Latest Research News on School Organization: July 21

[1] Dropping Out of High School: The Role of School Organization and Structure

In this study, we explore how high schools, through their structures and organization, may influence students’ decisions to stay in school or drop out. Traditional explanations for dropout behavior have focused on students’ social background and academic behaviors. What high schools might do to push out or hold students has received less empirical scrutiny. Using a sample of 3,840 students in 190 urban and suburban high schools from the High School Effectiveness Supplement of the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988, we apply multilevel methods to explore schools’ influence on dropping out, taking into account students’ academic and social background. Our findings center on schools’ curriculum, size, and social relations. In schools that offer mainly academic courses and few nonacademic courses, students are less likely to drop out. Similarly, students in schools enrolling fewer than 1,500 students more often stay in school. Most important, students are less likely to drop out of high schools where relationships between teachers and students are positive. The impact of positive relations, however, is contingent on the organizational and structural characteristics of high schools.

[2] SCHOOLS AS COMMUNITIES: THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG COMMUNAL SCHOOL ORGANIZATION, STUDENT BONDING, AND SCHOOL DISORDER

Research has indicated that school factors such as communal school organization and student bonding are predictive of school disorder, with greater communal organization and greater student bonding leading to less delinquency and victimization. Data from a nationally representative sample of 254 public, nonalternative, secondary schools were used to examine structural equation models representing hypothesized relationships among communal school organization, student bonding, and school disorder. The hypothesis that communally organized schools would have less disorder held true for teacher victimization and student delinquency, but not for student victimization. In addition, the hypothesis that the relationship between communal school organization and school disorder would be mediated by student bonding was supported for student delinquency, but not for teacher victimization.

[3] The Effects of High School Organization on Dropping Out: An Exploratory Investigation

A hierarchical linear model analysis (Raudenbush & Bryk, 1986) is used to investigate directly the effects of structural and normative features of schools on both the probability of dropping out and the strongest behavioral predictor of dropping out, absenteeism. We hypothesized that high levels of internal differentiation within high schools and weak normative environments contribute to the problems of absenteeism and dropping out. Conversely, these student behaviors should be less problematic in school contexts where there is less differentiation among students and strong normation. The empirical results reported in this paper support these hypotheses. No single factor makes schools effective in sustaining student interest and commitment. Rather, a constellation of both structural and normative features appears to be involved. The analyses also provide some support for the contention that special benefits accrue to disadvantaged and at-risk youth from attending certain kinds of schools.

[4] Influence of Perceived Organizational Justice on Teachers’ Commitment in Selected Secondary Schools in Lagos State, Nigeria

This study examined some demographic and psychological predictors of teachers’ commitment in Lagos State, Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to ascertain if teachers’ perceived organizational justice will significantly affect their levels of commitment to the schools; establish the nature of relationships that exists between gender, types of schools and teachers’ levels of commitment. In order to achieve these objectives, 200 participants from 16 secondary schools in Lagos State (M=103; F=97) were randomly selected to respond to the Organizational Justice Scale (OJS) and Organizational Commitment Scale (OCS). The data collected were analyzed using correlation, independent t-test and regression analysis and the results showed that there is a significant positive relationship between perceived organizational justice and teachers’ commitment; female teachers reported a significantly higher level of commitment than their male counterparts, public school teachers were more committed than private school teachers. It was also revealed that gender, types of schools and organizational justice jointly accounted for sixty-eight percent (68%) variance in teachers’ commitment. The implication of these findings substantiates the need to treat employees fairly in order to sustain their high level of commitment to the organizations.

[5] Obstacles in the School Organization

The aim of the research is to determine obstacles in educational organizations through PEST(Political, Economical, Social and Technological aspects) analysis. Since it was  aimed to obtain more reliable data and to gather extensive data, phenomenology from qualitative research methods was used. Criterion sampling method from purposeful sampling was used in determining the working group of the research. The working group of the research consists of  14 educators (principals (5), deputy principals (4), teachers 5) who have been receiving education   of masters with thesis/non-thesis faculty of education, educational sciences from a university in the western region of Turkey in 2015-2016 academic year and also have been working in various educational degrees. Data obtained through semi-structured interview method were analiyzed using the content analysis method. Semi-structured interview form was used in order to determine the personal perception and viewpoints of educators about obstacles in educational organizations. In this research which aimed to determine the obstacles that affect the quality of educational organizations through PEST analysis and to increase the effectiveness, sufficiency and productivity of the schools, the following results were obtained. The political obstacles in schools are related to syndicate, diplomacy, hierarchy, upper management and legislation and the economical obstacles stem from school budget, personal rights and limited school resources. The social obstacles are school environment, principal, teacher, student and the issues related to school culture. The technological obstacles consists of issues related to teaching material and virtual system. The political, social, cultural, economical and technological obstacles in schools should be eliminated in order to get the expected efficiency in schools.

Reference

[1] Lee, V.E. and Burkam, D.T., 2003. Dropping out of high school: The role of school organization and structure. American educational research journal, 40(2), pp.353-393.

[2] Payne, A.A., Gottfredson, D.C. and Gottfredson, G.D., 2003. Schools as communities: The relationships among communal school organization, student bonding, and school disorder. Criminology, 41(3), pp.749-778.

[3] Bryk, A.S. and Thum, Y.M., 1989. The effects of high school organization on dropping out: An exploratory investigation. American Educational research journal, 26(3), pp.353-383.

[4] Arogundade, O.T., Arogundade, A.B. and Oyebanji, O.H., 2015. Influence of perceived organizational justice on teachers’ commitment in selected secondary schools in Lagos state, Nigeria. Journal of Scientific Research and Reports, pp.605-613.

[5] Göksoy, S., 2018. Obstacles in the School Organization. Journal of Education, Society and Behavioural Science, pp.1-14.