Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.

Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.

Administrative support and awareness of vocational programs in alternative secondary education institutions

Patrick Joseph Nizzi, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Abstract

Administrative support has often been reported to be the key element contributing to a program's success or failure within a school system (Berman & McLaughlin, 1987; Mann, 1978). The same has been reported to be true regarding vocational programs (Edmunds, 1969; Edmunds, 1982; National Commission on Secondary Vocational Education, 1984). The purpose for conducting this study was to provide better understanding of the relationship between administrative awareness and the support of vocational education programs through applied mechanisms of administrative skills, in alternative secondary schools. The population for this research study was all alternative high school administrators registered with the Project on Alternatives in Education at Hofstra University in Hampstead, New York. The registry provided the only national listing of alternative secondary schools, originally developed by researchers at Indiana University- Bloomington (Young, 1990). A two-section survey instrument was used to gather data relating to administrators' levels of awareness of the benefits of vocational programs and levels of support for those programs within alternative secondary schools. With a return rate of 46 percent, comparisons of administrative levels of support for vocational education programs was examined. Responding administrators were determined to be either "High" or "Low" in relation to their awareness of the benefits of vocational programs. Support level means were calculated for both the "High" awareness group and the "Low" awareness group. A two-tailed test of significant difference (t-test) was computed and a significant difference was found to exist between the two groups responses. Administrators in the high awareness group supported vocational education programs within their schools (through the application of administrative skills) at a significantly greater level than did those administrators in the low awareness group. To investigate the relationship between administrative skill application toward vocational programs (support) and the awareness of vocational program benefits, the Pearson Product Moment Coefficient measurement was employed. The relationship index was found to be r =.6715, indicating a moderate relationship between awareness of program benefits and the application of administrative skills.

Subject Area

Vocational education|School administration|Inservice training

Recommended Citation

Nizzi, Patrick Joseph, "Administrative support and awareness of vocational programs in alternative secondary education institutions" (1994). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9510974.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9510974

Share

COinS