Although racial minorities are heavily represented in student bodies throughout the United States, school administrators who work with minority children have been overwhelmingly White. Previous research by race scholars has demonstrated that systems of racial dominance in the larger society are often replicated in schools. However, the role of White school administrators in perpetuating or disrupting racism has not been documented. This study examined the racial attitudes and resulting professional practices of White school administrators who worked in a unique environment. These administrators lived and practiced their profession in towns that lay just outside the borders of the Navajo Nation, a large Indian reservation in the Four Corners region of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Termed border towns, these communities were populated by a large majority of Native Americans, with a heavy representation of Hispanics. This placed White school administrators in the uncommon position of living and working in a place where they were a numeric minority, while simultaneously representing the majority culture in the United States. Twelve White border town administrators in four different communities agreed to participate in the interview study, conducted over a two-month period in 2010 and 2011. Using a semi-structured interview format, the researcher gathered data on participants' racial attitudes and analyzed responses to find common themes. Common responses among the interviewees indicated that there were clear racial hierarchies within border town schools and that these hierarchies were sometimes atypical of those found in mainstream American society. These racial hierarchies were characterized by a dichotomy of Native American students based on residence in town or on the reservation, as well as deferential treatment of White administrators by Native American constituents. The intersectionality of race and socioeconomic class was a key finding of the study, with implications for school administrators' professional actions. Racial attitudes also impacted White border town administrators' actions and sometimes reinforced institutionally racist practices. Finally, results of the study supported several established models of race relations and White identity formation.

The purpose of this study is to determine job satisfaction among school administrators who were involved in the teacher RIF (reduction in force) process in the spring of 2009. The study attempts to ascertain the effects of RIF on administrator job satisfaction in one, large, urban school district in Arizona and what impact, if any, the RIF process may have on the district and its personnel in the future. This study will question to what extent administrators within sample district are satisfied with their jobs, to what extent demographic information such as years of experience, age, gender, district position, and school level correlate with job satisfaction of administrators, in what ways has administrative job satisfaction been affected by the RIF process, what aspects of the RIF processes correlate with administrative job satisfaction, and what suggestions, if any, do administrators have regarding future RIF notifications during that time. This study will also recommend methods of notification delivery, advocate for administrator job satisfaction, and report any correlations within our findings to the sample district for review and consideration for the future. This study found that most administrators are very satisfied with their jobs, but the RIF process was somewhat influential in affecting their job satisfaction. Additionally, it seems that the higher the job position, the higher the job satisfaction. Advanced age, higher educational accomplishment, and longevity in one`s current position also correlated with high job satisfaction.

The purpose of this study was to distinguish factors that influence the satisfaction levels of teachers in urban school districts. This work also distinguished factors that directly impacted teachers' level of satisfaction towards their work and their attitude towards the administration of their schools. Forty-one teachers from two kindergarten through eighth grade schools in the southwest region of the United States were given a modified version of the 2007/08 Schools and Staffing Survey, a federally recognized survey on the satisfaction levels of teachers in America, combined with a select number of questions created by the researcher in this study to address the research questions of this study. Data were collected and analyzed through Survey Monkey, an online data portal, and imported into SPSS for data analysis. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were compiled to provide answers to the research questions established for this study. Results from this study indicated that although a majority of teachers sampled were satisfied with their teaching positions (78%), kindergarten through fourth grade teachers were more satisfied than teachers in the older grades. For the whole group, salary was the most influential factor; however, the teachers with 11 to 15 years of experience were the only ones who chose salary as their primary choice to increase their satisfaction. This study found that the levels of satisfaction per subgroup (teachers' years of experience, level of education, gender, age, type of certification, and grade level) were different than the group needs as a whole. This study revealed that the needs of the whole group and the needs of the subgroups can differ, consequently individual differences of the staff need to be taken into consideration. To view the staff as a whole may discredit the needs of the individual. Even though data indicated that a significant number of teachers felt supported by their administration, this study revealed the need for administrative staff to address specific issues of subgroups in their schools.

Many students spend a significant portion of their college life outside of the classroom, yet very little is known about the learning they experience as a result of their interactions outside of the classroom. Intentional out-of-class educational experiences offer educators a powerful window into not only understanding the college student experience, but gaining insight into what students are learning that has meaning for them. This research study employed a qualitative approach to examine how students make meaning of their intentional out-of-class educational experiences at a small, Catholic, liberal arts college. Four recent graduates of the college were interviewed on two separate occasions to garner a broad picture of what they learned beyond their classrooms. All four participants were members of the college's honor society whose membership criteria included not only excellence in the classroom, but excellence in the out-of-class arena as well. The students represented athletic teams, honor societies, service societies and clubs in their out-of-class educational experiences. While the participants discussed an array of outcomes as a result of their out-of-class educational experiences, each participant identified specific events that lead them to make new or revised meaning from their internal and external understandings of their world. Labeled as turning points, this research study found that there was a powerful interaction when combining out-of-class educational experiences with the opportunity to cognitively reflect on what each student was experiencing both in understanding how they viewed themselves, as well as the world around them. Consequently, student affairs practitioners, at least in this campus setting, can routinely discover cognitive gains of students implementing opportunities for college students to reflect on out-of-class educational experiences.

The phenomenon that prompted this study was the increasing number of teens with cell phones and the issues, both legal and nonlegal, that permeate to schools. The trend among teens called teen sexting is receiving national and local attention. Sexting typically involves teens using texts to send cellular messages that may include naked photographs or shared videos containing sexual content. This study reviewed 4 main issues (a) the policies for student use of cell phones on campus to regulate teen sexting issues, (b) whether teen sexting awareness and prevention curriculum is being implemented, (c) the extent to which teen sexting is perceived as a problem by school leaders on campus, and (d) the degree to which there is a need for curriculum about teen sexting awareness and prevention. School district policies for student cell phone regulation were accessed online and their content analyzed. The search for curriculum was done through telephone calls to school district curriculum and instruction department leaders. Questionnaires were administered to principals, assistant principals, school counselors, and school security leaders. Their responses provided data for the study of leadership perceptions on the sexting issue. The purpose of this study was to present the research findings and provide recommendations for cell phone policy and suggest the development of effective curriculum about cell phone safety. The findings of this research showed that school district policy considers teen sexting as a student offence of a sexual nature using electronic devices for bullying, intimidation, threats, harassment, and defamation. Currently, there is limited curriculum for teen sexting awareness programs in Arizona schools. Few incidents of teen sexting get reported to school leaders; however, when they do, the consequences for teen sexters are both legal and nonlegal. The results of this study provide insight for schools leaders and school policy makers regarding issues and response options for student cell phone use, specifically teen sexting issues, and suggest the direction school administrators should take in creating effective teen sexting awareness curriculum for students.