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There are many measures of student perceptions of school climate; accordingly, there is a staggering amount of research examining those perceptions and related outcomes. There is a comparatively small number of measures examining school personnel perceptions. Of those found, only some had evidence of measurement invariance/equivalence (MI/E). None found with evidence of MI/E had evidence of structural invariance/equivalence (SI/E). This article explores these psychometric properties of The Georgia School Personnel Survey (GSPS) of school climate. We analyzed a representative sample of Georgia school personnel (N = 166,887) through exploratory, confirmatory, and multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. Results indicated that the GSPS has a second-order model containing six first-order subscales loading onto a second-order scale (acting as a measure of whole-school climate). Assessment of MI/E and SI/E suggested that the GSPS is an appropriate measure for comparisons based on gender, racial/ethnic identity, grade level, and job classification. Implications for research and practice will be discussed referencing the Cultural-Ecological Model of School Climate (CEMSC). Impact Statement This research provides psychometric properties for the Georgia School Personnel Survey (GSPS) of school climate, giving school personnel, lawmakers, and researchers information necessary to justify the use of the GSPS as a valid tool to assess and confidently compare staff perceptions of school climate. Specifically, this research provides evidence that the GSPS may be used to compare perceptions of school climate between school staff based on demographic characteristics (gender, racial/ethnic identity, job classification, and grade level). This research may be of special interest to a range of stakeholders, including school psychologists, district- and school-level administrators, and policymakers who are interested in comparing perceptions within schools or systems. School psychologists, who are trained as data-based decision-makers, play an important role as advocates to administrators and other school personnel. Specifically, school psychologists can help teams to analyze and interpret data as part of an empirically-based intervention to address the needs of school personnel. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/2372966X.2021.1958645 .

Enhancing the role of private sector partners in education can lead to significant improvements in education service delivery. However, the realization of such benefits depends in great part on the design of the partnership between the public and private sectors, on the overall regulatory framework of the country, and on the governmental capacity to oversee and enforce its contracts with the private sector. Under the right terms, private sector participation in education can increase efficiency, choice, and access to education services, particularly for students who tend to fail in traditional education settings. Private-for-profit schools across the world are already serving a vast range of usersâ€\"from elite families to children in poor communities. Through balanced public-private partnerships (PPPs) in education, governments can leverage the specialized skills offered by private organizations as well as overcome operating restrictions such as salary scales and work rules that limit public sector responses. 'The Role and Impact of Public-Private Partnerships in Education' presents a conceptualization of the issues related to PPPs in education, a detailed review of rigorous evaluations, and guidleines on how to create successful PPPs. The book shows how this approach can facilitate service delivery, lead to additional financing, expand equitable access, and improve learning outcomes. The book also discusses the best way to set up these arrangements in practice. This information will be of particular interest to policymakers, teachers, researchers, and development practitioners.

This study described the components key to the designs of five exemplar STEM-focused elementary schools. The 17 critical components common to the exemplar elementary schools grouped into three themes. First were those that were foundational for the STEM school design, the second set of components described the key participants and resources that provided the means for STEM program implementation, and the third set of components describe the implementation of the school STEM design. These components provide a blueprint from which elementary schools can increase their quality STEM offerings for students.

The First Tempo of the text is dedicated to an analysis centred on the educational policies and the organization of school, attempting to identify the process of metamorphosis of school that is currently underway. Then, after a Bridge, the Second Tempo is dedicated to teacher education, insisting on the need for a new type of institutionality, triangulating universities, the teaching profession, and schools. The text closes with a brief Epilogue about an exceptional initiative hosted by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), the creation of a Teacher Education Complex.

Are school-based management reforms improving education? This book analyzes the theory and evidence behind decentralized decision-making in schools worldwide. Decentralized Decision-Making in Schools explores the impact of school-based management (SBM) reforms across diverse countries. It examines how empowering principals and teachers, and strengthening parental involvement, affects educational outcomes. The authors review over 20 country experiences, providing insights into the effectiveness of SBM in various contexts. * Discover the key factors for successful SBM implementation. * Understand the impact of SBM on student achievement and attendance. * Learn how to design effective education projects with decentralized authority. This insightful analysis is for education officials, policymakers, and researchers seeking evidence-based strategies for improving school governance and student outcomes.

The aim of this article is to test and apply the developed methodology of research on the correlation between the physical learning environment and education, analysing Vilnius Geroji Viltis Progymnasium. The article analyses functional-spatial structure and usability of the selected school (applying the principles of post occupancy evaluation (POE), and analyses the school culture and the needs of school community groups, which are compared with modern Lithuanian educational goals and objectives. The functional-spatial structure of the analysed school is compared with the general school model of the 21st century formed in the author’s previous research, which distinguishes 7 features of the physical learning environment that define the quality of the modern learning environment. It also examines the extent to which the current physical school environment satisfies and meets the school culture and community needs. The article provides guidelines for the implementation of the harmony of school culture (values and needs) and its physical environment, which allows each school to self-assess the physical learning environment and its cultural and 21st century school physical environment characteristics and assumptions and opportunities to meet them.

The present article is concerned with a possible organizational consulting model of schools in rural areas with unfavorable social, economic and cultural (SEC) environments. Specifically, the study offers a case study analysis of five rural schools of one Lithuanian municipality. The results yield a conceptual framework for a model of rural school consultation. The proposed model is in line with the theoretical approaches of the dynamic and the ecological theories. The obtained research results offer suggestions and insights for organizational development theory and practice.

Intermittent and asynchronous burst-and-coast swimming is widely adopted by various species of fish as an energy-efficient mode of locomotion. This swimming mode significantly influences how fish integrate information and make decisions in a social context. Here, we introduce a simplified fish school model in which individuals have an asynchronous burst-and-coast swimming mode and selectively interact only with one or two neighbours that exert the largest influence on their behaviour over a limited spatial range. The interactions consist of a fish that is attracted to and aligned with these neighbours. We show that, by adjusting the interactions between individuals above a sufficiently high level, depending on the relative strength of attraction and alignment, the model can produce a cohesive fish school that replicates the main collective phases observed in nature: schooling, milling and swarming when each individual interacts with only one neighbour; and schooling and swarming when each individual interacts with two neighbours. Moreover, the model showed that these patterns can be maintained over long simulations. However, with the exception of swarming, these patterns do not persist indefinitely, and fish lose cohesion and progressively disperse. We further identified the mechanisms that lead to group dispersion.

The aim of the analysis is to present the role of school principals in supporting teachers’ skillful use of information and communication technologies in education. The article presents the results of analysis of a fragment of data from a study carried out in 2017 as part of the research project devoted to the specificity of functioning of schools awarded the certificate ‘Leader of a Learning Organization’. The multiple case study method (Yin, Studium przypadku w badaniach naukowych. Projektowanie i metody, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 2015) was used in the research. The study involved five schools of different types (one elementary school, one general high school, and three high school complexes with different professional profiles) located in a provincial capital city in central Poland. Data from qualitative, semi-structured, in-depth interviews with school principals (four females and one male) was used in the analysis. The structure of the article includes the characterization of the role of school principal in the concept of a learning school, the way of collecting and analyzing the empirical data, and the presentation of findings. As a result of qualitative analysis of the collected data, examples of teacher-supporting behaviors were identified and attributed to one of the two groups: either the group concerning care for infrastructure and ensuring teachers easy access to modern equipment, or the group concerning the promotion of culture of cooperation which facilitates the development of ICT skills.

Purpose This study aims to present the experiences with self-determination and taking ownership of life in Sudbury model schools that allow students true choice. Design/methodology/approach For this qualitative study we used a thematic analysis (TA) methodology. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with 14 adult participants from eight different Sudbury model and comparable schools in the Netherlands, Israel and the US. These schools offered students real choice in the curriculum program. Transcripts were analyzed and corresponding meanings thematized. Self-determination theory (SDT) is used as a lens to interpret the findings. Findings The findings suggest that an organizational structure that supports own responsibility in an absence of an imposed program and a culture of no-interference creates conditions for taking ownership of life and choices (self-determination) and encompasses taking ownership of learning, education and one’s future. Taking ownership of one’s life seems to be related to strongly internally oriented processes with an internal locus of causality, to find their own motivation and taking responsibility for choices, behavior and consequences in a SDT need supportive social context. Research limitations/implications This study is part of a larger research that addressed multiple facets of their experiences with their schools to understand the longer-term effects these schools had on the adult lives of participants. This limits the scope of this paper to only explore the conditions that led to the mental state of “taking ownership of one’s life.” Originality/value Conditions that can lead to long-term self-determination of one's life and future in a school setting is an unexplored area of research.