bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Right Kind of Queer: Fit and the Politics of School Leadership
Authors: Tooms Autumn
Published: January 2019

The purpose of this study was to explore the remembered experiences and perspectives of closeted and semicloseted queer school administrators who lived and worked in a community that did not support or embrace sexual diversity. The analysis of data, gathered through semistructured interviews revealed that these administrators continually search for clues to define the margin of tolerance for queers in their schools while constantly negotiating their identities in order to fit. For participants in this study the challenge of leading a school community was ultimately a labor of love and fear, given that these professionals enjoy a different and lesser set of civil rights than their nonqueer counterparts because of the sacrifices that the former make to maintain their job security.
Turning around Failing Schools: An Analysis
Authors: Meyers Coby V. , Murphy Joseph
Published: January 2019

High-stakes testing and accountability implicate failing schools more frequently and more precisely than ever before. Consequently efforts to turn around these schools have become paramount for educators, policy actors, and community members. Through a synthesis of research on failing schools, this article unpacks the constructs of school failure and turnaround. It also details causes of decline and crisis. Finally, it analyzes current educational strategies intended to turn failing schools into successful ones.
“Why's a Nice Dyke like you Embracing this Postmodern Crap?”
Authors: Lugg Catherine A.
Published: January 2019

In this article, I present a historical overview of the queer rights movement in the United States, from the late 1940s to today, weaving snapshots of my own life into the narrative, from living in the closet to being totally out, both personally and professionally. Because I was closeted at the beginning of my career my research agenda did not initially address issues of queer rights. Instead, my central focus was U.S. political right-wing movements in general and the Protestant Right in particular and how they worked to shape educational politics and policy. I also illustrate how intersectional and multidimensional analyses can uncover the ways that shifting/multiple identities shape the policies and practices of U.S. public schooling by drawing on the work of scholars and activists who acknowledge the intersections and multidimensionality of our constructed and assembled identities (Francisco Valdes, Darren Lenard Hutchinson, Kenji Yoshino and Riki Wilchins). I also draw from the earlier work of social scientist Erving Goffman, who examined how stigmatized populations navigated their social worlds. I conclude this article by exploring the notion of differentiated citizenship and what mplications it may hold for public school policy and the politics of education.
Democratically Accountable Leadership: Tensions, Overlaps, and Principles in Action
Authors: Mullen Carol A. , Harris Sandra , Pryor Caroline R. , Browne-Ferrigno Tricia
Published: January 2019

This discussion focuses on the intersection of two dissonant concepts of importance in today's educational scene—democracy and accountability. In this article, we describe how these conflicting ideologies might be resolved, theoretically and practically, through democratically accountable leadership—that is, the dual necessity of educational leaders to successfully function as change agents working for social justice. Understanding how educational leaders conceive of these phenomena is an important starting place toward preparing future educational leaders to deal more effectively with them. Hence, we investigated the idea of rethinking accountability around democratic principles and incorporating it into leadership preparation. Specifically, we present results from a study involving doctoral students (i.e., educational leaders) who were asked to link the principles of democracy and accountability to the application of social justice. As such, the article contains suggestions for implementing democratically accountable leadership into practice.
Values Perception and Future Educational Leaders
Authors: Craig Robert P. , Norris Cynthia J.
Published: January 2019

This article describes a process of incorporating future school administrators’ value clusters into a university preparation program. The university's role in integrating a values dimension in school administrators’ preparation programs is elucidated. The “Principal's Reflective Experiential Preparation Program” is described, with an emphasis on the use of the “Hall Tonna Inventory of Values” to ascertain the future administrators’ value clusters as they relate to the individual's leadership classification. It is noted that this process of values and leadership articulation affords clarity regarding the future administrator's philosophical foundations as they relate to educational practice and to the determination of future career decisions. Finally, reflections are given regarding future directions to enhance values integration in administrative preparation programs; such programs are challenged to integrate the candidates’ value clusters—those that energize humans, within programmatic development.
Distributed Leadership Includes Staff: One Rural Custodian as a Case
Authors: Maxwell Gerri , Scheurich Jim , Skrla Linda
Published: January 2019

Distribution of leadership tasks, often described as distributed leadership, has emerged as an innovative concept for describing the deployment of leadership within schools. A distributed leadership perspective suggests that successful school leadership is not simply the charge of the formal leaders (e.g., Gronn, 2000; Ogawa & Bossert, 1995; Scribner, Sawyer, Watson, & Myers, 2007; Smylie, Conley, & Marks, 2002; Spillane, Halverson, & Diamond, 2004): rather, the entire staff of a school, throughout its multilayered network of relationships and interactions, is responsible for school leadership (Crow, Hausman, & Scribner, 2002; Scribner et al., 2007; Spillane et al., 2001). An examination of the leadership literature yielded task orientation (Fleishman, 1953), communication orientation (Gronn, 2000; Spillane, 2006), and trust orientation (Hays Group, 2004; MacBeath, 2005; Oduro, 2004; Smylie, Mayrowetz, Murphy, & Louis, 2007) as key characteristics of leadership. As such, the lead author used this trifold lens as a means of recognizing leadership among support staff—in particular, a rural school custodian. In addition, this qualitative study (Lincoln & Guba, 1985), which utilized snowball sampling (Gall, Borg, & Gall, 1996), resulted in hour-long interviews of 19 informants whose conversations revealed the leadership impact of one school custodian over his 50-plus-year stint as a custodian and significant school leader. Recommendations for leadership programs include incorporation of further studies of support staff within the current scope of what is considered distributed leadership.
Integrated Leadership: How Principals and Teachers Share Transformational and Instructional Influence
Authors: Printy Susan M. , Marks Helen M. , Bowers Alex J.
Published: January 2019

Transformational leadership by the principal appears to be a precondition of shared instructional leadership in schools, but it does not guarantee that principals and teachers will collaborate on curriculum and instruction. The present study, a content analysis of existing case studies, explores the ways in which teachers respond to transformational leadership by the principal, with attention paid to the influence and conditions that activate interdependent relationships and enhance shared transformational leadership and shared instructional leadership. A contrast school, where shared instructional leadership did not take hold, suggests that structures and processes that organize teachers’ work differently do not automatically result in the kinds of interactions associated with quality teaching and learning.
The Ecology of Democratic Learning Communities: Faculty Trust and Continuous Learning in Public Middle Schools
Authors: Kensler Lisa A. W. , Caskie Grace I. L. , Barber Margaret E. , White George P.
Published: January 2019

This cross-sectional explanatory study integrated three complex social processes—democratic community, faculty trust, and organizational learning—into a single testable model. The review of literature demonstrated substantial evidence for the proposed model. The data sources for the study included approximately 3,000 teachers from 79 public middle schools in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Teachers from each school completed one of three surveys measuring democratic community, faculty trust, or continuous and team learning. Structural equation modeling was the primary method of analysis, with teacher responses aggregated to the school level. The data adequately fit the proposed model. Faculty trust was found to mediate the relationship between democratic community and continuous and team learning. Further research, including data collection over time, is necessary to fully understand the pattern of causal relationships among democratic community, faculty trust, and continuous and team learning.
How Does a Community of Principals Develop Leadership for Technology-Enhanced Science?
Authors: Gerard Libby F. , Bowyer Jane B. , Linn Marcia C.
Published: January 2019

Active principal leadership can help sustain and scale science curriculum reform. This study illustrates how principal leadership developed in a professional learning community to support a technology-enhanced science curriculum reform funded by the National Science Foundation. Seven middle school and high school principals in one urban-fringe district participated in the community for 3 years. Principals’ ideas about leadership in technology-enhanced science grew in complexity over time. Initially, principals focused on learning specific features of the new science curriculum. Over time, they began sharing problem-solving approaches for integrating technology-enhanced inquiry curriculum into the school and district. Principals shifted from gathering information from outside experts to leveraging the knowledge within the group. Each principal in the community customized the codeveloped leadership and carried it back to his or her school site. This study suggests strategies for structuring environments to foster leadership for science instructional improvement.
Reforming Preparation Programs for Leadership Improvement: The Case of Texas
Authors: Ramalho Elizabeth Murakami , Byng June , Garza Encarnación , Thompson David P.
Published: January 2019

This article provides a case of how changes in standards for principal certification—as required by the State Board of Educator Certification since its establishment in 1995—were meant to promote changes in principal preparation programs in the state of Texas. The examination considers whether the changes were significant in terms of intended impact to improve the preparation programs for principals entering the workforce, including the admission of candidates, the accommodations of the programs, and the assessment of candidates toward the principalship.
The Realities of New Principals: Challenges, Joys, and Sorrows
Authors: Shoho Alan R. , Barnett Bruce G.
Published: January 2019

This empirical qualitative study of 62 new principals was conducted over several years to determine what challenges they face, how the principalship compares with their expectations, and what their long-term career aspirations are. The findings indicate that the challenges experienced by new principals pertain to instructional leadership; managerial issues such as budgeting and human resources; and community issues involving climate, politics, and differing expectations from parents. New principals’ job expectations depended on the experiences they had as assistant or vice principals. Finally, few new principals anticipated long-term careers as principals. Most new principals desired district-level positions within 10 years. Implications for preparation and professional development are provided.
Finding Common Ground: Teacher Leaders and Principals Speak Out about Teacher Leadership
Authors: Weiner Jennie Miles
Published: January 2019

This study investigates how a small group of teacher leaders and their principals, participating in a teacher leadership program called the teacher connector (TC), understand teacher leadership and its impact on their practice. TCs’ responsibilities were typical of teacher leaders; thus, their experiences can provide insights into teacher leaders’ experiences more generally. Results indicate that the norms of egalitarianism, seniority, and autonomy influenced TCs’ descriptions of their positions and often lead to behaviors that undermined their authority. Principals downplayed these norms’ impact and often exacerbated teacher resistance. Alternatively, when principals and teacher leaders had clear converging views about the TCs’ goals and their connection to the school vision, teacher resistance decreased and TCs felt more efficacious.
School Technology Leadership: Artifacts in Systems of Practice
Authors: Dexter Sara
Published: January 2019

A cross-case analysis of five case studies of team-based technology leadership in middle schools with laptop programs identifies systems of practice that organize teams’ distributed leadership. These cases suggest that successfully implementing a complex improvement effort warrants a team-based leadership approach, especially for an improvement concerned with using technology to support teaching and learning. Not only does such an effort include technical and curriculum/instruction issues, but the constantly changing nature of technology has implications for teaching and learning. A group of people working together on a technology leadership effort makes it more likely that the necessary amount of expertise is available and that the team can keep up to date and address all technology leadership needs. Key artifacts that organize important leadership practices include sharing a technology vision, providing instructional support personnel, aligning technology resources to the curriculum, and ensuring opportunities for teachers to learn, share, and provide input to the leadership team.
Mandated University–District Partnerships for Principal Preparation: Professors’ Perspectives on Required Program Redesign
Authors: Browne-Ferrigno Tricia
Published: January 2019

University–district partnerships for preparing school leaders typically have well-defined organizational structures, established practices and procedures, and parity among partners—all of which can take considerable time and effort to achieve. Thus, is it realistic to expect that university–district partnerships will emerge simply through legislative mandate? The response to this question is embedded in perspectives shared by professors of educational leadership about new Kentucky policy requiring redesign of principal preparation programs. The mandate brings a new dynamic to partnership building, a process usually constructed by mutual need and perceived advantage, and raises concerns among those who must implement it to retain program accreditation.
A Systems Approach to Effectiveness in Catholic Elementary Schools: A Replication and Extension
Authors: Mitchell Roxanne M. , Tarter C. John
Published: January 2019

This study replicated an earlier study conducted by Tarter and Hoy (2004) in which an open systems model was used to test a series of hypotheses that explained elements of school performance. Four internal system elements (structure, individual, culture, and politics) of the school were used to explain two sets of school outcomes (student achievement and teachers’ assessment of overall school effectiveness) in a sample of 110 Catholic elementary schools in one Northeastern city. Correlational and multiple regression analyses were used to test the relationships. The results of this study further confirmed the usefulness of this model in understanding the factors that contribute to quality in elementary schools.
Strategies to Improve Teacher Retention in American Overseas Schools in the near East South Asia Region: A Qualitative Analysis
Authors: Mancuso Steven V. , Roberts Laura , White George P. , Yoshida Roland K. , Weston David
Published: January 2019

Using a qualitative analysis and drawing from sociological theory, this study examined reasons for teacher turnover and retention from a representative sample of 248 teachers in American overseas schools in the Near East South Asia region. Results suggested that the most important reasons to stay or move pertained to supportive leadership, teaching assignment, salary, benefits, and school's professional learning culture. Implications for leadership practice and policy development are discussed. Surprisingly, the impact of the worldwide economic recession during 2009, when the data were collected, appears to have had little impact on teachers’ decisions.
Performance-Related Pay: District and Teacher Characteristics
Authors: Liang Guodong , Akiba Motoko
Published: January 2019

This study examined the characteristics of performance-related pay (PRP) for teachers in the United States. From 1999 to 2007, the percentage of districts offering PRP and the percentage of teachers receiving PRP increased significantly. Large and ethnically diverse districts in urban areas with less union influence were more likely to offer PRP. Among the PRP recipients, teachers tended to receive more PRP when they had higher degrees and more experience and worked in districts with less union influence and a higher percentage of ethnically diverse students. However, highly qualified teachers in high demand were no more likely to receive a larger amount of PRP.
Experiences of Secondary Hispanic Immigrant Students: Their Stories of Challenge and Triumph
Authors: Mccartney Cynthia , Harris Sandra , Farrow Vicky
Published: January 2019

Secondary Hispanic immigrant students have many struggles and barriers to overcome. This qualitative study investigated the experiences of 10 secondary immigrant Hispanic students, all non-English speakers, as they lived and attended high school in the United States. Narrative techniques were used to explore the challenges they faced in culture, immigration, and education. As students told their stories of struggle and success, the following four themes emerged: (1) respect for homeland, family, friends, and others; (2) responsibility to family; (3) resiliency; and (4) hope.
Managing Educational Champions: Entrepreneurship in Schools
Authors: Eyal Ori , Yosef-Hassidim Doron
Published: January 2019

This study explores how educational champions—teachers who initiate unsolicited innovation—construct their entrepreneurial endeavors while interacting with principals’ management styles and how that interaction influences the sustainability of teachers’ initiatives. Through semistructured interviews ( N = 71) and analysis anchored in grounded theory, champions revealed three entrepreneurship strategies: semiautonomous entrepreneurship while interacting with a facilitative managerial style, loosely coupled entrepreneurship with directive management, and sponsored entrepreneurship with consolidative management. Analyses of these entrepreneurial endeavors illuminate teachers’ strategies for negotiating the ongoing tension between autonomy and control in schools and their influence on the sustainability of champions’ innovations.
Fraser and the Cheerleader: Values and the Boundaries of Student Speech
Authors: Ehrensal Patricia A. L.
Published: January 2019

Student speech has and continues to be a contested issue in schools. The Supreme Court ruled in Tinker that students do not shed their rights at the schoolhouse gate; in the Kuhlmeier and Fraser decisions, however, the Court gave school officials greater latitude in regulating student speech, especially when it bears the imprimatur of the school. However, in its Frederick decision, the Court established school officials as the arbiters of the meaning of student speech. This article explores the underlying values in schools that rejected the speech of Fraser while accepting the speech act of cheerleaders’ dance routines. It examines how the interpretation of these speech acts by school officials contributes to gender reproduction, with all the inequalities imposed.
Reflections on Justice in Schooling
Authors: First Patricia F.
Published: January 2019

This article is a reflection on the concept of justice as practiced in the public schools in the United States. Examples of justice denied or misconstrued are included. Cases, stories, and concepts invite educational leaders to reflect anew on delivering justice in education to all children. Underlying the article is the belief that understanding the concept of justice is vital if an educational leader is to act justly and model just behavior in schooling.
Exploring the Space Between: Social Networks, Trust, and Urban School District Leaders
Authors: Daly Alan J. , Finnigan Kara S.
Published: January 2019

A number of scholars are exploring the district context in which schools are embedded. These studies suggest the importance of the district office as a support or constraint to the work of schools and offer strategies for building relations between district and site leaders. While this is an important task, what is frequently overlooked is that organizational improvement efforts are often socially constructed. Therefore, an analysis of social networks and trust between district and site leaders may provide additional insights into supports and constraints related to improvement. This case study uses social network and trust data to explore the underlying best practice relations between leaders in a midsize underperforming urban school district. Results suggest weak network ties, low levels of trust, and a predictive relationship between trust and the reciprocal exchange of best practices related to improvement.
An Examination of Ohio Principals’ Attitudes toward Technology and First Amendment Law: Implications for Leadership
Authors: Gooden Mark A.
Published: January 2019

Principals have acknowledged the challenges with remaining current on issues in the law. A unique challenge for principals is the intersection of students’ First Amendment rights in the school context and the legal issues surrounding student-created webpages. Using a randomly selected sample of Ohio high school secondary principals, I investigated administrators’ attitudes concerning the scope of their authority in regulating student Internet expression (i.e., webpages). In this study, attitudes are defined as a predisposition to respond to a social object, such as a person, group, idea, physical object, and so on, in particular situations. The results revealed that principals’ attitudes were significantly affected by the place where the student's webpage was created (on campus or off campus) but not by the presence or absence of a material disruption.
Expression and Association Rights of School Employees in Electronic Environments
Authors: Bathon Justin M.
Published: January 2019

Many of the recent legal decisions regarding public employee expression, particularly in electronic environments, run counter to the culture being facilitated by the Internet. This article uses a legal analysis to examine recent decisions and then considers those legal positions within the context of digital expression.
Distributed Instructional Leadership in High Schools
Authors: Halverson Richard , Clifford Matthew
Published: January 2019

This article explores the idea of distributed instructional leadership as a way to understand instructional leadership practice in comprehensive high schools. Our argument is that distributed leadership analyses allow researchers to uncover and explain how instructional improvement in high schools occurs through the efforts of multiple individuals working to simultaneously influence the contexts of leadership and the contexts of instruction. The distributed instructional leadership model draws on the full potential of distributed leadership to describe not only who is involved with high school reforms but also what situated tools, tasks, and routines are required to change and maintain improved teaching. The first part of the article develops an account of distributed instructional leadership as an approach to studying how leaders create high school learning environments, by drawing on research in distributed cognition. The second part provides an illustration of how the ideas of distributed instructional leadership were applied to the analysis of a curriculum-based reform in a comprehensive high school.
Effective Board Leadership: Factors Associated with Student Achievement
Authors: Johnson Paul A.
Published: January 2019

The purpose of this study was to establish the content, construct, and predictive validity of the Effective Board Leadership Practices Survey (EBLPS). The EBLPS was designed to measure the leadership practices of boards of education that support student achievement. A literature review identified 12 board leadership practices supportive of student achievement. These practices formed the content basis of the 33-item EBLPS. A factor analysis approach to construct validity revealed six significant factors underlying the EBLPS, while a t test revealed a significant difference between the mean EBLPS scores of high- and low-achieving school districts.
Race Specialists: What a Black Administrator Ought to be and Do
Authors: Moore D. Chanele
Published: January 2019

Based on qualitative analysis from 22 semistructured interviews, this article explores how Black women principals and assistant principals experience educational administration, with attention to issues of race at work in suburban school settings. Findings suggest that because they may be perceived as race tokens by White educators, Black women administrators are expected to be experts on race in schools. This construction, which I refer to as playing the race specialist, highlights a tension among Black women administrators around expectations to focus on Black students rather than all students, regardless of race. The findings suggest that playing the race specialist role presents obstacles for Black women and highlights some limitations in schools’ ability to meet the needs of diverse student populations.
Films for a New DEEL: Documentary Films in the Educational Leadership Classroom
Authors: Polizzi Joseph A. , Clementi Erin San
Published: January 2019

The discourse on the use of film in the educational leadership classroom is often limited to the viewing of Hollywood features or industry films created for training purposes. We were motivated by an interest in finding new, valuable curriculum material and mediums that can inform and transform the work of education administrators. Guiding the selection of films is the vision of leadership as defined by the New DEEL (Democratic Ethical Educational Leadership) and the multiple ethical paradigms (Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2005). This article discusses five documentary films for use with educational leaders to enhance course curricula.
Promoting Our Students: Examining the Role of School Leadership in the Self-Advocacy of At-Risk Students
Authors: Khalifa Muhammad
Published: January 2019

The purpose of this research is to describe how an alternative school leader taught at-risk students and their parents to advocate for students’ educational interests and how this affected students’ academic and social success. In social justice leadership literature, parents and students are described as passive recipients of a strong social justice leader. But the process described in this research, which is referred to here as self-advocacy, demonstrates a way that principals can include stakeholders (i.e., parents and students) in the struggle for school inclusion and social justice. The study was a 2-year ethnographic study that closely examined the students, parents, staff, community members, and principal of an urban alternative high school. The findings suggest that principals can develop students and parents into self-advocates, who can themselves advocate for students’ school inclusion.
What Principals Do to Improve Teaching and Learning: Comparing the Use of Informal Classroom Observations in Two School Districts
Authors: Ing Marsha
Published: January 2019

Informally observing classrooms is one way that principals can help improve teaching and learning. This study describes the variability of principals’ classroom observations across schools and identifies the conditions under which observations relate to the instructional climate in some schools and not others. Data for this study come from two large urban school districts and include survey responses from principals (n = 461) and teachers (n = 16,862) matched to administrative records. There is little variation in the frequency and duration of classroom observations across schools with different student demographic characteristics. There is evidence that classroom observations are not related to the instructional climate unless they are conducted with a focus on instructional improvement.
Talking Race: Facilitating Critical Conversations in Educational Leadership Preparation Programs
Authors: Carpenter Bradley W. , Diem Sarah
Published: January 2019

In the field of education, critical conversations focusing on race and race relations are of primary importance given the continued inequities within our society. Statistically, public schools continue to be racially and socioeconomically separate and unequal. In our continued efforts to address such inequities, this study examines the ways in which professors plan for and facilitate conversations focused on race and race-related issues within educational leadership preparation programs. Findings highlight the importance of professors planning for and executing race-related conversations within the classroom. Results also indicate that while a number of informal and formal barriers may prevent professors within educational leadership preparation programs from providing the types of experiences necessary to prepare leaders of diverse communities, professors are willing to challenge such barriers, thus providing students with the educational experiences necessary to realize their potential as leaders in such communities.
Examining the Relationship between Collective Teacher Efficacy and the Emotional Intelligence of Elementary School Principals
Authors: Pierce Stephanie
Published: January 2019

Education research has established a significant relationship between collective teacher efficacy and student achievement. This study considered the relationship between emotional intelligence of elementary school principals and collective teacher efficacy as perceived by teachers’ and principals’ self-report. Study findings suggest that principals’ relationship management, a component of emotional intelligence, is critical in the development of collective teacher efficacy. The study indicated a moderate positive correlation between the total collective teacher beliefs score and all emotional intelligence scores, with the exception of conflict management.
Blind Spots: Small Rural Communities and High Turnover in the Superintendency
Authors: Kamrath Barry , Brunner C. Cryss
Published: January 2019

This article examines high superintendency turnover through rural community members’ perceptions of such attrition in their districts. Findings indicate that community members perceived high turnover as negative and believed that turnover was created by financial pressures, rural community resistance to educational trends, and bias against minorities and/or “outsiders.” Interestingly, most community members talked about superintendent turnover as “just the way things are around here,” attributing high turnover to what they considered external financial conditions (the superintendents’ low salary and the state funding sources) and unwittingly putting themselves in a position of helplessness, or as victims, even when they controlled the amount of salary that they offered candidates.
The Rural Social Justice Leader: An Exploratory Profile in Resilience
Authors: Maxwell Gerri M. , Locke Leslie Ann , Scheurich James Joseph
Published: January 2019

An exploratory investigation was conducted into the motivations and leadership traits of five rural school superintendents who over time evidenced a commitment to social justice. This effort meets a call in the research literature by Furman (2012), who noted that “to date, the literature offers few specifics about the actual practice of social justice leadership in K–12 schools and the capacities needed by school leaders to engage in this practice” (p. 192). Also noted has been the lack of attention to rural social justice and rural education internationally (Cuervo, 2009; Tikly & Barrett, 2009). To address this deficiency, a qualitative methods approach was used. As a result, we sought to compile a profile for the rural social justice leader who is capable of engendering strong social justice–oriented rural leadership. Findings suggest that these superintendents were attracted by, as well as challenged by, the work. Moreover, themes revealed how these superintendents worked to sustain themselves and to maintain resiliency through various strategies, including finding their rudder, managing the work, establishing relationships, and seeking out mentors or relying on spiritual guidance.
Cultivating Collaborative Data Practices as a Schoolwide Improvement Strategy: A Phase-Based Model of School Leadership Supports
Authors: Cosner Shelby
Published: January 2019

Emphasis on improving student learning has brought increased attention to the execution of schoolwide instructional reforms in general and the use of data by teacher teams in particular as an expected element of a school's instructional reform strategy. With this in mind, the purpose of this article is to focus important attention on the work of school leaders as key developers of collaborative data practices by teacher teams—an area that has received insufficient scholarly attention. Informed by various scholars who have examined organizational change processes and the leadership that underlies organizational changes and drawing from empirical and theoretical data use literature, this article advances a phase-based model of school leadership supports for those tasked with the introduction and cultivation of collaborative data practices in their schools. In so doing, this article provides a testable model for researchers who seek to better understand the work of school leaders in collaborative data contexts. This model should also prove instructive for practicing school leaders as well as those who prepare and develop school leaders.
The “Insider” Principal: Perceptions of the Leadership Effectiveness of an Internal Successor
Authors: Rivera-Mccutchen Rosa L.
Published: January 2019

The current study builds on earlier leader succession research, focusing on a school where the “insider”—who was believed to be strong before being hired as the formal school leader—drew sharp criticism after assuming the principalship. Interviews with staff members who worked with the insider leader in her role as teacher and principal were analyzed to examine changes in their perceptions of her. Results suggest that the leader did not change; rather, perceptions of her leadership effectiveness changed once she assumed the role of principal. The staff believed that the insider would continue to act like a peer, and when she did not, their perceptions of her effectiveness as a leader were negatively affected.
Stewardship as a Sense-Making Model of Leadership: Illuminating the Behaviors and Practices of Effective School Principals in Challenging Public School Contexts
Authors: Masewicz Sophia Marsh , Vogel Linda
Published: January 2019

This mixed methods study explored the behaviors and practices of effective school principals in challenging public school contexts. Participating in the study were principals and teachers from four schools serving high-minority and high-poverty students in an urban district that demonstrated high student growth as designated by the Colorado Growth Model (Colorado Department of Education, 2007). Findings of the nature, values, and beliefs of effective principals in challenging public school contexts around actions as a tenacious leader, collective efficacy, personal mastery, and critical theorist led to the development of a grounded theory of stewardship as a sense-making model of school leadership.
Social Control for Democratic Community
Authors: Wasonga Teresa A.
Published: January 2019

This study investigated the tensions between democratic community and social control through qualitative data (focus group discussions) and inductive reasoning. Data indicated that school leaders struggle to balance authority and the required accountability while engendering a socially just democratic community. This struggle is largely attributed to external pressures that are not always aligned with internal circumstances.
The New Instructional Leadership
Authors: Halverson Richard , Grigg Jeffrey , Prichett Reid , Thomas Chris
Published: January 2019

The recent press for high-stakes accountability has challenged school leaders to use data to guide the practices of teaching and learning. This article considers how local school leaders build data-driven instructional systems to systematically improve student learning. Such systems are presented as a framework involving data acquisition, data reflection, program alignment and integration, program design, formative feedback, and test preparation. The article reviews data collected in a yearlong study of four schools to describe how leaders structure opportunities to engage in data-driven decision making.
When Aspirations Exceed Actions
Authors: Galloway Mollie K. , Ishimaru Ann M. , Larson Rob
Published: January 2019

Research has begun to articulate actions of social justice leaders, but as a field we still know little about how a broad range of leaders view and enact equitable practice. In this study, we use a set of “leadership for equity” rubrics to examine how 114 school and district leaders rated and provided evidence of equitable or inequitable practices related to visionary leadership and instructional improvement (two core responsibilities of leadership as identified by the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium's standards). The rubrics define equitable leadership along a continuum from unsatisfactory to exemplary, with a rating of proficient requiring evidence of action and change in policies and practices designed to produce equitable outcomes. Although leaders tended to rate themselves as proficient or above on the rubrics, their ratings were more favorable than what their supporting evidence warranted. We use this misalignment between participants’ espoused and enacted behaviors to (a) discuss the need to better define key concepts in social justice leadership theory and practice and (b) highlight how leadership development and professional growth tools can counter rather than maintain status quo leadership practice.
In Whose Best Interests?
Authors: Crawford Emily R.
Published: January 2019

Immigration policy presents new challenges for educators who serve undocumented students. This case study examined how 14 educators at an elementary school responded to immigration enforcement activity near school property. The key question this study asked is, do educators who experience Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity near school grounds perceive this activity as a legal or ethical dilemma? The conceptual framework integrated sensemaking theory with the “best interests of the student” model (Stefkovich, 2013) to reveal how educators make sense of their professional and personal responsibilities to make a decision in ethically complex circumstances.
Developing School Leaders through the Arts
Authors: Katz-Buonincontro Jen , Phillips Joy C. , Arnold Noelle Witherspoon
Published: January 2019

Three independently developed educational leadership courses used the arts to depart from lecture and passive learning, prime students to solve school problems creatively, and build social justice awareness. Photo captioning was used to promote intrapersonal leadership development around professional identity formation and social justice awareness (Case 1). Arts-based activities, such as sculpture making from found objects, were used to illustrate school visions and hone interpersonal skills (Case 2). Lastly, improvisational theater role-playing was used to develop organizational goals around effective teamwork, collaboration and a positive school culture (Case 3). The cases are compared, and students’ dispositional responses are discussed with implications for arts-based leadership research.
The Scholar–Practitioner Ideal
Authors: Lowery Charles L.
Published: January 2019

The scholar-practitioner leadership model as presented in this paper refers to an ideal that is delineated in a set of literature that emphasizes a unique paradigm of scholarly practice in educational administration. Specifically, this article focuses on reviewing prior and emerging theoretical perspectives as typifications, or the ideal of the scholar–practitioner educational leader for school administration as defined in a specific regional university doctoral program. Primarily, the synthesis of these sources supporting this theoretical study focuses on the literature presented in this program and centers on, but are not limited to, Foster (1984, 1989), Capper (1998), Horn (2000, 2009), Jenlink (2001, 2006, 2010), Giroux (1992, 1994), Mullen (2003), and Starratt (2001, 2005). Synthesizing the literature, a conceptualization of the scholar-practitioner develops as a school leader who embodies an ability to face the continuously emerging concerns that are the norm in current educational settings. The conclusion is that aspiring to the ideal of the scholar–practitioner will supply school administrators with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills that the 21st century will demand.
The Uncertainty of High Expectations
Authors: Torres A. Chris
Published: January 2019

Teacher turnover continues to be a chronic problem for low-income schools and is especially high in urban charter schools. New evidence shows that teachers’ perceptions of school leadership and trust are two of the most powerful predictors of turnover. Using interviews with former No Excuses charter school (NECS) teachers, this study seeks to better explain the mechanisms influencing teacher turnover by analyzing teachers’ perceptions of what principals do to influence relational trust and describing how this influences teachers’ decisions to leave. Findings show how high and often-implicit expectations principals have for teachers affect teacher-principal trust relationships in ways that lead to turnover.
Predictors of New Teacher Satisfaction in Urban Schools
Authors: Green Aimee M. , Muñoz Marco A.
Published: January 2019

This study addressed the problem of job satisfaction of new teachers in large urban school districts. Understanding what contributes to job satisfaction of new teachers has implications for retention strategies supporting cost-effective human capital management as well as for improving working conditions and performance in the educational accountability era. The study used personal characteristics, general job facets, and specific job facets as predictors. The full set of predictor variables explained 71% of the variance in new teacher job satisfaction. The study found that overall new teacher job satisfaction correlates with (a) preparedness, (b) leadership, (c) independence, (d) time, and (e) benefits. Addressing each correlate could likely increase new teacher job satisfaction and retention in the teaching profession particularly in the high-need, hard-to-staff schools. Implications for practice and research are discussed.
Putting Followers First
Authors: Terosky Aimee Lapointe , Reitano Maria C.
Published: January 2019

In this article, we apply the theory of servant leadership to qualitative data of 18 urban, K-12 public school principals noted as instructional leaders. We found that servant leadership, enacted through a concern for teachers’ learning growth, and well-being, guided the thoughts and actions of 83% of the participants. Grounded in Spears’ (2002) conceptual framework for servant leadership, we share participants’ cases exemplifying servant leadership by highlighting their perspectives and actions toward their followers (i.e., teachers/staff). In light of teacher turnover and dissatisfaction, we argue that servant leadership holds promise for the practice of leadership within the context of today's schools.
Measuring Principals’ Data-Informed Decision-Making on High-Impact Strategies
Authors: Shen Jianping , Ma Xin , Cooley Van E. , Burt Walter L.
Published: January 2019

We collected data from 691 teachers from 139 schools in Michigan to validate the instrument titled Data-informed Decision-making on High-impact Strategies, designed based on Marzano's (2003) 11 high-impact strategies. Results of confirmatory factor analysis strongly supported the 11-factor model as the most valid approach to measure teachers’ perceptions of their principals’ data-informed decision-making on high-impact strategies for the improvement of student achievement. According to Marzano's (2003) framework, the 11 factors fall into three categories of higher-order principal leadership concerning schools, teachers, and students. The higher-order-factor model came quite close to the 11-factor model in terms of model-data-fit so that the instrument could be used with satisfactory construct validity in the research of higher-order principal leadership. The scale property analysis showed favorable results for the 11-factor model and the higher-order-factor model. Implications of the results are discussed.
Sources of Systems Thinking in School Leadership
Authors: Shaked Haim , Schechter Chen
Published: January 2019

Systems thinking, a framework for seeing the whole, is an effective means of dealing with real-world problems. This study explored the sources of systems thinking in school leadership. Qualitative data were collected via 82 semistructured interviews and 6 focus groups, among pre-service principals, novice principals and experienced principals. Data analysis included four stages: condensing, coding, categorizing, and theorizing. The analysis yielded four sources of systems thinking in school leadership: (1) managerial experience. (2) role model, (3) academic study, and (4) natural tendency. The findings expand limited existing knowledge about systems thinking in school leadership, and may assist in establishing ways to enhancing and accelerating the development of systems thinking among prospective and active school principals.
A Social Network Approach to Examine K-12 Educational Leaders’ Influence on Information Diffusion on TWitter
Authors: Wang Yinying , Sauers Nicholas J. , Richardson Jayson W.
Published: January 2019

This study investigated the relationship between the leader's gender, leadership position. Twitter use, and influence on information diffusion in the communication network on Twitter. We collected the 30,200 latest tweets of 151 active Twitter users who held educational leadership positions. Results of social network analysis and multiple regression analyses suggest a gender inequality in the leader's influence on information diffusion in the network. Findings also indicate no significant relationship between leadership position (district vs. building) and a leader's influence in the network. Moreover, Twitter following was positively associated with the leader's influence in the network, whereas the number of followers, weekly tweets, and the time of Twitter account creation did not predict the leader's influence. Practical implications on how leaders use Twitter to disseminate information are discussed.