Education Commons^™

The Role Of Stakeholders: Implications For Continuous Improvement In Principal Preparation, Ethel M. Arzu, Tia Agan, Gary J. Miller, Kevin Badgett

School Leadership Review

Research conducted in partnership with the Wallace Foundation and the Education Development Center revealed the importance of school principals on the success of student achievement and attendance, as well as on teacher efficacy and retention. The implications of this research reveal the importance of stronger and more focused principal preparation programs. Therefore, the Wallace Foundation established a continuous improvement process that engages teams of program faculty and stakeholders in conducting evidence-based assessments of program quality. In this article, three programs document their experiences with the self-study process. Readers will gain a deeper appreciation for the collaborative role that stakeholders play …

The Impact Of Recruiting And Retaining Teachers With Advanced Degrees On Student Learning, Elisabeth Krimbill, Wowek S. Kearney, Lawrence Scott

School Leadership Review

This paper presents a mixed method study examining the relationship between teacher advanced degree attainment and student achievement. This study utilizes teacher demographic data along with standardized test scores from 702 public schools in south central Texas. First, OLS regression analyses were employed to measure the relationship between the percent of teachers with advanced degrees and student achievement. The results of these analyses indicate that the percentage of teachers with advanced degrees made a statistically significant independent contribution to the variance in student outcomes on the state exam in English Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies. Following the analysis of …

Graduate Student Perceptions Of Cohort Delivery And Problem-Based Learning In Online Principal Certification Courses, Pam Winn Ed. D., James Gentry Ed. D., An Nguyen Ed. D.

School Leadership Review

This qualitative study examined graduate/post-graduate student perceptions regarding the use of a cohort model and Project-Based Learning (PBL) in a completely online principal certification preparation classes. As part of a TEA funded grant, two districts (a cohort of 17 students) completed 24-semester hours of principal certification courses. All classes were online and emphasized PBL to engage the students in higher-level thinking skills. Participants responded to an open-ended survey regarding their perceptions of cohort and PBL experiences. Findings indicate graduate/post-graduate student perceptions were positive concerning both the cohort model and the PBL learning experiences. However, participants provided valuable feedback for improvements …

Modeling Instructional Best Practices: Pedagogy Of College Of Education Professors, Kathleen Taylor Campbell, Rayma Harchar, Thomas Devaney, Deborah Mccarthy

School Leadership Review

In light of increased accountability for K-12 student achievement, critics have questioned the quality of teachers and school principals as well as the university programs that prepare them for these roles (Lambert, 1996; Levine, 2005; Murphy, 1992). Regarding the preparation of teachers, critics have stated that education courses are vapid, impractical, segmented, and directionless (Glenn, 2000). Two national reports that have made recommendations for teacher redesign are noteworthy. The report of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, What matters most: Teaching for America’s future (Lambert, 1996), found that teacher preparation education is thin and fragmented and recommended that …

Dimensions Of Educational Leadership: Cultural, Ethical, And Moral, Richard A. Gregory

School Leadership Review

Given the current state of affairs in the school districts of America, almost any observer could proclaim that a change in policy and leadership is urgently needed. The national pundits and politicians continue to blame the usual suspects: entrenched school cultures, teacher unions, shortened school years, and administrative bloat, to name a few. National educational leadership organizations (NCPEA, UCEA, and AASA) are hard at work defining a Knowledge Base (KB) for the training of educational leaders of the future.

While this author certainly applauds the efforts of these professional organizations, there are some things that university professors can do within …

Student Perceptions Of Online Courses For School Administrators, Robert Thiede

School Leadership Review

Online courses are the fastest growing student enrollment at the university level during the last decade. Between the time period 2003-2009, the number of students who had taken online courses doubled to 3.9 million which outpaced the growth in traditional college settings by a 12% margin (Mashable/Tech,2010). However, this online programming movement still remains in its early stages of development. Thus, faculty members and designers of online education need to know more about online courses. Momin (2003) stated that this growth, in online education, has been accompanied by increased questions about the effectiveness of online courses. More research needs to …

Principal Preparation Program Redesign: How Universities May Be Required To Redesign Their Programs, Ralph L. Marshall

School Leadership Review

With the advent of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) there has been a greater emphasis on the quality of those individuals who lead the efforts within each of our school buildings across the country. Even more so than district level leadership, an effort has been made to research the effectiveness and improve the quality of the principals who lead school level reforms that are being promoted by business leaders and mandated by legislatures throughout the country. Legislators at both the national and state levels have encouraged these efforts and have even passed legislation that have increased requirements and promoted a …

Mentoring New Faculty On The Road To Tenure, Fred C. Lunenburg, Beverly J. Irby

School Leadership Review

One of the first mentoring steps is to help new faculty members determine how many articles can be published from their dissertations. We contend that any dissertation of seminal importance can produce multiple journal articles. For example, the literature review may be suitable for publication if it is a critique of the literature with major issues raised on the specific topic of interest. If the new faculty member did not conduct a critique of the literature, then that may be a suggestion; and as that is done, references can be updated as well. The dissertation may have resulted in a …

Factors Affecting Doctoral Educational Leadership Program Selection, Lesley F. Leach, Pam Winn, Susan Erwin, Liza Benedict

School Leadership Review

Although recruitment has always been vital to sustained university admissions, it is true perhaps now more than ever as traditional public university programs face fierce competition for students from digitally-delivered and for-profit programs. Competition is fierce at every level of higher education, including the doctoral level. As competition has increased, so have the number of universities offering doctoral degrees (U.S. Department of Education [DOE], 2013). In 2011, Texas ranked fourth behind California, Florida, and North Carolina in the number of doctoral degrees granted in the United States. Furthennore, the number of doctoral degrees conferred in Texas grew from 8,959 in …

Considering An Overhaul To The New Principal Preparation Program, Vance Vaughn, Yanira Oliveras-Ortiz

School Leadership Review

Levine (2005) argued that university principal preparation programs for educational leaders are failing to provide a suitable curriculum to prepare aspiring principals to demonstrate the skills and competencies necessary to meet the challenges inherent in the increasingly complex demands of their school leadership roles. Teitel (2006) suggested that colleges and universities offer curricula that are neither coherent nor relevant. According to Candidates, Doctoral Cohort; Coleman, J. Craig; and Alford, Betty J. (2007), it is “a grave disservice [that] is done to university program graduates who enter leadership positions woefully unprepared for the awaiting firestorm” (p. 39).

Selection Process For Educational Leaders Does Make A Difference, Virginia Leiker, Theresa M. Campos

School Leadership Review

Traditional principal preparation programs, those bound by a university degree, are sometimes viewed as theory-based and have little to do with the real world in which school leaders work. Even the licensing exam in some states, such as in Texas, asks the candidates to view each scenario as the ideal situation when selecting responses. Traditional preparation programs frequently meet the standards for national accreditation that indicates that the curriculum and assessments in these programs are subjected to rigorous scrutiny for quality control. The question remains, what should universities do to improve their programs or change the perception that the graduates …

The Tenure Process: A Descriptive Study Of Selected Texas Universities, Gary Miller, Wesley D. Hickey

School Leadership Review

Few things in the professional life of university faculty are more important than the tenure process. Achieving tenure provides the faculty member with the confidence that his or her position with the university will be secure for life. There are exceptions; criminal behavior and elimination of the program come to mind, but tenure allows the faculty member to research controversial areas without the potential for political repercussions that could jeopardize employment. According to the American Association of University Professors: The principal purpose of tenure is to safeguard academic freedom, which is necessary for all who teach and conduct research in …