Education Commons^™

The Sound Of Silence: The Educator’S Perspective On Silence During Staff Meetings, Anne Zito Edd, Karen H. Larwin Phd

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

Staff meetings are a regular occurrence in schools, yet both teachers and principals typically report dissatisfaction with these meetings. The current investigation seeks to understand the viewpoints of public-school teachers on silence during staff meetings. This was the first known investigation on the topic using Q methodology. Data analysis extracted three distinct viewpoints: Get the Party Started, I Don’t Care Anymore, and Don’t Stop Believin’. This study provides the results of data analysis, responds to research questions, and makes recommendations for meeting design and facilitation. The findings indicate how the principal facilitates the meeting seems to have …

Exploring School Leaders' Perceptions Of Gifted Education Educator And Gifted Program Evaluation, Rachel Louise Geesa, Krista M. Stith

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

In an effort to better support the needs of PK-12 students identified as gifted or high-ability, school leaders need to be familiar and comfortable with supporting gifted education educators and developing and evaluating gifted education programs. Gifted education educators should have defined roles and responsibilities, and school leaders need to be prepared to effectively evaluate gifted education educators. In this mixed-methods study, we explored pre-service and in-service school leaders’ perceptions of evaluation of gifted education programs or gifted education educators through responses from one anonymous survey with 36 respondents and one optional, confidential interview with seven participants. The findings from …

Exploring Superintendents’ Understandings On Virtual Learning Responses, Kate Maxlow, Karen Sanzo

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

In this study, the authors sought to explore superintendents’ understandings of the various influences on how their districts implemented a 100% virtual learning experience for students for the 2020-2021 academic year. Understanding these influences allowed the authors to develop a framework for leading redesigns of learning systems in long-term crisis situations. In this qualitative study we conducted semi-structured interviews with fifteen superintendents in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Findings showed that districts sought to plan equitable virtual learning experiences for all students based on unintentional influences and the district’s intentional responses. We found that during an educational crisis, learning plans emerged …

An Exploration Of The Relationship Between Leaders’ Cultural Competence And Academic Outcomes In Texas Public Schools, Summer Pannell, Brian Uriegas, Juliann Sergi Mcbrayer

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

This study explored the cultural knowledge (CK) and cultural skills (CS) levels of Texas school leaders to determine if there was a relationship between cultural knowledge and cultural skill as well as between principals’ CK and CS levels and school academic outcomes. In comparing within-group scores, the results indicated CK scores were higher than CS scores in all participant groups. Between-group analysis revealed participants in non-Title I schools scored higher in CK, but Title I school leaders scored higher in CS. Results further indicated school leaders who identified as a member of a marginalized group scored higher in CS but …

A Survey Of Lessons Learnt From Covid-19 By School Administration Interns, Precious Guramatunhu Mudiwa, William M. Gummerson, Barbara B. Howard

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges that threatened the quality and rigor of school administration internships. A survey administered to school interns in a principal preparation program at a large comprehensive university in the southeastern part of the United States revealed a huge difference in experiences and support that students received, based upon differences in existing school infrastructure and their supervising principal. The pandemic necessitated the principal preparation program adapt some internship requirements. The number of hours required to complete the internship was reduced. The building of authentic relationships with students became a greater priority. Finally, more flexibility was allowed …

Differentiating Leadership Styles And Behaviors Of Teacher-Leaders, Joshua Desantis, Stacey N. Dammann, Anastasia Clayton

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

The rapidly changing landscape of education necessitates that schools build the capacity to swiftly pivot to new modalities, curriculum, and operations models. Much of the onus for positively responding to these changes falls to teacher-leaders. In many schools, teacher leaders are untrained and designated by virtue of their seniority. The authors posit that differences exist in the leadership styles and behaviors of professional educators depending on their role, status, and professional learning journey. Findings from the present study affirm the existence of some of these differences and, thus, could inform future efforts to designate and train teachers for leadership roles …

Transformational Leadership And Organizational Citizenship Behavior Motives In Teachers, Jeremy Davis, Juliann Sergi Mcbrayer, Suzanne B. Miller, Katherine Fallon

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

A principal’s leadership is a key part to the success of a school as their leadership guides both instructional and organizational outcomes. Teachers often work beyond their formal duties to see that all their students have their needs met. This is referred to as an Organizational Citizenship Behavior (i.e., when followers display behaviors that benefit the organization or its members beyond their current job requirements). This study investigated the relationship between principal’s transformational leadership and teachers’ Organizational Citizenship Behaviors and related motivating factors. Participants from a suburban school district completed a questionnaire based on their perceptions of their principal’s leadership …

The Role Of Context On Leadership Transition: Building To District-Level Leadership, Samuel Fancera

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

The purpose of this inquiry was to understand how a building-level leader utilized context-responsive leadership practices to facilitate the transition from a building to district-level school leadership position. I used qualitative research methods to study the context-responsive leadership of a first-year assistant superintendent who transitioned from the principalship in the same school district. This study’s main finding indicates the leadership experiences attained as a school principal are valuable preparation to understand the external and internal school contextual factors, and to conduct the duties and tasks associated with this district-level leadership position. The paper concludes with a discussion of the results …

Will They Be Welcomed In? The Impact Of K-12 Teachers’ And Principals’ Perceptions Of Inclusion Of Students With Disabilities, Emily Smith Edd, Karen H. Larwin Phd

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions K-12 principals and teachers have of inclusive education in a school district in western Pennsylvania school district. The dependent variables are the teachers’ and principals’ perceptions of inclusion and the independent variables are years of educational experience, extent of special education background, and level of support by district administrators. Instrumentation for this study is the Multidimensional Attitudes toward Inclusive Education Scale (MATIES) survey. Data were analyzed for correlational relationships using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Findings suggest an average to high level of support by administration in …

A Correlational Study Of School Report Card Grades And Degrees Of Poverty, Morgan V. Blanton

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

This study explores the ways in which public schools are evaluated and the results are reported in North Carolina. Currently using a formula that calculates a summative score based on academic achievement and academic growth, the impact of poverty and the complexity of school evaluation is investigated using demographic and testing data from schools across the state. Furthermore, recommendations to alter current practices of school evaluation and reporting as well as suggestions for future research are discussed based on this study’s findings.

Elementary Principals’ Knowledge Of And Expectations For Specialized Literacy Professionals, Abbie Mahaffey, Zora Wolfe, Katia Ciampa

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

Specialized literacy professionals, guided by the International Literacy Association’s (ILA) Standards for the Preparation of Literacy Professionals 2017, fulfill many roles within the elementary school setting to support the literacy development of students. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to investigate elementary principals’ knowledge of and expectations for the specialized literacy professionals’ roles and responsibilities compared to the ILA Standards. This study included 36 elementary (K-5) principals. Data was collected using an online survey adapted from a survey developed by Bean, et al. (2015) and voluntary follow-up interviews to further explore responses. Findings revealed that elementary principals consider the …

Supporting Professional Development Through Digital Principal Leadership, William Sterrett, Jayson W. Richardson

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

A core role of the K-12 school leader is to support and nurther the growth of others. That growth is commonly thought to be at the student level. However, school leaders must also focus on the growth of their teachers. School leaders are adjusting to a world where technology has crept into many aspects of the profession. And sometimes, technology innovation comes during a time of sudden disruption, such as the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020 where digital learning and leadership become the new norm, even when uncertainty and change were omnipresent. As such, while it is clear that principals …

The Partnership Imperative For Preparing Effective Principals In North Carolina Schools, Martinette Horner, Derrick D. Jordan

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

The extant literature highlights the impact principals have on daily operations, visioning, school climate, academic programming, instructional monitoring, and numerous other areas. The need for well-trained principals at the helm of schools, particularly those with large concentrations of at-risk students, has been identified as a critically important factor in improving academic outcomes. Underdeveloped leaders often struggle to improve schools and are unable to show adequate progress among the students they serve. They are also more prone to early burnout, increasing turnover rates. As such, the need to strengthen principal preparation programs has become even more evident in recent years. A …

Leading For Social Justice: A Call To Action To Improve Society., Teresa L. G. Warner

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

School leaders are required to prepare students for a globally competitive society, and act ethically to facilitate a shared vision of school practices that serve all students equitably. Social justice leadership provided in school and teacher leadership preparation programs is a way to meet the standards for school executives and teachers. The decision to lead for social justice can be made as a result of district mandates while some leaders are motivated by personal experiences. Leaders are distracted from the importance of leading for social justice due to the pressures of accountability testing and the political outcry of the day. …

Increasing Principal Candidates’ Self-Efficacy Through Virtual Coaching, Travis E. Lewis, Karen D. Jones

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

Skill development in instructional coaching and feedback is difficult to adequately simulate within a principal preparation program. As a result, many new administrators enter the field with little to no experience in instructional coaching and, therefore, feel tremendous uncertainty and low self-confidence. This study explored the effect a virtual coaching experience has on self-efficacy for principal preparation program students. Preservice teacher candidates were matched with principal candidates to provide virtual instructional coaching to the benefit of all involved. The findings of this study indicate that practice through virtual coaching is positively related to increased self-efficacy in principal candidates.

Supervisor--Supervisee Relationships: Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder?, Katrina Tamvakologos, Anthony Cavanna, Edwin Selby, John Houtz

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

As part of a larger study, it was possible to compare teachers' perceptions of their supervisor-supervisee relationships between current and previous supervisors. Two samples of teachers completed the LMX-7 survey of leader-follower relationships. Reliability of the LMX-7 survey was high and no differences due to gender, age, or length of time teaching were observed. But, with both samples, previous supervisors were rated significantly more highly. Despite limitations to the study, one interesting explanation possible is that over time and for a variety of reasons, previous supervisors' negatives are forgotten while current supervisors' negatives are fresh, perhaps a case of "absence …

Maximizing Teacher Time: The Collaborative Leadership Role Of The Principal, William L. Sterrett, Michele A. Parker, Kris Mitzner

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

Using data from the 2014 North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions (NCTWC) biennial survey researchers identified a sample from over 2,500 principals. The researchers surveyed 68 principals; 24 principals participated in a 19-item survey containing 5 demographic questions, 7 Likert-scale questions, and 7 open-ended questions. The descriptive analyses revealed that the principals in the study had the highest agreement with time constructs related to “reasonable class size” and “protecting teachers from duties that interfere” and lowest levels of agreement with “efforts made to minimize routine paperwork.” The qualitative analyses shared further principal perspective regarding specific strategies with the seven time constructs. …

Building Administrator’S Facilitation Of Teacher Leadership: Moderators Associated With Teachers’ Reported Levels Of Empowerment, Kelly Moran Edd, Karen H. Larwin Phd

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

The current, mixed-methods investigation examines the role of building administrators in the perceived level of empowerment of classroom teachers. As such, this study was designed to contribute to the paucity of current research on teacher empowerment, thus informing school leaders on the importance of practice of empowering teachers and what variables can moderate attempts to empower educators. Level of perceived empowerment was measured using the School Participant Empowerment Scale (SPES), which evaluates six dimensions of teacher empowerment: decision-making, professional growth, status, self-efficacy, autonomy, and impact. Variables, such as gender and tenure of the building administrators and teacher, the presence of …

Trust Formation When Youth And Adults Partner To Lead School Reform: A Case Study Of Supportive Structures And Challenges, Catharine Biddle

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

This study examines the beliefs and practices that support and undermine trust formation in school leadership efforts that invite students into discussions of continuous improvement. Through a case study of a youth-adult partnership initiative, the study finds that trust between youth and adults was supported by having a shared, accessible language for discussing teaching and learning, opportunities for strengths-based dialogue around school practices, and regular opportunities to meet. However, there was also a perception gap between youth and adults around how well group members fulfilled their roles in the actual data collection process, causing conflict and undermining the long-term stability …

Counselors And Principals: Collaborating To Improve Instructional Equity, Carl A. Lashley, Jaimie Stickl

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

School districts are held accountable for the performance of all students. This increased responsibility has caused principals and their faculties to become increasingly concerned about using performance data to improve achievement, attendance, promotion and graduation rates, dropout rates and at-risk student performance, and other indicators of school quality. An often overlooked resource in the school’s efforts is the school counselor.

School counselors are well-prepared to assist principals with data utilization and making recommendations for individual student, classroom, and school-wide improvement. Collaborative relationships between principals and school counselors can contribute significantly to school improvement efforts and to professional learning and capacity …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Traditional And Alternative Principal Preparation Programs, Summer Pannell Ph.D., Bernnell M. Peltier-Glaze Ed.D., Ingrid Haynes Ph.D., Delilah Davis Ph.D., Carrie Skelton Ph.D.

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

This study sought to determine the effectiveness on increasing student achievement of principals trained in a traditional principal preparation program and those trained in an alternate route principal preparation program within the same Mississippi university. Sixty-six Mississippi principals and assistant principals participated in the study. Of the 66 participants, 41 competed a traditional principal preparation program, and 25 completed an alternate route principal preparation program at the same university. The data included the type of principal preparation the participant received, the number of consecutive years served as a principal or assistant principal, and student achievement data for their assigned schools. …