My Study On A Small Sample Size Of Eight School Leaders

The ever-changing landscape of education and school accountability has given rise to a renewed focus on shared leadership. In the past, the principal was viewed as the primary decision maker within a school. However, Glickman (1989) points out that it is impossible for school principals to effectively complete all the necessary instructional and managerial tasks within schools. He contends that some teachers have more leadership abilities than the actual administrators and that “in successful schools, principals aren’t threatened by the wisdom of others, instead, they cherish it by distributing leadership” (Glickman, 1989, p. 8).

around School Site a and its instructional leadership structure (Gall, Gall, & Borg, 2003, p. 437). As part of this in-depth case study, I purposely designed research that would encompass the experience of teachers, teacher leaders, school administration and district administration. Through thorough analysis, I was able to triangulate the data in order to use ?different methods with different strengths and limitations to see if they all support the same conclusions? (Maxwell, 2013, p. 102). From the findings of the data found in the in-depth case study, the Guide was created. After original creation of the Guide, a second stage of data collection took place to access the relevancy and usefulness of the Guide. Both sets of findings are included in this chapter. For ease and understanding, I have labeled the states of data collection as Stage One and Stage Two. Stage One data collection encompassed survey, individual interviews, and focus group interviews that informed the findings and analysis in this chapter. Stage two includes results from a pilot survey and twelve individual interviews around the usefulness of the Guide and suggestions for

Achieving a school district’s mission and vision requires the commitment of its stakeholders. In order to involve them in the process, it is necessary for educational leaders to “motivate staff, parents, students, board and community members” (Educational Leadership Constituencies Council, 2002, p. 4). The transformational leadership theory emphasizes the importance of educational leaders acting as role-models in order to motivate and inspire the school community. This approach has the potential to involve all stakeholders, leading to increased student success (Bush, 2007). The Assistant Director of Special Education in Northwest ISD directly supervised the school district’s assessment staff. Her education, experience, and passion set an example for her subordinates, stimulating them to achieve more, leading to her promotion to Executive Director of Student Services.

According to former Indiana state superintendent of schools Dr. Suellen Reed, “We know from our research that there’s no turnaround school without a turnaround principal” (as cited in Gammil, 2007, para. 2), further supporting the fact that “school leaders have an essential role in cultivating a positive school culture in public schools” (Peterson and Deal, 2002, p.30). However, it is imperative to improve our understanding as to how principal leadership impacts the school culture in high poverty schools to ensure that all children receive a quality education, regardless of zip code, in an environment conducive to learning. The six measured factors are as follows:

This interview was conducted with Wes Jensen the current principal of Mountain View Middle School. He has been the principal at his current school for two years, and was vice principal of the Blackfoot High School for two years. Before he became an administrator he was a classroom teacher for seven years, giving him 11 years of experience in education. The school has a very diverse population comprised of many different ethnicities including Native American, Hispanic, and Caucasian. The economic situations range from wealthy to highly impoverished. As the principal of this school he is a very professional man who holds high expectations for his staff.

For the purpose of this assignment, the leader I have chosen Ms. J, the principal of a charter school in New Orleans charter school named Harriet Tubman Charter School. Ms. J was also a founder of a school network that oversees 3 elementary to 8th grade schools. Founded in 2011 the schools now serve over 1700 students in the New Orleans area. Tubman Charter school has a staff of eighty. Ms. Lauses role is to oversee eight staff members that ensure that the school produces leading results for the state as well as promising scholars that will path their way to college. As the principal of this school specifically, Ms. J has large obstacles that go beyond the walls of the school. Harriet Tubman Charter school is within a neighborhood that struggles both economically and educationally. Almost 100% of the scholars qualify for a free lunch and are black or Latino and the kindergartens scholars that arrive on the first day know only one or two letters of the alphabet. Historically before Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans on 38% of public school students graduated high school (quote). While most people see this as a place where most people see extreme challenges, Ms. J see’s it as an opportunity for change and promise.

For this experience, I chose to visit an elementary school and its feeder middle school. I chose this because students leave this elementary school with a high rate of student achievement, yet in middle school the scores plummet. I wanted to investigate how this gap could be minimized. Comparing philosophies, expectations and leadership styles for schools within the same community was also a goal.

Prior to the conduction of this study, the researcher sought the approval of the Institutional Review Board with the Protection of Human Subjects in research. The researcher completed re-certification with the Institutional Review Board training on May 29, 2014 (See Appendix C). The researcher provided IRB with information such as research protocol, interview protocol, Demographic Questionnaire, researcher’s background information, consent form, and investigator’s assurance. Upon IRB approval, the research contacted the contacted the Superintendent of each school district for their permission to conduct the study in their districts. Next the principals of the schools were contacted for their permission to interview teachers in their building. At this point, the research was able to contact the participants for an interview. The Principals, after permission was given for the study, were asked to provide the participants e-mail addresses and phone numbers.

A vital individual when it comes to initiating change is the person willing to take action in order to construct something different. A person willing to own the outcome and lead the change is the critical element in producing change. Without the leader of change stepping up and accepting responsibility, all others have is an awareness of the problems that exist, therefore, change doesn’t transpire. There are countless people who are constantly eager to share all of the items which they believe need to change, with anyone who will listen. There are far fewer who are willing to step up and lead that change. Teacher leaders have the vision to generate change in their schools, and are a vital asset to change. Catalytic leaders are needed throughout schools in order to make change happen. Leaders with an expertise in the area of change are authentic, initiative, and influential.

The principal understands the educational needs of the community and has structured the school around that concept. According to the article, Preparing and Supporting Diverse, Culturally Competent Leaders, “Educational leaders who are not culturally competent cannot be fully effective”

Palmer Lake Elementary School refers to a public elementary school located in Brooklyn Park. The school has 678 students with majority being Whites and non-Hispanics. The teachers; population is between 40 and 50 teachers: 6 speech teacher, two reading teacher, 3 gym physical, two music teachers, 28 for regular classes, one media. Accordingly, the ratio of students to teachers is approximately 15:1. Each class has varying number of students ranging from 19 to 28 students. Approximately 54 percent of the students are male and 46 percent are female. The percentage of students eligible for subsidized lunch is 65. This essay examines the leadership skills and styles of Dr. Tim Brown after an interview in his office. Dr. Tim is the principal of Palmer Lake Elementary School and plays the following roles. First, he shapes the vision of academic success and instructional competence for all students and teachers respectively. Second, he plays the role of creating a climate and environment that is hospitable for learning. Third, he cultivates leadership in other teachers. Fourth, he is answerable to external stakeholders such as parents and state education authorities concerning the school’s performances and use of resources. Effective educational leadership is a continuous process that involves self-examination, learning from others, collaboration and sustainable use of resources to accomplish the goals and

In this book, author Robert Starratt provides a framework for building a foundation of ethical leadership based on responsibility, authenticity, and presence. Readers should understand that this book is not how to transform schools, but how to think about affecting change in our teachers, staff, and students.

Introduction/Objective: Each team member watched the movie, “Stand and Deliver” and completed the discussion questions in this week’s team application, (Musca and Menendez, 1988). During our team discussion, we analyzed the leadership qualities of Escalante. The team discussed how Escalante could read his environment, knowing himself and how to effectively implement his application of leading. The author notes the importance of knowing yourself by identifying who you are and what you stand for, (Bennis, 2009). As a team, we discussed Escalante’s ability to be flexible, by changing his approach to overcome a challenging situation. The team agreed that Escalante followed an authentic style of leading. The team noted that this method of instruction would probably not be an acceptable practice in most schools. The setting for which this movie was depicted was a lower level high school that was in the midst of losing their accreditation, (Musca and Menendez, 1988). The team discussed members of the faculty and their behavior towards their students. The faculty lacked the essential leadership qualities that are needed to properly motivate their students to become successful in obtaining a higher level of education. The team members agreed that a majority of the teaching staff followed the transactional method of leading. The team felt that the environment alone was

According to the author in the introduction of the book, this work was basically intended to serve as a guide for developing moral leadership in schools geared toward superintendents, supervisors, principals, and any other persons at the upper levels of school management. The author's design was to provoke thoughts and raise questions in the minds of these people to help them analyze the leadership processes in their schools and help them make adjustments to the leadership process that will in the end reduce the need for "direct" leadership in favor of "moral" leadership. He

Marzano, McNulty and Waters propose five steps for a plan of effective school leadership. The first step is developing a leadership team with purpose. The definition used for a purposeful community is one with the collective efficacy and capability to develop and use assets to accomplish goals that mater to all community members through agreed-upon process (Marzano, et. al, 2005). The second step is distributing some responsibilities throughout the leadership team. The third step is to select the right work. The fourth step is to identify the order of magnitude implied by the selected work. The last step is to match the management style to the order of magnitude of the change initiative. The last step incorporates whether this is first or second order change.