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Abstract
This study investigated whether there were significant differences in the perception of certified employees of nine effective site-based management categories at eight Title I elementary schools in one school system in Georgia that made Adequate Yearly Progress. The SBM Characteristics Rating Scale, which was used to measure the perceptions of certified employees at each of the eight Title I elementary schools, was developed from research of the literature. The SBM Characteristics Rating Scale consisted of twenty items in nine categories which were subscales of the survey. The categories were (1) Central Office Support, (2) Clarify Roles and Responsibilities, (3) Focus on Student Learning, (4) Use of the Collaborative Process, (5) Provide Knowledge and Skills in Focused Areas of Need, (6) Development of a Belief System, (7) Build Positive Relationships with the Community (8) Strong Leadership at the School Level, and (9) Assess and Monitor Student Progress in Target Areas. Content validity was established and reliability was determined with certified employees in Title I elementary schools in counties surrounding the school system in which the eight schools in the study were located. The results of the ANOVA found that there were no statistically significant differences among the schools in five of the SBM categories: (1) Central Office Support; (2) Focus on Student Learning; (3) Use of the Collaborative Process; (4) Clarification of Roles and Responsibilities; and (5) Strong Leadership at the School Level. There were statistically significant differences at the .05 level among the schools in four categories: Provide Knowledge and Skill in Focused Areas of Need; Development of a Belief System; Build Positive Relationships with the Community; and Assess and Monitor Student Progress in Targeted Areas. It is recommended that the SBM Characteristics Rating Scale be administered to other Title I elementary schools with similar disaggregated subgroups but different AYP results to determine if there are statistically significant differences in perception of SBM categories at the schools. It is recommended that non-Title I schools continue to study the five categories that indicated there were no statistically significant differences with other schools to see if results are consistent. Further, it is recommended to study the four categories that indicated that there were statistically significant differences with other schools to see if results are consistent.