Education Commons^™

Feminism And School Leadership: A Qualitative Study Utilizing Effective Women Principals' Self-Perceptions To Determine What Makes Them Successful, Christina Maria Sylvester

Dissertations

Women are underrepresented in a variety of fields, including educational leadership. Upon assuming leadership roles, women often struggle to effectively lead due to a pervasive context of sexism and genderism in the workplace. Schools are not immune to this phenomenon. Since women comprise approximately 50% of the population, it seems logical that they should assume a comparable percentage of leadership roles in education, but this is not the case. Beyond parity, it is important that there are not only more women leaders in educational administration but also that those women in leadership roles are supported within a context that enables …

The Exemplary High School Principal: A Mixed Methods Study Of How Personal Motivation And Professional Core Values Influence The Practice, Priorities And Decisions Of Award-Winning School Leaders, Erin Luby

Dissertations

This study of award-winning high school principals was designed to distill lessons from highly effective school leaders. The research explored how personal motivation and professional core values influence the practice, priorities and decisions of exemplary principals. The research followed a sequential explanatory mixed methods design. Participants included school leaders across a 10-state region who won their State Principal of the Year award from 2007 to 2017. The first phase of data collection utilized a survey, and the second phase was comprised of semi-structured interviews.

Principals indicated they were motivated to become educators because of their desire to have a positive …

The Challenge Of Leading Change: How Sources Of Authority And Change Management Models Intersect To Promote School Improvement, Samantha Joyce Lam

Dissertations

A gap in research exists that demonstrates how principals use their authority to make decisions and how that intersects with change management models. The purpose of the study is to examine how one elementary school principal has led change and how teachers perceive the effectiveness of the change. The study seeks to explore principal's and teachers' perceptions of the impact of the change on the school.

Through a bounded, qualitative case study design, the researcher used several techniques to gather data: teacher survey, principal interview, teacher interview, and document analysis. Multiple sources of data were used to adequately shed light …

Mentoring Pre- And In-Service School Leaders Through A Combined Principal Mentoring Model: A Case Study Of The University Of Illinois At Chicago, Alicia Haller

Dissertations

Scholars have demonstrated that school leadership is second only to instruction in terms of school-level impact on student learning. Additionally, researchers and policy makers have argued that in order to ensure aspiring and novice principals develop the leadership and instructional competencies necessary to improve schools, they need to be provided with authentic learning experiences and supported by knowledgeable mentors. This case study explored a unique combined principal mentoring model, developed by the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) that spans from the pre-service phase into the early in-service phase. In order to provide a rich description of the model, the …

Instructional Leadership And Deliberate Practice: A Framework For Improving Student Achievement, Matthew Henry Banach

Dissertations

This study examined whether the theory of deliberate practice could be applied and expanded to the field of education to explain how school leaders successfully work with teachers to improve student achievement in schools with a high percentage of student identified as minority and low income. For the purpose of this study, deliberate practice is defined as practice that is "(a) at an appropriate level, (b) provides informative feedback, (c) provides for opportunities for repetition, and (d) allows for correction of errors" (Sternberg, Grigorenko, & Ferrari, 2002, p. 71).

The researcher completed a qualitative case study of two public elementary …

Looked After Or Left Behind: The Effectiveness Of Principal Preparation Programs As Perceived By Generation Y Principals, Chandra D. Sledge

Dissertations

Chandra D. Sledge

Loyola University Chicago

LOOKED AFTER OR LEFT BEHIND: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PRINCIPAL PREPARATION PROGRAMS AS PERCEIVED BY GENERATION Y PRINCIPALS

This research study intended to discover the perceptions of 10 Illinois Generation Y novice high school principals pertaining to the effectiveness of their principal preparation programs in terms of how well it prepared them to lead in the first three years of their principalship, and what subsequent professional development they deemed necessary for success in the first three years of their principalship.

Through a qualitative multi-case study, in which the researcher conducted open-ended interviews, which were triangulated …

The Roles And Responsibilities Of The Principal As Perceived By Illinois K-8 Principals Who Belong To Generation X, Keith Westman

Dissertations

The roles and responsibilities of the school principal have changed throughout the years, and, with that, the face of the principalship has changed, too. The average age of principals in the United States is 57 with a significant portion of those individuals retiring within the next ten years (United States Department of Labor, 2008). As these principals retire, the qualities and characteristics of the next generation of principals must be identified. However, it may not be as easy to fill these vacancies as it once was. Within the context of the research that has been done on Generation X, the …

Principal Evaluation And Student Achievement: A Study Of Public Elementary Schools In Dupage, Will, And Lake Counties, Illinois, Edward John Condon

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the topic of the evaluation of school principals and the role it plays in fostering student achievement. The overarching research question for this study was the following: "Is there a relationship between the type and intensity of principal evaluation and pupil performance in DuPage, Will, and Lake County, Illinois public schools at the K-8 level?"

While there are a number of purposes for principal evaluation, the tools and methods used to evaluate principals vary tremendously by both state and school district. This study addressed the degree to which principal evaluation affects students' …