The Impact of Principal Leadership Styles on School Accountability

The Impact of Principal Leadership Styles on School Accountability PDF Author: Kimberly Nicole Bryant
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 83

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Book Description
This study examined the impact of principals' leadership styles on the academic achievement of students as measured by the Mississippi Curriculum Test, Second Edition (MCT2). The 2013-2014 school year MCT2 mathematics and language arts scores were used as measures of student achievement and high-stakes testing. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ5x) was distributed to 420 principals. However, because of incomplete information given by the principals on the questionnaire, and the fact that the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) did not report MCT2 scores for particular schools, some of the principals' information was not useful; thus leaving the researcher with a sample size of n = 110 participants. This study was guided by 2 research questions. Relationships were analyzed using the Multivariate test for Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) in which the variable of socioeconomic status was used as a covariate because it was found to result statistically different scores across group means. The research questions sought to determine what type of principal leadership style resulted in higher student achievement in mathematics and language arts. The findings of this study indicated that there were no statistically significant differences among the transformational, transactional, and passive avoidant leadership styles. It is imperative that principals draw from all leadership approaches (i.e. transformational, transactional, and passive avoidant approach) in their practice instead of focusing on just one type of leadership style. This is true especially in schools that serve a large percentage of students that come from families with low socioeconomic status since this study found that socioeconomic status had a statistical significant effect on student achievement. Only through the utilization of research-based practices will schools be able to raise the bar of student achievement by revamping the leadership style of the school's ultimate instructional leader, the principal.

The Impact of Principal Leadership Styles on School Accountability

The Impact of Principal Leadership Styles on School Accountability PDF Author: Kimberly Nicole Bryant
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 83

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Book Description
This study examined the impact of principals' leadership styles on the academic achievement of students as measured by the Mississippi Curriculum Test, Second Edition (MCT2). The 2013-2014 school year MCT2 mathematics and language arts scores were used as measures of student achievement and high-stakes testing. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ5x) was distributed to 420 principals. However, because of incomplete information given by the principals on the questionnaire, and the fact that the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) did not report MCT2 scores for particular schools, some of the principals' information was not useful; thus leaving the researcher with a sample size of n = 110 participants. This study was guided by 2 research questions. Relationships were analyzed using the Multivariate test for Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) in which the variable of socioeconomic status was used as a covariate because it was found to result statistically different scores across group means. The research questions sought to determine what type of principal leadership style resulted in higher student achievement in mathematics and language arts. The findings of this study indicated that there were no statistically significant differences among the transformational, transactional, and passive avoidant leadership styles. It is imperative that principals draw from all leadership approaches (i.e. transformational, transactional, and passive avoidant approach) in their practice instead of focusing on just one type of leadership style. This is true especially in schools that serve a large percentage of students that come from families with low socioeconomic status since this study found that socioeconomic status had a statistical significant effect on student achievement. Only through the utilization of research-based practices will schools be able to raise the bar of student achievement by revamping the leadership style of the school's ultimate instructional leader, the principal.

The Impact of Principal Leadership Styles on School Accountability

The Impact of Principal Leadership Styles on School Accountability PDF Author: Bryant Kimberly
Publisher: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing
ISBN: 9783659665325
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description
This study examined the impact of principals' leadership styles on the academic achievement of students as measured by the Mississippi Curriculum Test, Second Edition (MCT2). The 2013-2014 school year MCT2 mathematics and language arts scores were used as measures of student achievement and high-stakes testing. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ5x) was distributed to 420 principals. However, because of incomplete information given by the principals on the questionnaire, and the fact that the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) did not report MCT2 scores for particular schools, some of the principals' information was not useful; thus leaving the researcher with a sample size of n = 110 participants. This study was guided by 2 research questions. Relationships were analyzed using the Multivariate test for Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) in which the variable of socioeconomic status was used as a covariate because it was found to result statistically different scores across group means. The research questions sought to determine what type of principal leadership style resulted in higher student achievement in mathematics and language arts.

Principal Leadership Styles in an Era of Accountability

Principal Leadership Styles in an Era of Accountability PDF Author: Kathlene Bentley
Publisher: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing
ISBN: 9783848497171
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
The purpose of this descriptive, quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional study was to determine the self-perceived leadership style of principals in an era of accountability. The research instrument was the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire with added demographic questions. In addition to the determination of the self-perceived principal leadership style, the intention of this study was to determine the possible relationship of demographic variables such as principal gender, experience, ethnicity, school type, school grade, and school socioeconomic status determined by Title I on leadership styles. The participants of the study were principals from three large school districts in the state of Florida. The dependent variable was the principal leadership style categorized on the MLQ as transactional, transformational, or laissez-faire. The MLQ also determined the use of behaviors categorized as laissez-faire, authoritative, or participative. The independent variables were the demographic variables, principal gender, ethnicity, years of experience as a school principal, school type, school grade, and school socioeconomic status defined by Title I.

The Principal Challenge

The Principal Challenge PDF Author: Marc S. Tucker
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0787967807
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
A Blueprint for Developing Tomorrow's School Leaders Based on two years of research supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Broad Foundation, and the New Schools Venture Fund, The Principal Challenge focuses directly on the causes and cures of the crisis in school leadership. Marc Tucker, Judy Codding, and a stellar list of experts from the United States and abroad paint a revealing portrait of what it means to be a principal now, how and why most graduate schools of education have failed to provide the training principals need, what the military and business sectors do to create and support their leaders and managers, what the state of the art in professional training looks like, what other nations are doing to address this problem, and how to apply the very best practices in the world to solve the crisis in school leadership. This book is honest and hard-hitting. And it offers realistic solutions. Based on the thorough analysis provided by the chapter authors, the editors of The Principal Challenge offer an imaginative proposal for a new kind of institution that will train school principals to be turn-around artists. Drawing on the new forms of executive development programs in our business schools, they propose a similar program for school principals. The approach involves a close collaboration between the new institution and entire school districts, combining face-to-face instruction with web-based delivery. The innovative curriculum they describe, like the best approaches in business and industry, uses carefully developed cases, simulations, games, action projects, seminars and journaling, The editors offer a clear conception of what it might mean to be an instructional leader, a way of thinking about what it takes for a principal to be a strategic thinker, an approach that principals can use to take advantage of the best current thinking on knowledge management and professional development, a conception of the principal as school designer, an emphasis on the use of data to drive planning, and a host of tested ideas that principals can use to lead their schools to better results.

Principal Leadership Attributes

Principal Leadership Attributes PDF Author: Linda A. Rudnick
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 126

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Book Description
Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001, the most recent version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965), the role of the school principal has been expanded to include significant responsibilities for the instructional leadership of schools, ensuring that all children achieve to meet high standards, and that the needs of children with special learning challenges are met. At the core of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) are a number of measures designed to drive broad gains in student achievement and to hold states and schools more accountable for student progress. Principals are expected to respond to accountability measures imposed by external constituents by acting as agents of change. Since the passage of the Act, standardized tests and assessment-based reforms have been widely implemented in the public school system in the United States. The intent of these reforms is to academically challenge all students to meet high standards, including English Language Learners (ELLs), and to ensure that attention and resources are given to these students to help them achieve their full potential. NCLB requires school districts to annually report the standardized test scores of student subgroups, including the ELLs. They are required by the law to meet targets set by their states for "adequate yearly progress," or AYP, or face sanctions. NCLB regulations stipulate that ELLs must be tested in mathematics beginning with the first round of state exams after the students enter a United States school, and in reading after they have been in a U.S. school for at least one year. This poses a tremendous challenge for teachers and for school principals, whose schools are publicly identified in the accountability system in New York State as meeting or failing to meet the target based on student achievement on these assessments. This quantitative study identified the attributes (beliefs and practices) of principals in New York State schools outside of New York City that contribute to ELLs' success as measured by their performance on state tests. The following areas were examined: visionary leadership, cultural and instructional leadership, school management and parent and community relations. Statistically significant results were found in ten areas of principal leadership in three of the five are as that were examined. In the area of cultural leadership, practicing shared leadership, creating a school climate that values diversity, professionally developing both ELL teachers and other staff working with ELLs on best practices, creating a climate of accountability for ELLs, and establishing and monitoring goals for ELL success emerged from the data as statistically significant. In the area of instructional leadership, collecting data on the ELLs early and visiting classrooms regularly to provide teachers substantial feedback on their instructional practices also emerged as statistically significant. Lastly, in the area of school management, taking a key role in the improvement of teaching and learning for ELLs, recruiting and retaining qualified and invested teaching staff, and acquiring resources to support ELL teaching were areas of principal leadership that surfaced as significant findings. The survey results gleaned from respondents provide direction to the field in ELL education and identify the specific areas of focus for school leaders in the development of a quality program that will yield desired results for this growing population of students in our schools.

School and District Leadership in an Era of Accountability

School and District Leadership in an Era of Accountability PDF Author: Bruce G. Barnett
Publisher: Information Age Publishing
ISBN: 9781623963828
Category : Educational leadership
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A volume in International Research on School Leadership Series Editors Alan R. Shoho and Bruce G. Barnett, University of Texas at San Antonio Our fourth book in the International Research on School Leadership series focuses on school leadership in an era of high stakes accountability. Fueled by sweeping federal education accountability reforms, such as the United States' No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Race to the Top (R2T) and Australia's Performance Measurement and Reporting Taskforce, school systems around the world are being forced to increase academic standards, participate in high-stakes testing, and raise evaluation standards for teachers and principals. These results-driven reforms are intended to hold educators "accountable for student learning and accountable to the public" (Anderson, 2005, p. 2, emphasis in original). While policymakers and the public debate the merits of student achievement accountability measures, P-12 educational leaders do not have the luxury to wait for clear guidance and resources to improve their schools and operating systems. Instead, successful leaders must balance the need to create learning communities, manage the organizational climate, and encourage community involvement with the consequences testing has on teacher morale and public scrutiny. The chapters in this volume clearly indicate that as school leaders attend to these potentially competing forces, this affects their problem-solving strategies, ability to facilitate change, and encourage community involvement. We were delighted with the responses from colleagues around the world who were eager to share their research dealing with how leaders are functioning effectively within a high-accountability environment. The nine chapters in this volume provide empirical evidence of the strategies school leaders use to cope with problems and negotiate external demands while improving student performance. In particular, the voices and actions of principals, superintendents, and school board members are captured in a blend of quantitative and qualitative studies. The breadth of studies is impressive, ranging from case studies of individual principals to cross-district comparisons to national data from the National Center for Education Statistics. To highlight important findings, we have organized the book into five sections. The first section (Chapters 2, 3, and 4) highlights the problem-solving strategies used by principals and superintendents when pressured to turn around low-performing schools. In the second section (Chapters 5 and 6), attention is devoted to ways in which school leaders act as "buffers" by reducing the impact of external demands within their local school contexts. Next, Chapters 7 and 8 explore creative ways in which financial analyses can be used to assess the cost effectiveness of programs and services. Chapters 9 and 10 examine how principals enact their instructional leadership roles in managing curriculum reforms and evaluating teachers. Finally, in the last section (Chapter 11), Kenneth Leithwood synthesizes the major themes and ideas emerging across these chapters, paying particular attention to practical issues influencing school leaders in this era of school reform and accountability as well as promising areas for future research.

Implications for School Accountability

Implications for School Accountability PDF Author: Marisol Rocha
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
The role of the campus principal has presented enormous and escalating challenges with the ever-increasing demands of academic accountability coupled with public scrutiny in the era of accountability that only continues to heighten with the new accountability rating system. Expecting swift and dramatic improvements overnight, tensions within the improvement required (IR) school organization tend to be evident, as principals are ill-equipped to transform a campus under local and state mandates. Building organizational capacity in schools with exacerbated achievement gaps among diverse student groups requires effective principal leadership. This study examined the role of the external Professional Service Provider coach within the context of improving school achievement through principal and campus capacity building. The multiple-case qualitative study employed data collected through semi-structured interviews, documents related to the study, and field notes. Data were subjected to several levels of descriptive analysis, whereby the emerging categories became the basis for organization and conceptualization of the data. Findings identified that principals of schools identified as improvement required benefited from working with an external coach. All schools noted the value in the PSP working to grow not only their skillset, but rather, the skillset of the entire leadership team. This approach allowed for a greater amount of whole school buy in, as a wide scope of people were coached either directly by the PSP, or by a leader on the campus. The consistency in the data showed IR campuses were found without steady, school wide systems and lacked a sense of focus. With the PSP, leadership teams were able to narrow their focus and establish systems that would sustain the passage of time. While the difference in expertise level was addressed as a major factor when selecting a PSP, no one was aware on a clear plan for improving the training provided to these coaches. Data varied on the amount of support and knowledge that was provided by the district office. This study illuminated the need for principal coaching through the use of an experienced external coach to support the growth of an improvement required school toward academic success

The Focus of Principal Leadership on Schools, Teachers, and Students in an Era with the Emphasis of Accountability, Data-driven Decision Making and Social Justice

The Focus of Principal Leadership on Schools, Teachers, and Students in an Era with the Emphasis of Accountability, Data-driven Decision Making and Social Justice PDF Author: Diane Carol Houghton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Educational leadership
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
A principal's role in a school involves a complex set of functions. The purpose of this study is to determine the primary focus of Ohio school principals, using Leadership Theory grounded in the research of Leithwood and Riehl (2005), Marzano (2003), and Shen et al. (2012) as the basis for the framework. Utilizing Marzano's (2003) theoretical framework based on High Impact Strategies, this study seeks to understand whether the foci of the principal are on school management, teacher management, or student management. Additionally, this study will look at external factors, specifically, percentage of students receiving free or reduced lunch, and percentage of students with learning disabilities, to determine whether the principal's focus is significantly different due to the contextual variations. Data was collected through a survey given to over 1800 principals in the state of Ohio. The instrument adopted the Shen, Ma, Cooley, and Burt (2016) Data-Informed Decision Making on High-Impact Strategies: A Measurement Tool for School Principals (DIDM-INST). The data analysis included descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, and one-way ANOVA. This study gave insights that the focus of principals using descriptive statistics and factor analysis which extract 11 factors out of the factor analysis. The results indicated principals focus on school management which has implications for accountability as a measure having an influence on a principal's focus. While the results provide a focus of principal, the study was conducted with a small sample of less than 5% of the Ohio principal population lending itself to a Type II error concern. This study, with an emphasis on leadership practices and contextual influences in an era of accountability requirements, adds to the knowledge base of how principals' focuses are manifested towards school management, teacher development, and student management.

Educational Tug-of-war

Educational Tug-of-war PDF Author: Raymond A. González
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Educational accountability
Languages : en
Pages : 140

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Book Description
Problem: As the United States Department of Education prepares to reauthorize ESEA once more, it does so in light of the reality that over 80% of schools will be considered in need of improvement by 2014 according to the adequate yearly progress targets (Duncan, 2011). Politicians, educators, and the general citizenry of the United States are concerned with how effective public schools are at educating our children; however, the current measurement of success is based heavily upon performance on high stakes assessments. Unfortunately, responding to NCLB demands are not the only things on the mind of school leaders. On any given day, there are a number of pressures that principals must consider in order to effectively manage the administrative and instructional aspects of running a school. Guided by the following research questions, this study explores how forces that are both internal and external to the principal influence the ways school leaders conceptualize and respond to accountability. * To whom or what do principals feel most accountable? * How do forces internal and external to the principal shape their conceptions of multiple sources of accountability? * How does it happen differently in high and low performing schools? * How does it happen differently in contexts that vary according to SES? * How do principals' conceptions of accountability shape what they do to promote student achievement? Method: This phenomenological collective case study collected data from 25 public middle school principals throughout New Jersey who lead schools that varied in socioeconomic and academic performance contexts. A pre-interview survey and follow up interview provided the basis for the data collection. The transcribed interviews were coded and analyzed according to the conceptual framework and research questions that guided the inquiry. Findings: Accountability to self is the most prominent source of accountability among the middle school principals in this study despite the prevalence of external accountability forces. When adding those who feel most accountable to teachers, it is apparent that most principals from higher achieving schools respond first to an internal accountability mechanism. Principals who identify an external source of accountability as most salient exhibit common attributes according to the school's improvement status, SES, and academic achievement. Significance: Although public and political attention is often focused on test-based accountability, there are other sources of accountability that receive less attention, especially as it relates to school leadership. This study adds to the research on the topic of educational accountability and leadership practices by exploring the concept from the perspective of a principal. As a result of the findings, the study also supports a better understanding of the perceptions of internal accountability among school leaders.

An Exploration of Connections Between a Principal's Leadership Style and the Academic Achievement Gap

An Exploration of Connections Between a Principal's Leadership Style and the Academic Achievement Gap PDF Author: Khalid Almasnaah
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Academic achievement
Languages : en
Pages : 149

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Book Description
This qualitative study explored possible connections between school principals' leadership styles and behaviors and closing the student achievement gap at three schools serving high poverty student populations. Two of the three schools were high schools designated as Priority Schools in 2012 as a result of student achievement that ranked in the bottom 5% of all Michigan schools. The two schools managed to exit the Priority designation in 2017 after implementing school culture and instruction reforms that improved student achievement. The third school was a K-8, which was not designated as a Priority School. It had the same student demographics as the Priority Schools, and it is located in the same district as one of them. It was added to the study to reinforce the data. The researcher conducted 17 interviews. A bottom-up inductive coding approach was adopted for the qualitative data analysis. The researcher assigned emerging themes specific and meaningful codes relevant to the topic and purpose of the study. Based on the data from the three schools, a possible connection between school leadership and closing the student achievement gap was found. The three principals adopted practices and behaviors relevant to multiple leadership styles. They did not limit themselves to only one leadership style or a set of behaviors. The two Priority School principals had to undo the negative impact of the former toxic culture. The three principals instituted a positive school culture based on trust, respect, collaboration, and accountability. They indirectly impacted student achievement by improving the schools' culture and climate and enhancing the curriculum, instruction, assessment, and data-driven interventions. They worked with all the stakeholders to align and streamline all the efforts and programs into well-coordinated plans and established common language and practices regarding teaching and learning. They involved all the teachers in the decision making about teaching and learning.