Term of Award

Spring 2010

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in Education Administration (Ed.D.)

Document Type and Release Option

Dissertation (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Leadership, Technology, and Human Development

Committee Chair

Barbara Mallory

Committee Member 1

Barbara Mallory

Committee Member 2

Linda Arthur

Committee Member 3

Sam Hardy

Abstract

The problem of student tardiness was reported by principals over the past two decades as being one of the major problems facing 21st century high schools. This study employed a mixed methods approach and utilized one Georgia school district's student tardiness data for one school year to investigate the extent of tardiness across the district including factors, such as school size, school location, minority enrollment, socioeconomic status, and gender. The qualitative portion of this study utilized interviews to gain stakeholder's descriptions of conditions that contributed to tardiness and their views of what strategies and practices were most effective at reducing tardiness. The major results of this study found student tardiness to be a continuing problem in 21st century high schools. Major causes of tardiness were categorized as student issues, such as socializing and defiance; school factors, such as overcrowding, bathroom breaks, and locker problems; and personnel factors, such as teacher inconsistency and lack of administrative and teacher presence in the halls. All of the stakeholder respondents considered the best ways to reduce student tardiness were by the consistent issuing of consequences, such as after school detention, in school suspension, out of school suspension, and Saturday school detention.

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

Download

Share

COinS