This study investigated the role of enabling school structures (ESS), collegial trust (CT), academic emphasis (AE), and collective efficacy (CE) in the development of professional learning communities (PLCs) in 67 schools in large southeastern school district. ESS represented the formal aspects of the school while the informal were characterized by CT, AE, and CE based upon the perceptions of teachers. As hypothesized, all of the variables shared a significant correlation with each other and collectively explained approximately 79% of the variance in PLCs development. Only ESS had a significant effect on PLCs development, which partially supported the second hypothesis.
The Doctor of Education (EdD) in Educational Leadership at East Carolina University incorporated advising into the admissions process through the first two semesters of the program. This study examined how, through the first year of implementation of this process, student knowledge of the role of the scholarly practitioner evolved from pre-admission advising through the second semester of this CPED-influenced EdD program. CPED is the Carnegie Project for the Educational Doctorate, a consortium of colleges of education which aims to prepare scholarly practitioners to solve problems of practice through the lens of equity, ethics, and social justice (CPED, 2009; Hoffman & Perry, 2016). The study describes how faculty utilized the Model of Improvement framework with three Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles to intentionally teach this concept. The results of this study indicated that there was a mindset change for students from practitioners to scholarly practitioners. Accordingly, the findings herein may be beneficial to educational leadership doctoral programs in replicating the program’s successes with growing practitioners into scholarly practitioners through embedded activities from admission through early coursework.
Through a thorough review of research related to effective dispositional behaviors of educational leaders and with extensive input from subject matter experts, this research highlights twenty actionable behaviors associated with successful leadership in K-12 educational settings. The leadership dispositional behaviors identified in this study are indicative of promoting positive student outcomes, supporting the professional development of teachers, and creating positive work conditions for faculty and staff. The identification of leadership dispositions leading to performance-based growth and development in the discipline highlighted the need to address how postsecondary institutions can better prepare educational leadership candidates using sound measures. Adding to the body of educational leadership research, the Educational Leadership Disposition Assessment tool (EDLDA) was developed in this study using a systematic analysis of dispositional performance expectations in the discipline. The methodology for this research includes an extensive summary of steps taken to develop the EDLDA. Additionally, the psychometric evaluation of validated dispositional behaviors with calculated reliability estimates is presented in this research. Lastly, evidence of construct validity is also provided by aligning the validated dispositions with quality standards of the profession.
The phase of entering the role of assistant principals and the coping strategies assistant principals use upon entering their role have barely been studied. Most studies that dealt with assistant principals focused mainly on the role of the assistant principals and their readiness to advance to the position of school principal, while the study dealing with the transition from teaching to the position of assistant principal is extremely limited. The available studies indicate that it is a complicated transition having an emotional, social and professional effect, described in terms of "shock" and an "unpleasant surprise". This article presents the assistant principal role at school and the challenges at the induction to this role. It offers a model for mapping the factors that influence the process of entering the role. This model can enable the education system to trace beforehand assistant principals who experience difficulties in entering office, so as to provide them with support and proper preparatory training procedures.
High needs schools in South Africa are characterized by student populations living in hazardous environments coupled with extreme poverty and language disparities, resulting in challenges that are interwoven with cultural and societal norms. This paper presents characteristics of leadership that enable student success in school from one high needs, high-performing school in Cape Town, South Africa, utilizing a case study methodology following the International School Leadership Development Network (ISLDN) research protocol. Literature reviewed highlights the context specific to high needs schools in South Africa, including historical context, leadership characteristics, instructional considerations, and implications for school culture. This study utilized a qualitative approach coupled with analysis framed through the High Needs Schools Leadership model. Data were collected from personal interviews with educators including school leaders and assistant school leaders as well as site-based observations, and concurrent archival document analysis, revealing the importance of several key themes: 1) Community Understanding, 2) Value-Based Decision Making, 3) Equity, and 4) Persistence. By considering the findings of this study, system and school leaders can enhance their awareness of factors with the greatest potential to significantly and positively impact educational settings for students in high needs schools.
One key characteristic of high-performing schools is how they function organizationally, enabling them to enact reforms effectively and to deal with regular organizational ambiguity and chaos. The principal plays a pivotal role in developing a school culture that supports high-performing schools. This research studies the relationship between principal self-efficacy and a principal’s perception of her school as a learning organization. We examined specific subcategories of learning organization attitudes and behaviors to determine whether principals consider distinct organizational behaviors a proxy for indicators of a learning organization, and whether that was related to their self-efficacy. The findings indicate that principals must be highly efficacious to persuade others to perform at high levels, and must have a strong belief in teachers and the organization as a whole to pursue the types of school improvement efforts and research-based organizational learning mechanisms that can improve student performance.
