatory models of student achievement.Design/methodology/approach – A diverse set of schools was provided by 146 elementary schools in Ohio. Teachers in sample schools provided data on the collective efficacy of their schools and the Ohio Department of Education supplied demographic and achievement data. An ex post facto design was used to test a theoretical set of hypotheses and several structural models. Data were collected from the teachers in each school during regularly scheduled faculty meetings and analyzed using correlation analysis and structural equation modeling.Findings – Collective efficacy of teachers in these elementary schools had a positive di...

Varnishing the truth in schools ‐ Principals and teachers spinning reality

Spinning the truth is deception caused by adding, subtracting, and partially displaying information while communicating with others. A theoretical framework of six elements of truth spinning was developed from the literature and tested empirically. Two dimensions of truth spinning in schools emerged – principal spin and teacher spin. Reliable and valid scales for each were developed, and truth spinning was related to the theoretically relevant constructs of role conflict, powerlessness, and trust.