Dr. Ibrahim Duyar is an associate professor of educational
leadership and the coordinator of the doctoral program in educational
administration and supervision at the University
of Arkansas at Little Rock. He has served as a school principal,
a university professor, and a consultant in local, national, and international
organizations. He currently teaches politics and policy analysis in educational
administration, school finance, advanced leadership theories, and school
business management and facilities planning. Research agenda of Ibrahim
includes conditions of effective policy implementation, market-based
applications in public education, and principal autonomy. His research agenda
resulted in numerous publications. His recent seven invited essays appeared in
the
Encyclopedia of Educational Leadership and Administration.
Similarly, his recent peer reviewed essay, Analyzing Education Productivity,
was published in
Education Review.
School reform initiatives have
commonly included the highly controversial practice of school consolidation,
yet little research has been conducted to examine the relationship between
school consolidation and extracurricular activity participation, even though
there is a strong relationship between student participation in extracurricular
activities and higher levels of student achievement. This study responded to the
need for further research in this neglected field through a case study which
utilized a mixed-methodology. Administrators and students in three recently
consolidated high schools in a southern state were surveyed and interviewed to
determine the impact of consolidation on participation in extracurricular
activities. Administrators indicated that students from a small school that
merged with another small school were not afforded a greater number of
extracurricular opportunities, yet students in a small school that merged with
a larger school with more activities already in place benefited from a wider
range of offerings. Analysis of student data yielded no statistically significant
difference in the number of extracurricular activities offered or in the number
of students who participated, but there was a statistically significant decrease
in the number of activities in which students participated before and after
consolidation.
