Amharic is the major, widely spoken language in Ethiopia. In many public universities it is an alternative medium of instruction for a majority of courses in many cases. The purpose of this action research project is to explore why students may or may not participate in various activities during public relation classes. In order to identify the factors that affect student’s attitudes toward PR education and their motivation to participate in the classroom activities, the researcher administered a survey to a total of 40 students. Interviews were also conducted with students to clarify questions unanswered by the survey. The results revealed that a language barrier impedes students’ familiarity with the public relations topic and thus negatively impacts their willingness to participate in class. This language barrier exists because Amharic is the primary instructional language in Ethiopian public universities which has Ethiopian language and literature-Amharic Departments, but the public relations literature is not available in Amharic.
Large-scale efforts to improve student achievement have increasingly encouraged principals to use student data to inform their decision-making and change initiatives at schools. However, research on the nature and best practices of such use remains very thin. This literature review synthesizes research on principals’ data-use for the last 14 years and identified 18 school leadership practices of using data to inform their decision-making, which constitutes the incipient, working conceptual data-informed school leadership. This framework provides a much-needed guide to school administrators and policy makers who want to make evidence-based decisions to improve student learning. The framework can be also used to inform principal preparation or training.
Researchers analyzed 1,948 tweets from 13 independent school districts in the U.S.-based Effective Schools Project for evidence of one-way and two-way communication with stakeholders over a 45-day period. In this mixed method study, tweets were overwhelmingly one-way in nature, consistent with existing literature; only 1.9% of tweets were categorized as two-way communication, or seeking response and soliciting feedback from stakeholders. The majority of tweets served a community- building purpose. Themes of the highlight reel, reliance on links to other sites or social networks, text-heavy messages, and centralized versus decentralized posting emerged from the school district tweets.
While teacher effectiveness literature has suggested a potential promising relationship between test-score-based teacher quality and student test score based growth, the question of whether teachers can improve student dropout rates is not as well understood. Grounding our work based on theories that suggest higher salaries may attract better teachers, we utilize panel analyses on three years’ worth of data (2012–2014) to estimate the potential impact of Florida public school districts’ teacher offerings on their dropout rates. We define teacher salaries in three different ways: (1) districts’ average teacher salary, (2) teachers’ earning potential with a given level of education (i.e., bachelor’s and master’s degree holders) within the districts, and (3) districts’ salary-level offering. Our findings support the assertion that improved pay is positively related to lower student dropouts. This finding contributes significantly to the teacher quality, teacher salary, and the high school dropout prevention literature and has policy implications.
This conceptual paper extends the understanding and application of transformative leadership through the lens of a feminist ethic of care and a community-centric perspective. The authors re-examine the transformative leadership style in relation to the emerging alternative family structures in the United States. The authors also consider the need for a novel transformative leadership approach that infuses the ethics of care to formulate new policies and practices. Finally, the authors provide recommendations for future research that promote care and justice as transformative leadership attributes in diverse school communities. This conceptualization brings community to the forefront of stronger school–community relations.
For colleges and universities, athletic programs can provide a visible form of national exposure and lead to the formation and maintenance of favorable brand images (Toma, 2003; Toma & Cross, 1998). Effective brand management strategies can have a significant effect on institutional objectives such as recruiting student-athletes, facilitating development opportunities with alumni and other stakeholders, and soliciting corporate partnerships (i.e., Clark, Apostolopoulou, Branvold, & Synowka, 2009; Lee, Miloch, Kraft, & Tatum, 2008). Through athletics, universities establish a sense of significance and distinctiveness for the institutional brand image (Toma, 2003), and successful athletics programs have the potential to develop institutional brand identification by creating divergent perceptions (DiGisi, 2004). Brand strategy deficiencies impede marketing efforts and limit opportunities for brand differentiation. Framed in university branding and stakeholder theory, this study employs a single case study methodol-ogy examining the rebranding of a select university and its athletic program and benefits gained by the school following an institutional rebrand.
This study examines the incorporation of multiple stakeholders’ perspectives regarding principal quality and proposes a system that includes stakeholders’ views in the principal selection process. Focus group interviews were used to gather multiple stakeholders’ perceptions during the job analysis process for purposes of developing the essential qualities of the principal position for a sample school district. The essential premise of this study is based on our assertion that including the views of multiple stakeholders in the school community is essential to the identification of a quality principal. The second contribution of our work is to provide a practical framework, the multiple stakeholder principal selection model, to inform a school district’s principal selection process and incorporate input from the school community.
Universities engage in various public relations (PR) activities, including alumni engagement and student recruitment. While those activities are obvious examples, the authors argue that institutional branding warrants careful attention. Institutional branding is a significant practice in the higher education PR area, which has potentially adverse implications for institutions. The authors use case study as a method of analyzing institutional branding associated with Association of American Universities (AAU) membership. The authors find that the highly selective AAU serves, hegemonically, as an aspirational brand in the United States higher education landscape—shaping what rankings matter most, what specific areas institutions decide to strategically invest in, what areas get underfunded or ignored, and what areas get promoted. Implications of these findings are discussed.
The article maps the state of educational public relations (PR) in Bulgaria and explores how Bulgarian public educational institutions (PEIs) (kindergartens, primary schools, and secondary schools (general, language and vocational ones)) effectively communicate with their school communities. The purpose of this study is to research how Bulgarian PEIs? administrative and teaching staff understand and practice educational PR to build their school communities. It addresses Bulgarian public educational institutions? ability to effectively communicate with their communities their achievements, attract external funding to improve their physical environment, and to solve problems and overcome crisis.
For many American universities, intercollegiate athletic programs operate as sources of national exposure and lead to the construction and continuation of favorable brand images (Toma, 2003; Toma & Cross, 1998). Effective branding strategies can significantly affect institutional objectives such as student recruitment, corporate partnership searches, and the facilitation of other development prospects with stakeholders (Gregg, Pierce, Lee, Himstedt, & Felver, 2013; Lee, Wilson, & Gregg, 2015; Lee, Miloch, Kraft, & Tatum, 2008; Toma, 2003; Weight, Taylor, & Cuneen, 2010). Framed in branding research and stakeholder theory, this case study assesses rebranding strategies employed by the Department of Athletics at Oregon State University.
In 21st-century higher education, simply having a strategic plan is not enough to meet the increasing calls for public accountability. Funding is the primary key to taking the strategic plan off the shelf and placing it center stage. This case study provides a better understanding of a rural community college which successfully communicated the institution’s strategic plan. Rural community colleges are unique in many ways including the students served, local community needs, geographic location, and funding when compared to their urban and suburban counterparts. A qualitative case study including 13 institutional leaders revealed the following 4 primary factors that were part of an integrated strategic plan (a) respect for the organizational environment, (b) addressing changes with flexibility and responsiveness, (c) commitment to leading and communicating the vision, and (d) establishing trust in budgeting.
This article examines public relations in the K–12 school system context. Specifically, the goal of this article is to examine the school superintendent as the chief public relations practitioner of the school system and how he/she would operate as such in the realms of seven public relations theories, as the superintendent works toward meeting the goals and objectives of his/her school district: strategic management function, communitas versus corporatas, persuasion, storytelling and branding, postmodernism, understanding, and sociology.
This study investigated the impact of poverty, enrollment, and the presence of a 9th-grade transition program on students’ promotion to 10th grade. Promotion to 10th grade is the essential first step toward graduation and is an immediate measure among strategies used to support 9th-grade students. Thirty South Carolina high schools were selected on the basis of their poverty indices. Schools were analyzed in terms of their poverty levels, enrollments, and 10th-grade promotion rate. None of the independent variables were shown to be statistically significant in terms of their impact on promotion to 10th grade, but when poverty was excluded, the results were found to be significant.
As the responsibilities of public relations practitioners continue to expand to include institutional research, it is essential for universities to develop programs that prepare practitioners for these new expectations. This article describes the development of an experiential learning course focused on research for future public relations practitioners who were enrolled in an innovative undergraduate-level public relations research methods course. As part of the course, the third- and fourth-year public relations students conducted action research for an actual client. Details are provided about the course, along with guidelines on how instructors should create, implement, and assess a similar course.
This study examined the dispositions of principals in three suburban school districts toward using a commercial protocol to screen potential or actual applicants for teaching positions. The perceived relative importance of a protocol score and other screening criteria were determined by rankings. In addition, levels of association between principal dispositions and each of three predictor variables (level of school assignment, teaching experience, and administrative experience) were ascertained. Findings revealed that 91% of the principals had a positive or somewhat positive disposition toward the protocol. Even so, five other screening criteria (verbal communication skills, demeanor, quality of previous teaching experiences, philosophy of education, and written communication skills) were rated as being more important than a protocol score. Associations between dispositions and each of the three predictor variables were small. A coefficient of determination (R2) indicates that the three predictor variables collectively accounted for only 2.5% of the variability of principal dispositions.
Recent incidents of school-based violence have led to the widespread implementation of safety strategies in United States schools. However, there is little research concerning the influence of parental and community involvement on the implementation of these strategies. This study examines the effects of parental and community involvement on the implementation of school safety strategies in United States high schools using data from the 2007?2008 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) (N = 936). Structural analyses suggest both parental and community involvement significantly influence the types of school safety strategies implemented in United States high schools. Implications for school public relations are provided.
