Department of Educational Leadership and Research Methodology

This study examined the initially intended outcomes of the 200 I Florida Senate Bill 1162, a Florida law that established an educational policy granting community colleges the ability to confer baccalaureate degrees in teacher education programs. The intended outcomes included teachers filling growing vacancies statewide. This study found that 69% of Florida College System graduates from 2004-2010 found employment in Florida as teachers, and in fact, the overall percentage outpaced that of students graduating from a Florida State University System institution. This study also uncovered positive relationships between employment and individual student characteristics such as a graduates' age, major, and year they graduated, impacting their likelihood for employment. Overall, this study determined that the 200 I Florida Senate Bill 1162 is succeeding in fulfilling its intended outcome of producing community college baccalaureate degree holders that do indeed find employment in Florida as teachers.

The purpose of this study was to examine and describe the relationship between a school's percentage of African American students enrolled and the placement of an African American principal for all of Florida's K-12 traditional public schools during the academic year 2010-2011. This study also sought to determine if this relationship was moderated by each school's level, size, letter grade, socioeconomic status (FRL), gender of principal, as well as gender and race of the presiding district superintendent. Lastly, the relationship between each moderator variable and the placement of African American principals was examined. The ultimate objective was to determine if limited opportunities still widely exist in the placement of African American principals throughout Florida. ... From a legal perspective, although Brown and its progeny of civil rights laws valiantly set out to eliminate race and racism from schools and in the workplace, the findings revealed that race continues to be a factor in determining inequity in principal placements.