Essays on co-production, social equity, and administration of schools

Co-production theory has been defined as the process by which organizations and individuals contribute to providing a good or public service that betters specific outcomes. This dissertation probes four different research questions related to understanding the coproduction process in schools. These questions are grounded in organizational theory and new public management literature, specifically organizational support, social equity, and new public service. The first essay explores the key stakeholders, antecedents, factors, and barriers influencing the co-production process between schools and parents. Using a systematic literature review, the findings identify the key stakeholders (school, parents, community); antecedents of the co-production process (socioeconomic, cultural, social, linguistic, and institutional capital), and influence of individual level traits (social justice traits). Using organizational support theory and path analysis, the second study used a nationally representative teacher survey to examine the influence of organizational support on teacher and student outcomes. The results show support of teachers, training opportunities, and access to instructional materials improved teacher effectiveness and satisfaction with the school, student learning and participation, and reduced teacher burnout. ii The third essay examines the effects of parent-initiated co-production efforts with schools on student grades. The study used a pooled cross-sectional survey of parental perceptions and propensity score weighting for analysis. The results indicate social and cultural capital, along with the co-production efforts of schools, act as positive moderators of the relationship between parents' co-production efforts and student grades. The fourth essay examines whether school leaders' resonance with social equity influences school implementation of socially equitable policies, administrative discretion in the workplace and school effectiveness. The study found no relationship between principals' resonance with social equity and school effectiveness using an original survey of New Jersey principals. However, schools that showed more evidence of substantive and procedural equity indicated more administrative discretion. The qualitative analysis showed that school leaders need more inter and intra-organizational support to help implement equitable and an inclusive school environment. Taken together, the results of this dissertation contribute to a better conceptual and empirical understanding of co-production at the individual and organizational level. And the results help enrich co-production theory as well as provide parents, school administrators and other stakeholders with insights about how to improve educational outcomes and equity.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical reference