Education Commons^™

Ending The Status Quo: Kentucky Parents Increasingly Choose Nonpublic Education Options, Gary Houchens

Educational Administration, Leadership, and Research Faculty Publications

This research report documents enrollment trends for Kentucky students in nonpublic education (homeschooling and private schools) during the years 2017-2022. Using data from the Kentucky Department of Education, the analysis finds that nonpublic education participation has grown by more than 20,000 students during this time period to almost 100,000 students. This trend indicates a clear demand for more education options and policy makers should respond accordingly.

Operationalizing And Measuring Personalized Learning In K–12 Schools: The Development And Implementation Of An Innovation Configuration Map, Gary Houchens, Trudy Crossbourne, Jenni Redifer, Antony Norman, Jie Zhang

Educational Administration, Leadership, and Research Faculty Publications

In 2012, theIn 2012, the United States Department of Education announced the Race to the Top-District grants. One joint award was made to two large educational cooperatives in the same state that together represented 111 mostly rural schools in 22 districts. One of the grant’s identified four essential projects was the implementation of personalized learning. This article describes how the grant’s external evaluation team worked with grantee leadership and school districts to operationalize personalized learning and then develop and implement Innovation Configuration Maps to measure school-level personalized learning environments. Developmental steps, adoption processes, and preliminary school-level results are reported. United …

Reasons For The Theory-Practice Gap In Education Administration, Gary Houchens, Ysuf Badavan, Nuray Kisa

Educational Administration, Leadership, and Research Faculty Publications

The theory-practice gap can be defined as "a failure to apply or to relate the concepts, ideas and theories to professional conditions". The aim of this research was to explore the reasons for the theory-practice gap in the field of educational administration. Participants included 380 school administrators working in primary, secondary and high schools and 57 researchers working in different higher education institutions in Ankara. The views are collected through the questionnaire with two different forms, namely Reasons of Theory-Practice Gap in the Field of Educational Administration developed by the researchers. Data were interpreted by percentages, frequency distributions and chi-square …

Enhancing Instructional Leadership Through Collaborative Coaching: A Multi-Case Study, Gary Houchens, Thomas A. Stewart, Sara Elizabeth Jennings

Educational Administration, Leadership, and Research Faculty Publications

Purpose – Executive coaching has become increasingly important for enhancing organizational leaders’ professional effectiveness. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a growing body of research literature that examines how coaching techniques help school principals improve their instructional leadership.

Design/methodology/approach – Using a protocol based on a theories of practice framework (Argyris and Schön, 1974) to support principals in deepening their self-reflection, this study added the element of a guided peer-coaching component in a group setting.

Findings – Results confirmed the effectiveness of the coaching protocol for assisting principals in deepening their self-awareness and critical reflection regarding their …