A STUDY OF THE OPINIONS OF FLORIDA'S PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS, ENGLISH DEPARTMENT CHAIRPERSONS, AND SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS ON SELECTED ISSUES CONCERNING THE 'NO PASS/NO PLAY' RUL

This study was designed to determine if significant differences exist in the opinions of Florida's public secondary school principals, English department chairpersons, and school board members concerning the proposed "no pass/no play" rule. The population of 401 subjects included the principals and English department chairpersons from all 167 public secondary schools with enrollments of grades nine through twelve, and a school board member from each of the sixty-seven counties in Florida.;The assessment instrument was a questionnaire that employed a Likert scale providing each subject with a five-point scaled response to fourteen items related to the rule. These items elicited the opinions of these groups concerning the adoption of the rule, its potential impact, and other related issues.;Statistical treatment of the data included a 3 x 2 x 5 analysis of variance to determine if a significant difference existed between the mean scores of the three groups, also subdivided by gender and five age categories on each set of items tested. Significant differences (p $>$.05) were found between the groups but not between gender and age categories. The Scheffe post hoc test revealed which pairwise group differences were significant.;Analysis of the data indicated that significant differences existed among all three groups in their opinions concerning the "no pass/no play" rule, with English department chairpersons being the only group to show some support for its adoption. Secondary school principals were consistently opposed to the rule and felt that it would have an undesirable impact on their school communities. Although English department chairpersons and school board members agreed that the rule would increase academic achievement, they were undecided about the total effect the rule could have.;The "no pass/no play" rule could serve to re-focus the attention of the educational community on academic achievement by encouraging innovative procedures to assist students and by reminding students that they must shoulder the responsibility for their academic success.