Educational Leadership Commons^™

Exemplary Human Resources Administrators Leading Through Storytelling, Colleen Slattery

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand and describe how exemplary human resources administrators use storytelling to lead organizations using Denning’s (2011) model. In addition, it was the purpose to understand how they use storytelling to create transformational change. Denning’s The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling highlights eight storytelling narrative patterns: to ignite action and implement new ideas, build trust, build your organizations’ brand, transmit organizational values, foster collaboration, share knowledge, neutralize rumor, and create and share vision.

Methodology: This phenomenological qualitative study described the lived experiences of exemplary human resources administrators in Northern California. The researcher was …

Strategies Exemplary High School District Superintendents Use To Work With The Political Styles Of School Board Members, Jeffrey Tooker

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed methods study was to understand the political styles of high school district superintendents and school board members as perceived by superintendents. In addition, it was the purpose of this study to identify the political strategies high school district superintendents use to work with the different political styles of board members. Methodology: Through an explanatory sequential mixed-methods study design, an electronic survey was utilized to collect quantitative data. Following quantitative data collection, in-depth qualitative data was collected through one-on-one interviews with exemplary high school district superintendents in California. The results of the quantitative survey data …

Strategies Exemplary Unified School District Superintendents Use To Work With The Political Styles Of School Board Members, Bradley Tooker

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed-methods study was to identify the political styles of superintendents and school board members as perceived by unified school district superintendents. In addition, it was the purpose to identify and explain the political strategies unified school district superintendents use to work with the different political styles of school board members.

Methodology: This sequential explanatory mixed-methods study analyzed quantitative surveys to identify the political styles of superintendents and school board members and qualitative interviews to identify political strategies using a political styles framework.

Findings: The major strategies exemplary unified district superintendents used to work …

Selected Performance Indicators Of University-Model Schools, David Herndon

Dissertations

University-Model® schools seek to blend attributes of homeschooling with traditional schooling by transferring a significant portion of classroom time to a satellite classroom, typically the student’s home. Proponents suggest the model lends itself to better prepared and well-balanced graduates due to the forced ownership required of students in terms of time management, the development of independent study habits, increased balance of family life, and subsequent parental guidance; however, very little research exists to validate these claims. These tenants of the model are in line with recent research and theories suggesting a more holistic approach, beyond academic metrics, to ensure college …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of Reading Wonders: Is It Really A Wonder? A Program Evaluation, Myra A. Richardson

Dissertations

Reading programs are essential tools for leaders to use while building literacy. The transfer from instructional delivery to student knowledge should be easily recognizable in the end-of-year assessment data. As the principal analyzing the end-of-year data, I discovered a problem when I struggled to see this transfer in my data. The purpose of this program evaluation was to determine whether teachers perceived Reading Wonders to be an effective reading program for the school district as well as whether the assessment data aligned with teachers’ perceptions. A survey was used to collect responses from the participants and an Excel spreadsheet was …

Teacher Evaluation Practices And Policy Implications: Effective Strategies For Changing Instruction, Scott Grens

Dissertations

This study is a program evaluation of the effectiveness of teacher evaluation practices in a small suburban elementary school district in Illinois from 2017-2019. The primary research question explored in this program evaluation is whether and to what extent the teacher evaluation process is changing teacher practices in Washington School District 25. Employing a qualitative research methodology, with data gathered from teacher interviews, school administrator interviews, and document analysis, this study identified several key components to the improvement of instructional practices for teachers. Policy implications and recommendations highlight the importance of the following: a common instructional framework, staff involvement in …

Change In Attribution Perspective, Shame, And Academic Identity For Freshmen On Probation Enrolled In University Academic Recovery Courses: A Mixed Methods Study, Christine L. Robinson

Dissertations

Student retention is critical to the success of the student, the college or university, and society in general. Consequently, institutions of higher education continue to focus efforts on student retention strategies and one such strategy utilizes academic recovery courses to support probationary freshmen. Previous research studies of these courses largely focus on academic outcomes without examining the “why” or “how” behind such outcomes. Some studies also discuss constructs including attribution perspective, shame, and academic identity. However, the relationship between these constructs has not been researched, particularly with regard to any change that may occur for probationary freshmen engaged with an …

The Impact Of Goal Orientation And Learning Organization On Mobbing Of Academic Advisors In The U.S., Bette A. Ludwig

Dissertations

Mobbing emerged in research decades ago as a way to understand aggressive behavior in the animal kingdom (Lorenz, 1966). This same concept has been adapted for higher education to explain acts of incivility and negative behaviors employees experience within their institutions (Duffy & Sperry, 2007, 2012; Harper, 2016; Yelgecen & Kokalan, 2009). The theory of mobbing encompasses both the organization and the aggressor.

This quantitative study, operationalized using measurable behaviors from the Work Domain Goal Orientation Questionnaire (Vandewalle, 1997), the Dimension of Learning Organization Questionnaire (Watkins and Marsick, 1993), and the Negative Acts Questionnaire (Einarsen, 1997), researches mastery orientation, performance …

The Impact Of Character Education Programs On Middle School Bullying Behavior, Kelly M. Amshey

Dissertations

Bullying is recognized as a barrier that must be addressed by schools to ensure that all students have access to educational opportunities. Due to high accountability with limited resources, schools must identify strategies to address issues such as bullying in a manner that provides the maximum benefit to students. Character education (CE) programs, which contribute to the bullying deterrent of positive school climate, may also lessen bullying through explicit teaching of character traits and prosocial skills.

The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a relationship between utilization of character education and prevalence of bullying in middle …

The Role Of Mental Models In Sensemaking During The Data-Driven Decision-Making Process And Their Impact On Instructional Practice, Ann M. Bingham

Dissertations

Data-driven decision making (DDDM) is a practice that has been shown to improve student achievement. However, the success of this process relies on the mental models applied during sensemaking. The purpose of this multiple case study was to describe and interpret how elementary mathematics teachers made sense of data from the Delta Math readiness screener. Additionally, this study captured the types of changes that teachers made as a result of analyzing this particular data source.

This study employed qualitative methods to determine the mental models that teachers applied during DDDM. These methods also provided participants an opportunity to describe how …

Principal Leadership And The Development Of Teacher Professionalism And Autonomy Within A Collaborative School Culture, Sukinah Ali Al Ramel

Dissertations

This instrumental multiple case study examines the actual activities and behaviors of elementary school principals who are known for building a collaborative school culture. The principals in these case studies were nominated by key informants as leaders who empower and mobilize teachers to grow professionally and interdependently in ways that enhance self-direction and motivation through reflecting on their own practices, practicing authentic self-assessment, and setting goals based on evidence of student achievement. Each Southwest Michigan principal was recruited from a diverse sample that met the study criteria. The study design included data from multiple in-depth interviews and documents shared by …

Female Senior Student Affairs Officers’ Experiences In Decision Making Across Their Careers, Somaia Hamza Mustafa

Dissertations

This study explores the experiences of female Senior Student Affairs Officers (SSAOs) in decision-making across their careers in colleges and universities. This study focuses on female SSAOs who work in public and private institutions in the Midwest region of the United States. The experiences and perspectives of female SSAOs focused on the changes in decision-making styles while making small or large-scale decisions over time, the skillsets utilized, the challenges that they faced and the strategies that they employed. This study also explores female SSAOs’ experiences and perspectives regarding decision making when handling crises on campus.

The research design for this …

Closing The Opportunity Gap For Low-Income Urban Minority Students In Turnaround Schools, Cleophas Rodgers

Dissertations

As we prepare to address and stem many of the systemic racist policies that plague our low-income minority students, we have to remain diligent and innovative in our attempt to provide our low-income minority students, as early as pre-kindergarten, access to opportunities that will ultimately prepare them for post-secondary success. This study focuses on how accountability policies and expectations for turnaround schools have had a long-term impact on the type of opportunities students who attend these schools will ultimately have. This study also proposes two policies that work to not only increase opportunities for low-income urban minority students who attend …

Perceptions And Experiences Of Online Learning And Synchronous Communication, Michelle Fry

Dissertations

Abstract

High-quality and effective online education is essential to the continuous growth of higher education. As online higher education grows in professional programs, it is especially pertinent to investigate learning designs for their effectiveness in supporting the acquisition of professional skills. Drawing upon the Community of Inquiry (CoI) and the Practice-Based Teaching (PBT) frameworks, this research investigated the effectiveness of one online graduate program designed for practicing teachers to learn new skills (i.e., diagnostic assessment and differentiated instruction) in teaching reading to elementary students. The learning design introduced a new component of virtual presence (i.e., synchronous communication) at strategic points …

Impact Of Leader In Me On Social-Emotional Learning Of Elementary Students, David Danielski

Dissertations

Social-emotional learning and college and career readiness skills are increasingly important in preparing our students for a successful future. The Leader in Me, based on Steven Covey’s seven habits, offers a process intended to increase the leadership skills of students through the explicit teaching of each of the habits. By studying the practices and outcomes of The Leader in Me process from schools with high degrees of implementation, this study evaluates the impact on social-emotional learning of elementary students. The findings inform programmatic decisions for social-emotional learning implementation and advocate for policy that emphasizes teacher preparedness and accountability measures for …

Students As The Golden Resource: Incorporating Student Voice Into Overall School Culture, Dominick M. Lupo

Dissertations

This study is a program evaluation of AGA Middle School’s current school culture as it relates to being either a student-centered culture or an adult-centered culture. Following the analysis of the program evaluation, this study also set out to gather the voices of the students of AGA Middle School in order to determine the positive relationship building strategies and characteristics that teachers whom have positive relationships with students have in common. Employing a mixed methodology of survey data along with individual student interviews from each grade level (six through eight), this study found that the current school culture committee, the …

Social Media In Baptist Churches, Robin Rogers

Dissertations

The integration of social media into Chicago Baptist Churches congregants recently increased over the last few years. This research study allowed church leaders to determine if social media was an effective media outlet in Baptist churches on the Southside of Chicago. The evaluation research approach was to assess the effectiveness of social media, in particular Facebook and Instagram. Within this conceptual framework, the researcher was able to produced flexible, fixed, and multi-design strategies to abstract a full spectrum of evaluation. The subsequent methodology focused on the dual use of social media and themes that coincide, specifically, marketing, politics, communication awareness, …

Personalizing Professional Learning For Teachers: Pursuing Equity Through Systematic Personalization, Megan M. Mccarter

Dissertations

Our school system has not changed much in the last 100 years, yet our society and the job market are drastically different. In general, we are not preparing young people for life after high school in a meaningful way; the reality for minority and low-income students is even more depressing. We need to change how education works for students, we need to personalize for their individual needs, push them to collaborate, to innovate, and to own their own learning. This can only happen if we change how we develop, support, and retain teachers. This study examines models of and reflections …

Can Free College Programs Level The Playing Field? An Exploratory Study Of Understanding Non-Economic Persistence Barriers For Low-Income Students, Alan Byrd

Dissertations

The rising cost of higher education has created substantial access and persistence barriers for low-income students. Consequently, gaps in educational attainment between low-income students and their middle- and high-income peers have continued to widen over the last few decades. Colleges and universities have taken notice of these growing disparities, and several institutions have responded by developing need-based financial aid programs to close unmet need gaps for Pell Grant recipients. These last-dollar financial aid programs have opened doors for more low-income students to attend selective institutions, but it is unclear how these programs will influence their persistence and completion rates. The …

Leading For Excellence: Leadership Behaviors That Cultivate A High-Achieving School Environment, Kristen Belknap

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this explanatory mixed-methods study was to determine the degree of importance for the 12-step principles proposed by Harvey et al. (2014) to create a K–12 school environment that fosters high student achievement as perceived by public school elementary principals. A secondary purpose was to explore and describe the leadership strategies for implementing the 12-step principles proposed by Harvey et al. to create a K–12 school environment that fosters high student achievement as perceived by public school elementary principals.

Methodology: An explanatory mixed-methods study was completed to examine the degree of importance each of the 12 leadership …

Culturally Responsive Classroom Management Techniques And Former Riverside County And San Bernardino County Teachers Of The Year: A Phenomenological Study, Brian Redmond

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to determine what former County Teachers of the Year understand and describe as the methods they use for culturally responsive classroom management with respect to Brown’s Five Culturally Responsive Factors (developing personal relationships, creating caring learning communities, establishing a business-like learning environment, establishing congruent communication processes and, teaching with assertiveness and clearly stating expectations).

Methodology: This qualitative study used a phenomenological design to discover what former County Teachers of the Year do to identify and describe as the methods they use for culturally responsive classroom management with respect to Brown’s Five Culturally …

California Expert Principals’ Identification Of The Best Strategies For The Implementation Of A Transition From A Traditional Grading And Reporting System To A Standards-Based Grading And Reporting System: A Delphi Study, Sean Redmond

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this policy Delphi study was to identify the strategies California K-12 expert principals deem necessary for the implementation of a transition from a traditional grading and reporting system to a standards-based grading and reporting system, utilizing a panel of expert principals to rate the importance of the identified strategies and to recommend the best methods of implementing the five most important strategies.

Methodology: The Delphi method was utilized in this study. An expert panel of California K-12 principals was assembled, and three rounds of electronic surveys were administered. The first-round results identified strategies for implementing a …

A Black African Teacher’S Experiences In America: Examining The Lived Experiences Of A Black African Teacher Working In A Midwestern Public School, Valentine Malumbila

Dissertations

Using sociocultural theoretical approach, intersectionality of race, Critical Race Theory, and Bakhtin’s authoritative and persuasive discourse as a theoretical framework, this study explores the various diversities that I encountered as a Black African working and living in America. The diversity that I, like many other Black African immigrants in America, suffer results from culture shock due to lack of culture capital to comprehend and make sense of my surroundings. The lack of culture capital left me exposed to me some degrees of ethnic profiling, isolation and loneliness, and grieving due to loss of family and things that mattered the most …

Interdisciplinary Collaboration In Exemplary Counseling-Enriched High School Programs: Integrating College & Career Readiness And Mental Health Wellness For Students With Emotional Disturbance, Amira S. Mostafa

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed methods multiple-case study was to describe how interdisciplinary collaborative teams support the college and career readiness and the mental health wellness of adolescents with emotional disturbance. A secondary purpose was to explore how team members describe and rate the importance of their interdisciplinary collaboration using the four essential elements (reflection, flexibility, newly created roles, and interdependence) based on the model established by Mellin (Mellin et al., 2010). Lastly, this study sought recommendations from team members on improved practices supporting adolescents with emotional disturbance.

Methodology: An explanatory sequential mixed methods multiple-case study design explored the …

Superintendent Recruitment: Effects Of Superintendent Job Status, School Councils (Principal Selection Models), District Wealth, And Signing Bonus On Applicant Rating Of The Job, Mark Jeffery Martin

Dissertations

This nearly perfect replicated study (Millay, 2003) was a superintendent recruitment simulation with the purpose of investigating factors that influence recruiting qualified individuals to serve as district superintendents of public schools. The study was a factorial experiment involving a four-way 2 x 2 x 2 x (3 x S) fixed-factor betweenwithin analysis of variance (ANOVA) which yielded 24 cells. The participants in the study were Kentucky Superintendents (N = 72) and individuals in Kentucky certified to be a school superintendent (N = 72) but employed in another position.

The between-groups variables were superintendent job status (superintendent, certified), district wealth (high, …

Barriers To Student Connectedness And Engagement: How Socioeconomic Status Affects Student Involvement, Dominic M. Manola

Dissertations

Today, as students prepare for post-secondary opportunities, a greater and greater emphasis is placed on the importance of engaging learners both in and out of the classroom. While many students are inclined to get involved, there is a growing number of young people who face barriers that prevent them from connecting and engaging in the high school experience. Importantly, socioeconomic status plays a key role in determining how engaged a student may be, as well as serving as a key identifier in what must be addressed to ensure more young people get involved in their academic and co-curricular learning. This …

Minority Students In Stem Careers In The U.S. – The Role Of Ap Calculus, Kendall Coleman

Dissertations

“The number of native-born S&E [science and engineering] graduates entering the workforce is likely to decline unless the nation intervenes to improve success in educating S&E students from all demographic groups, especially those that have been underrepresented in S&E careers” (National Science Board [NSB], 2003, p. 13). More than a decade ago, the National Science Board (NSB) sounded an alarm regarding the projected decline in native-born science and engineering graduates with the aim of driving strategic fundamental changes. There is limited evidence that the NSB’s prognostication is actively being addressed. Approximately 81% percent of all full-time graduate students in U.S. …

The Training Of Elementary Assistant Principals, Nailya Jarocki

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this Delphi study was to identify the most important professional development topics and practices for preparing teachers to become elementary assistant principals, as perceived by panel of experts. An additional purpose was to identify strategies for implementing the most important practices for the preparation of teachers to become elementary assistant principals.

Methodology: A classical Delphi method was utilized to collect perceptual data from a panel of California elementary school principals and administrators at county, district offices of education, and at the university level in California that met specific criteria regarding their education, years of experience, completion …

Exemplary Leadership: A Mixed-Methods Case Study Discovering How Special Education Administrators Create Meaning, Julia Vandervennet

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed-methods case study was to identify and describe the

behaviors that exemplary Special Education administrators use to create personal and organizational meaning for themselves and their followers through character, vision, relationships, wisdom, and inspiration. In addition, it is the purpose of this study to determine the degree of importance to which special education teachers perceive the behaviors related to character, vision, relationships, wisdom, and inspiration help to create personal and organizational meaning.

Methodology: The current mixed-methods study obtained in depth qualitative data through interviews from 3 exemplary special education administrators. Following the qualitative interview …

The Impact Of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Read 180 Next Generation Program On Middle School Students With Disabilities, Katherine Arnold

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if reading performance of students with disabilities in grades six through eight improved as a result of one year implementation of READ 180 Next Generation program. Teacher experience, student gender and teachers’ overall satisfaction and how the READ 180 Next Generation program may influence the academic reading performance of students with disabilities. Reading performance was measured by the Georgia Milestones assessment and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Reading Inventory.

Research findings show no significant differences in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade participants after one year of implementation of READ 180 Next Generation program. A …