Digital Commons Network^™

Absorptive Capacity In Rural Schools: Bending Not Breaking During Disruptive Innovation Implementation, Sarah J. Zuckerman, Kristen Campbell Wilcox, Kathryn S. Schiller, Francesca T. Durand

Kristen Campbell Wilcox

Rural schools have repeatedly been subjected to standardizing state and federal education policies that seek to minimize variance in instructional systems and increase the number of college- and career-ready graduates. The Race to the Top policy agenda combined standards-based and accountability-based reforms to meet these objectives and once again subjected rural schools to innovations from outside experts. This qualitative study uses four instrumental cases of rural schools to understand: 1) leadership strategies, and 2) mechanisms and processes of alignment, which allowed schools to maintain high levels of student performance in the face of disruptive policy innovations. The fi ndings of …

Caught At A Crossroads: Secondary Principals' Perceptions Of Change Agentry Within Two Paradigms Of Education, Raymond Delgado

Raymond Delgado

Transformation And Resilience At The University Of Redlands, James Spee

James Spee

Assessment Of Teacher Dispositions With The Etq2: A Guided-Reflection And Rasch Model Analysis, W. Steve Lang, Lasonya L. Moore, Judy Wilkerson

LaSonya Moore

School Improvement: Data-Driven And Vision-Centered, Samuel J. Smith

Samuel James Smith

The Inclusion Of Self-Assessment In Merit Evaluation, Kenneth L. Rigler, Lorie Cook-Benjamin, Regi Wieland, Carrie Tholstrup

Kenneth Rigler

The purpose of this survey study was to collect faculty perceptions toward changes made to the faculty merit evaluation process in a college of education at a state comprehensive university. The changes in the evaluation occurred over a two-year period, where a formative rubric and faculty self-assessment were incorporated into the merit instrument. The sampling frame for the study included the college of education faculty members at the university. The data for the study were collected in two different phases using a field-tested online survey that was created to collect the faculty perceptions of the newly developed instrument and process …

The Practice Of Being A Student: Cops And Graduate Student Success, Aimee Dechambeau

Aimée L. deChambeau

Advising Doctoral Students In Education Programs, Christy M. Craft, Donna Augustine-Shaw, Amanda Fairbanks, Gayla Adams-Wright

Christy Moran Craft

Introduction To Rural Educational Leadership, Jeanne L. Surface

Jeanne L Surface

Without going too deep into theoretical perspectives regarding social and organizational change (as with, say, Hegel’s dialectic), it can fairly be argued that change occurs when the center doesn’t hold, or said another way, when the status quo no longer serves most people. It is at that point that different ideas take root and begin to direct the process of change. And where do the different ideas come from? Wendell Berry (1987) argued that they come from the periphery, which in the context of the 21st century, is the countryside.

The Influence Of Students’ Racial And Ethnic Identity Development On Their Perceptions Of African American Faculty, Kathleen Neville, Tara L. Parker

Kathleen Neville

Principles Of Leading Change: An Inductive Analysis From Post-Katrina New Orleans, Brian R. Beabout

Brian R. Beabout

Despite over forty years of research on theories of educational change, little is known of the change theories-in-use of school-based administrators, often tasked with implementing externally imposed reform mandates. Capitalizing on the unique case of post-Katrina schooling, this qualitative study examines the ways in which ten principals spoke about leading change in their schools. In a city where the district has been almost wholly decentralized, these principals are not implementing changes decided upon by superiors, but have significant autonomy in their choice of change goals and change processes. Despite rarely finding unitary theories of change in the words of New …

Organizational Leadership In Academic Libraries : Identifying Culture Types And Leadership Roles, Monica Garcia Brooks

Monica Brooks

The purpose of this study is to identify organizational culture types and leadership roles among research and non-research libraries in higher education institutions in the United States and to reveal trends that can assist in enacting needed organizational change. Organizational culture and leadership are two intertwined concepts that are strongly aligned with the human element of any supervisory experience. According to Crosby, they help “nurture effective and humane organizations” (Crosby, 2004). This research project sought to test the claims brought forth by library researchers such as Kaarts-Brown et al. in which they reported a tie between the library manager’s ability …

Breath Of Fresh Air: How Students Describe Their Experiences And Find Meaning From Their Interactions With African American Faculty In The College Classroom, Kathleen Neville, Tara L. Parker

Kathleen Neville

Urban School Reform And The Strange Attractor Of Low-Risk Relationships, Brian R. Beabout

Brian R. Beabout

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, school leaders in a newly decentralized school system reached out to external organizations for partnerships—a job that had previously resided in the central office. The necessity of these contacts and the quantity of newly independent schools make a unique context for studying how school leaders think and act in relation to external partnerships. Iterative interviews with 10 New Orleans public school principals reveal a range of external partnerships that can be classified into a three part taxonomy consisting of charitable relationships, technical support relationships, and feedback relationships. A discussion of low-risk relationships …

Urban School Reform And The Strange Attractor Of Low-Risk Relationships, Brian R. Beabout

Brian R. Beabout

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, school leaders in a newly decentralized school system reached out to external organizations for partnerships—a job that had previously resided in the central office. The necessity of these contacts and the quantity of newly independent schools make a unique context for studying how school leaders think and act in relation to external partnerships. Iterative interviews with 10 New Orleans public school principals reveal a range of external partnerships that can be classified into a three part taxonomy consisting of charitable relationships, technical support relationships, and feedback relationships. A discussion of low-risk relationships …

Those Who Left, Those Who Stayed: The Educational Opportunities Of High-Achieving Black And Latina/O Students In Magnet And Non-Magnet Los Angeles High Schools, Kimberly A. Griffin, Erin Kimura-Walsh, Erica Yamamura, Walter R. Allen

Kimberly A. Griffin

No abstract provided.

Striving For Success: A Qualitative Exploration Of Competing Theories Of High-Achieving Black College Students’ Academic Motivation, Kimberly A. Griffin

Kimberly A. Griffin

No abstract provided.