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Abstract
The purposes of this study two part study were to (1) examine the standard violations of the Georgia Code of Ethics that have led to educator certificates being revoked or suspended from 2002 to 2004; and (2) to develop and administer a survey to assess if educators in selected local school systems in Georgia have 100 percent knowledge of the Georgia Code of Ethics to apply it accurately. Participants for part I of this study were all the educators from 2002-2004 who had their educator certificate revoked or suspended as a result of standard violations of the Georgia Code of Ethics. There was a total of 547 standard violations participants that resulted in educator certificates being revoked or suspended from 2002 to 2004. The data were obtained from the final decision documents detailing the standard violations by the Professional Standards Commission (PSC) Investigators. From each document, standard violated, final decisions (revocation/suspension), date of the final decision, and educator gender were the data obtained. The population for part II was composed of educators from various schools within six school districts belonging to the Middle Georgia Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA). The data chosen for analysis for part two of this research study was collected from participant responses to the Survey of Georgia Code of Ethics (SGCE). Two-hundred thirty surveys were distributed and 171 surveys were completed and return, equaling a 74.3% return rate. The Survey of the Georgia Code of Ethics (SGCE) consisted of a demographics section and 24 statements which assessed the knowledge of the respondents on standard violations of the Georgia Code of Ethics. The findings for Part I of the study indicated the following: (1) There were statistically significant differences from 2002 to 2004 in the total frequency of violations across all 10 standards that resulted in the revocation or suspension of educator certificates for gender, standard violations, final decisions, and year of the final decision; and (2) There were statistically significant differences from 2002 to 2004 in the frequency of violations that resulted in the revocation or suspension of certificates between each of the 10 standards and gender, final decision. The findings for Part II of the study indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the mean score correct on the Survey of the Georgia Code of Ethics for males versus females.