Education Commons^™

Strategic Educational Leadership Within The Policy-Making Arena: The Promulgation, Passage, And Practice Of Tennessee's High Performing School Districts Flexibility Act Of 2013, Robert Lawrence Hullett Jr.

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

In 2010, Tennessee’s 106th General Assembly passed the First to the Top Act (2010), a companion legislation for the federal Race to the Top Act (2009) program launched by the Obama Administration. A provision of this state law required that half of teacher and principal evaluations be based upon student achievement, which included a component of required continuous academic growth. For school districts whose students scored at the highest academic performance levels, the continuous growth component would negatively impact their teachers’ and principals’ annual evaluations. In 2012, the Williamson County Schools (WCS) superintendent requested mitigation for relieve from the Tennessee …

Superintendents And The Micropolitics Of Innovation In Rural School Districts, Catherine Nunn Lawless

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Research shows that public school districts that follow traditional means of instruction and assessment are insufficiently preparing students for success in the today’s global world. As a result, students are entering into higher education institutions and the workforce without the necessary skills to succeed in these 21^st century environments. Extant literature suggest that there is a broad consensus on this perspective in public and private sectors nationally and globally. Evidence shows that some school district superintendents and their respective school boards continue to focus on improving the current practices and student academic performance and assessment. Other instructional leaders recognize …

The Superintendent’S Feed: An Analysis Of Superintendents’ Engagement In Political Discourse On Twitter, Todd M. Hurst

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The modern school superintendent fulfills a unique role in the American public education system. He or she is structurally empowered as the de facto head of the local educational system, thereby granted with a certain amount of trust and authority regarding educational issues. At the same time, the superintendent is, in most cases, an employee of a politically appointed school board. This construction creates a dynamic wherein the superintendent is both the leader of a highly structured, bureaucratic system, while at the same time an employee of a largely lay, often elected, group of citizens.

The position of the superintendent …