Education Commons^™

Comparison Of Dual Enrollment Student Grades In Introductory Biology College Dual-Enrollment Courses Taken In Texas High Schools Or Colleges For School Leaders, Cynthia A. Gallardo

School Leadership Review

Dual Enrollment (DE) or Dual Credit (DC) programs have become increasingly prevalent at both the high school and college settings. These programs enable students to earn both high school and college credit and get a head start on their college education. Additionally, students in these programs must take university core curriculum courses to fulfill their college education requirements. A course that several students take is Introductory to Biology, a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) course. This course is an introductory science course and may present a challenge for students in that there is a large quantity of material discussed. …

More Than A Test Score: Toward A More Balanced School Accountability System, Joel A. Leader, Barbara L. Pazey

School Leadership Review

Using a zone of mediation framework, we explore how one school district designed a community-based accountability system (CBAS) reflecting community stakeholders’ values, priorities, and goals. We collected rich data sets from a document analysis, focus group, and individual interviews. Our findings indicated a strong dissatisfaction with test-based accountability that led the district to engage its stakeholders in designing a CBAS using multiple achievement measures to report on district success. The importance of collaboration with other districts and leaders at the local, regional, and state levels also emerged. This study highlights the importance of stakeholder involvement, leadership, and collaboration when making …

Exploration Of The Relationships Between Principal Preparation Program Admission Requirements And Program Performance, Summer Pannell

School Leadership Review

Admission criteria for principal preparation programs vary from state to state and even amongst universities within the same state. Despite the recommendation nearly two decades ago to connect admission criteria to leadership standards, little research has been done to help develop such criteria. This study examined principal preparation program admissions requirements at one southern university to determine if a relationship existed between admission criteria, academic program performance, and performance on educational leadership licensure assessments. The Pearson product-moment correlation found a statistically significant correlation between, both, the GRE and GRE Writing assessments and the School Leadership Licensure Assessment for educational administrator …

Producing College, Career, And Military Ready Graduates: A Study Of Efficiency In Texas Public School Districts, James J. Barton, Kaye Shelton, Kenneth Young

School Leadership Review

Public school districts in Texas and policymakers need studies of efficiency in the production of College, Career, and Military Ready graduates to maximize resources in the House Bill 3 funding formula and improve ratings in the Texas public school accountability system. A replication of efficiency studies by Carter (2012) and Thompson (2017), the purpose of this non-experimental quantitative study was to determine what discretionary and non-discretionary factors influence the efficiency of Texas public school districts’ production of College, Career, and Military Ready graduates. With financial and student performance data for 1054 school districts from the 2017-2018 school year, Data Envelopment …

School Leadership Assessment Of Teachers’ Work-Life Balance: Perceptions And Professional Learning Needs During A Global Health Pandemic, Juliann Sergi Mcbrayer, Summer Pannell, Alissa Sasser, Katherine Fallon, Katarina Evans

School Leadership Review

The purpose of this study was to better understand the work-life balance of educators teaching students during the Covid-19 health pandemic. Teachers face a multitude of challenges during this unprecedented time with a rapid shift from traditional face-to-face class to online learning resulting in a cyclical phenomenon for many teachers as schools have shifted back and forth between virtual and in-person settings in response to constantly changing coronavirus messaging. The findings identified three overarching themes related to teachers’ needs including Boundaries with Time and Commitments, Mentally Processing Daily Stressors, and Healthy Lifestyle. Implications for practice denote that …

Secondary Principal Leadership And The Impact On Engaging Hands-On Learning Strategies, Sarah Morrison, Ray Thompson

School Leadership Review

The purpose of this narrative inquiry study was to understand how secondary campus principals build capacity in teachers to actively engage students in the processes of meaningful learning. Secondary campus principals should continuously work with teachers in a team setting in order to implement best practices. In recent years, “researchers in educational leadership have called for a new sustainable model for the future” and one must rethink how engagement aligns for student success. Hands-on learning can be instrumental in increasing student engagement, which, in turn, builds student capacity, students who do not feel challenged often become bored in the educational …

School Leadership Support: Understanding The Experiences Of Elementary-Level Teachers During A Global Health Pandemic, Kathleen M. Crawford, Pamela Wells, Juliann Sergi Mcbrayer, Kristen N. Dickens, Katherine Fallon

School Leadership Review

The purpose of this study was to better understand how the current COVID-19 global health pandemic has professionally and emotionally impacted elementary-level teachers. Teachers experienced diverse challenges during this unprecedented time with a rapid shift from in-person to online learning. Two overarching themes emerged based on participant experiences: abandoning best practices and increased stress and emotional pain. Implications for practice included the need for school leaders to evaluate the current level of support being provided to teachers and assess areas of need to support professional and emotional growth with the backdrop of the pandemic. We encourage future research with all …

The Effect Of School Tasks On Principals' And Assistant Principals’ Leadership Self-Efficacy, Torri Jackson, Juliann Sergi Mcbrayer, Summer Pannell, Richard E. Cleveland, Suzanne B. Miller, Katherine Fallon

School Leadership Review

The pressure to lead schools effectively while fulfilling instructional leadership and school management tasks could impact school administrators’ perceptions of their leadership capabilities. The purpose of this quantitative, cross-sectional study was to identify the relationship between the varied tasks of school administrators as related to their leadership self-efficacy. Data were collected from 73 school administrators to ascertain leadership self-efficacy of principals and assistant principals based upon the completion of instructional leadership tasks and school management tasks. The major findings of the study indicated a positive, linear relationship between leadership self-efficacy and the instructional leadership tasks and school management tasks of …

University-Based Principal Preparation Programs In Texas In 2019: Where Is Special Education?, Ann Hoa Lê, Julie Peterson Combs

School Leadership Review

Most principal training programs in the United States focus very little on preparing aspiring instructional leaders to lead programs for students with disabilities. An examination of principal preparation programs and their SPED components is necessary at a time when standards have been revised and new certification exams have been constructed in Texas. To explore the presence of SPED topics in principal certification courses, we used a classical content analysis with a group of university-based principal preparation programs. Almost half of the universities in our study required 18 semester hours or fewer for principal certification, and none of these had course …

Implementing Discipline Reform: One District’S Experience With Pbis, Catherine Robert Ed.D.

School Leadership Review

This study examines the case of one large urban school district’s implementation of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) to review competing needs and challenges encountered over a four-year period. There are encouraging results supporting the finding of a successful PBIS implementation and plans for continued implementation of Tier I practices and expand Tier II supports. Reducing the continuing disparity between the percentages of African American and White students receiving disciplinary consequences remains a challenge for Middleton ISD. In addition, work remains to reduce the disproportionate number of students receiving special education services who receive higher levels of disciplinary consequences.

Talk Or Walk: School Principals And Shared Instructional Leadership, Sheila Baker, John Decman, Jana M. Willis

School Leadership Review

Beginning in March of 2020, public school educators at all levels were thrown into a situation in which they were required to drastically alter pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning. The move from classroom-based instruction to a virtual platform, whether synchronous or not, was too often done on-the-fly and with mixed results. With the realization and acceptance, albeit grudgingly, that web-based, internet-based, and/or virtual platforms need to be greatly expanded to the population and may become the norm for public education, there clearly exists a need for an expanded definition of instructional leadership.

The purpose of this study is to …

Fostering Inclusive Culture Through Partnerships With Nonprofits, Kevin Badgett, John Decman

School Leadership Review

NELP Standards place a particular emphasis on “the leaders’ responsibility for the well-being of students and staff as well as their role in working with others to create supportive and inclusive district and school cultures” (Preparing for the National Educational Leadership Preparation (NELP) Program Review: A Companion Guide, 14). This concept, that of working with others to create inclusive district and school cultures, necessarily means that school leaders are required to look at organizations and leaders in the community to foster positive growth. Because of this, there is a fertile ground upon which to investigate the benefits of partnerships with …

An Examination Of Adult Bullying In The K-12 Workplace: Implications For School Leaders, Cynthia J. Kleinheksel, Richard T. Geisel

School Leadership Review

The issue of bullying in K-12 schools usually brings images of students to mind, but a recent quantitative study of a sample from K-12 school personnel in Michigan showed that 27.8% of adults in the K-12 workplace consider themselves the target of an adult bully. This study calls for school leadership to recognize and proactively address the issue of workplace bullying in K-12 schools through policy, procedures, training, prevention, enforcement, and positive resolution to provide a safe, non-threatening environment in which to work and learn.

A Struggle To Bridge The Gap: Promoting African American Males In Teacher Education, Vance Vaughn

School Leadership Review

After serving 22 years in public education as a classroom teacher, assistant principal, principal, and superintendent, I am in awe over the small number of African American males as public school teachers. My classroom teacher experience was ephemeral as I was promoted to educational administration after five and one-half years. As the only African American male teacher in a high school with over 3,600 students, hundreds of whom were African American male, I was an anomaly in that environment. African American male role models were drastically needed and sought after mainly because campus data reported African American males ranked first …

Strengthening The Campus Leadership Team Through Effective Principal And Counselor Relationships: Implications For Training, Jane H. Macdonald, Stephen A. Armstrong, Robin K. Henson

School Leadership Review

Campuses with successful leadership teams have a better opportunity to meet the ever-increasing and complex needs of the students they serve (Crowther, Kaagan, Ferguson, & Hann, 2002). These successful campuses are strengthened when they include strong principals and counseling teams with shared mutual trust and understanding that permeates the school climate (DeVoss & Andrews, 2006). A review of the literature revealed a paucity of studies examining the nature of successful principal-counselor relations and the impact of this relationship on student success, effective campus leadership teams, and an effective school climate that promotes learning. Meaningful dialogue and discussion of this critical …

The Changing Face Of The Elementary School Principal, Julie P. Combs, Stacey L. Edmonson

School Leadership Review

Principals in today’s schools have more experience, have more education, and are of a more advanced age than ever before (National Association of Elementary School Principals [NAESP], 2006). Women elementary principals in the nation have increased from 41% to 56%. Likewise, the age of principals at all levels has increased, as did the percentage of principals who had more than 20 years of experience before entering the position (NAESP, 2006). In addition, the number of elementary principals has increased by 7,000 over the past 10 years (NAESP, 2004, 2005); this number grew to 61,000 in 2003-2004 from 54,000 in 1993-1994. …

None Of Us Are As Smart As All Of Us: Site Based Decision Making, Peggy B. Gill, Ross B. Sherman, Timothy B. Jones

School Leadership Review

The old Japanese Proverb states,” None of us are as smart as all of us.” In recent years, the educational system in the United States has been evolving from a largely centralized decision-making structure to a more decentralized one. This shift to school-based management requires fundamental changes to the organizational structure of the district as well as the roles within the organization. From administrators to parents, school based management demands a change in the "status quo" (Cotton, 1991). It involves shifting decision making from the central office administrators to that of local schools (Henkin, Cistone and Dee, 1999).

Teacher Perceptions Of The Instructional Leadership Practices Of Principals, Don Leech, James L. Pate, Nicole M. Gibson, Ronny Green, Robert Smith

School Leadership Review

In today’s world school leadership, particularly instructional leadership, has taken on a new look. The era of high- stakes accountability has changed almost everything. The instructional leader of the 80’s was presented as an efficient top-down, task oriented manager who was focused on curriculum and instruction rather than buildings and budgets (Lashway, 2002). Gone are the days when principals spent most of their time with bus schedules, fire drills, and general curriculum, says the National Association of Elementary Principals (Henry, 2001). Leaders must keep abreast of state and federal goals, the latest technologies and teaching practices, as well as learn …

Professional Learning Communities: Are Schools Ready To Collaborate To Educate?, Rachel Hawkins, Jason Mixon

School Leadership Review

Every school in Texas has a common goal: students must pass the state-mandated test called the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS). With pressure from the state and federal government to raise achievement scores, schools are frantically searching for a program that will guarantee student success. Unfortunately, no program will be found because it is people, not programs, who make a difference in education.

An Lnvestigation Of Princapals' Use Of Data In Data-Driven Decision-Making And The Impact On Student Achievement, Jimmy K. Byrd, Colleen Eddy

School Leadership Review

The passage and implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 2001) ushered in a new era of educational accountability and school improvement. Schools are held accountable to meet adequate yearly progress that requires educators to closely monitor student performance on high-stake assessments. Further, NCLB significantly increases the pressure on states, districts and schools to collect, analyze and report data. Accountability demands are increasingly forcing school leaders to explore student-level data and to complete more sophisticated analyses. Data-driven decision-making (DDDM) has become an emerging field of practice for school leadership (Streifer, 2002) and a central focus of education policy …

Preparing Aspiring Superintendents To Lead School Improvement: Perceptions Of Graduates For Program Development, Pauline M. Sampson, Betty J. Alford, Ralph L. Marshall

School Leadership Review

Changes in the design and delivery of educational leadership preparation programs are advocated in order to meet the needs of leadership for 21st century schools (Byrd, 2001; Cox, 2002; McKerrow, 1998; Smylie & Bennett, 2005). The changing needs of the 21st century, coupled with accountability standards and more diverse populations of students within school districts, create challenges for leaders who are attempting to increase student achievement (Firestone & Shipps, 2005; Schlechty, 2008). Further, student performance demands have increased at the state and national level because of the No Child Left Behind Act (Wong & Nicotera, 2007). These standards have thus …

Rural Principal Leadership Skill Proficiency And Student Achievement, Sue Erwin, Pam Winn, John Erwin, Jim Gentry, Mary Cauble

School Leadership Review

Warren and Peel (2005) found that rural schools can effectively develop focused leadership support and training. However, as indicated by Arnold, et al. (2004), the knowledge and skills most critical to effective rural administration have yet to be identified. Targeting specific leadership skills related to student achievement might focus university principal preparation programs and public school district staff development programs on producing more effective rural leadership. Ultimately, this emphasis may improve student achievement and school performance in rural schools.

Because of the importance of developing highly skilled rural school leaders, this study will endeavor to identify the leadership skills of …

Setting Sights On Campus Safety: The Possibility Of Firearms On Campus And Campus Violence Prevention, Casey Graham Brown

School Leadership Review

PK-12 school leaders spend a sizeable amount of time discussing, facilitating, and contemplating school safety and security. University administrators do as well, although their discussion and contemplation in some states has been scattered with controversies of allowing weapons on university campuses. School administrators seek to keep weapons out; many university administrators do also, although the legislatures of multiple states have allowed their presence on university campuses.

The Relationship Between Principal Leadership Behaviors And School Climate, Ivan Velasco, Stacey L. Edmonson

School Leadership Review

The No Child Left Behind Act (2001) revised the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 by making substantial modifications in the major federal programs that support schools‘ efforts to educate all children (U.S. Department of Education, Office of the Deputy Secretary, 2004). Since the inception of this law, demand for greater accountability for student achievement from politicians and legislators has increased exponentially (Carnoy, Elmore, & Siskin, 2003). Strict accountability measures, developed and implemented with limited if any consent or involvement of educators, were imposed on students, teachers, schools, and school districts (Waite, Boone, & NcGgee, 2001). The increased emphasis …

Connecting Response To Intervention And Grade Retention: Implications For School Leaders, Bret G. Range, Dorothy Jean Yocom

School Leadership Review

Within all classrooms of public schools, teachers greet general education students acknowledging broad differences in their learning readiness and social skills (Fuchs, Fuchs, & Compton, 2010; Martin, 2010). The needs of some students may be so diverse that educators find implementing differentiated instructional strategies with integrity extremely difficult. Many individually research-based strategies have been implemented to provide helpful instruction to all learners. This paper presents the concept of a merger between two of these strategies: Response to Intervention (RTI) and grade retention. As a result, the conceptual framework for this manuscript is anchored within the RTI and grade retention literatures, …

Leadership For The Long-Haul: The Impact Of Administrator Longevity On Student Achievement, W. Sean Kearney, Albert Valadez, Larry Garcia

School Leadership Review

The average turnover of the principal position at public schools in the state of Texas is 3 ½ years (Fuller, Young, & Shoho, 2010). This fact raises a number of important questions. Perhaps the most important of which is also the simplest – So what? Does principal turnover matter? What is the impact of high principal turnover? Does this leadership shuffle lead to lower test scores? This study was conducted in order to find out.

Dennis Littky, The Educational Activist: Can His Model Revamp The Public Educational System?, Dana Mitchell Barnes

School Leadership Review

When an individual observes a classroom of today, he will see many elements that are recognizable to anyone who attended school during the last one hundred years, students working from textbooks, repetitive worksheets, and rows of desks holding students completing tasks directed by the teacher. Even though societal and technological advancements are increasing rapidly, our school system has stayed stagnant. What this means for students is the lack of individuality, teachers’ non acceptance of personal interests, lack of personal voice, and in many cases, a non relationship between teacher and student beyond the classroom assignment (Castleman & Littky, 2007).

Framework For Understanding The Legal Structure Of Texas Public Schools, Gary Bigham

School Leadership Review

Texas public school stakeholders consist primarily of students, parents, faculty and staff, administrators, school board members, business leaders, community members, and taxpayers. While each of these stakeholders has a vested interest in the local school district, many fail to understand how public schools came into existence and the legal rationale upon which they operate. The problem lies in the structural complexity of schools, which is prohibitive to a complete understanding by its entire constituency. While the multiple layers of politics and numerous laws and policies that define the Texas public school structure may be necessary for proper operation, the intricacy …

A Messenger For Change, Mary Ann Whiteker

School Leadership Review

It is now time for all educators to embrace the power of a social epidemic. Schools across Texas are embracing a “New Vision for Texas Public Schools”. This vision embraces schools where all students are engaged in relevant, rigorous, meaningful activities and where classrooms reflect innovation, creativity, problem-solving, collaboration, communication and critical thinking. In this new vision, daily standardized test preparation and boring fact-memorization skills are replaced with digital learning, curriculum standards relevant to real-world challenges, multiple assessments for student performance, and accountability that’s based on a combination of measures, not just one state mandated test. It is about creating …

Partnering With Districts In Principal Preparation: Key Program Features In Strengthening Aspiring Principals’ Understanding Of Issues Of Equity And Excellence, Betty Alford, Stacy Hendricks

School Leadership Review

The need for increased numbers of students of all ethnic groups to access and succeed in postsecondary education is a 21st century reality (Swail, Cabrera, & Lee, 2004). As Swail, Cabreraet al. (2004) reported, The act of going to college and earning a degree is more important than ever to today’s youth and our society. . . . Unfortunately, access to a postsecondary education is not equal in America. Students historically underrepresented at the postsecondary level – students of color, those from low-income backgrounds, and first-generation students- are still less likely to prepare for, apply for, enroll in, and persist …