New principals, accountability, and commitment in low-performing schools

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 558-574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Shirrell
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
First Year ◽  
Urban District ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organizational Contexts ◽  
Low Performing Schools ◽  
Conflicting Demands ◽  
First Year Principals

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine first-year principals’ sense-making about two potentially conflicting demands as they take over low-performing urban schools: the demand to exert control over their teachers’ practice, and the need to build their teachers’ trust, collegiality, and commitment. Design/methodology/approach – This study draws on a series of surveys and interviews with 12 first-year principals that took over some of the lowest-performing public schools in one large urban district. Findings – Some principals begin their first year seeing their work to build accountability and commitment as complementary, while others see these two areas as in tension. Principals remain relatively consistent in these approaches over their first year on the job, although some principals change their views, generally coming to see these two areas as increasingly separate over time. Research limitations/implications – Future work should examine principals’ work to balance the demands of accountability and commitment in a variety of organizational contexts. Practical implications – Principal preparation may benefit from training principals on the particular challenges they may face as they work with teachers in low-performing schools. Accountability systems may also seek to alter the demands placed on novice principals. Originality/value – Despite the centrality of principals to school improvement, the prevalence of high-stakes school accountability, and findings on the importance of commitment to school success, little empirical research has examined how principals make sense of the potentially conflicting demands of accountability and commitment in highly pressured circumstances.

scholarly journals External mentoring for new teachers: mentor learning for a change agenda

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 178-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Daly ◽  
Emmajane Milton
Keyword(s):  
School Improvement ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
New Teachers ◽  
Early Career ◽  
First Year ◽  
Early Career Teachers ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Career Teachers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report on a qualitative study of the learning and development of 70 external mentors during the first year of their deployment to support early career teachers’ professional learning as part of a national initiative aimed at school improvement in Wales. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a narrative methodology that elicited accounts of external mentors’ learning experiences that were captured as textual data and analysed using an inductive approach to identify: first, the manifest themes that appeared at declarative level, and second, the latent (sub-textual) themes of external mentor learning and development. Findings Four key themes emerged that indicate the complexity of transition to the role of external mentor in high-stakes contexts. From these, eight theoretically-informed principles were derived which support mentors to embrace uncertainty as essential to their learning and development, and to harness the potential they bring as boundary-crossers to support the development of new teachers. Research limitations/implications The study investigated the first year of a three-year programme and worked with one form of qualitative data collection. The research results may lack generalisability and a longitudinal study is necessary to further explore the validity of the findings. Practical implications The eight principles provide a foundation for mentor development programmes that can support ambitious goals for mentoring early career teachers. Originality/value The study addresses the under-researched area of the learning and development of external mentors at a national scale.

Successful, coasting and low-performing school principals in Israel: an explanatory model

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorit Tubin ◽  
Talmor Rachel Farchi
Keyword(s):  
School Improvement ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Preparation Programs ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Institutional Legitimacy ◽  
Low Performing Schools ◽  
Principal Preparation Programs ◽  
Principal Mentoring ◽  
Successful School ◽  
School Schedule

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present the successful school and principal (SSP) model, which has developed over 13 years of Israeli involvement in the ISSPP study.Design/methodology/approachThis is a conceptual paper summarizing the findings of more than 20 case studies of successful, coasting and low-performing schools and their principals, into the SSP model. In all the cases, ISSPP protocols were used to collect the data, and the findings were analyzed in accordance with the organizational approach and organizational routine theory.FindingsThe explanatory SSP model comprises three cyclical phases that explain cause–effect relationships and presents intervention points for school improvement toward success. The first phase is an organizational restructuring of two core routines: the school schedule routine and the school tracking routine, which shape and affect school staff behavior. The second phase is the priorities and values revealed in these behaviors and which shape the school as a learning environment. The third phase in school improvement is the institutional legitimacy derived from and reflecting the school’s priorities and values. All these phases are based on the principal as a crucial key player who turns the wheel.Originality/valueTheoretically, the SSP model explains cause–effect relationships and indicates possible interventions and improvements. Practically, the SSP model can influence principal preparation programs, novice principal mentoring and serve as a roadmap for school improvement.

Effects of career‐related continuous learning: a case study

2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Rowold ◽  
Sabine Hochholdinger ◽  
Jan Schilling
Keyword(s):  
Job Performance ◽  
Call Center ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Learning Climate ◽  
First Year ◽  
Continuous Learning ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organizational Contexts ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
The Impact

PurposeAlthough proposed from theory, the assumption that career‐related continuous learning (CRCL) has a positive impact on subsequent job performance has not been tested empirically. The present study aims to close this gap in the literature. A model is derived from theory that predicts a positive impact of CRCL, learning climate, and initial job performance on consequent job performance. In addition, CRCL is hypothesized to mediate the impact of learning climate on final job performance.Design/methodology/approachImplementing a longitudinal approach, this model was tested empirically in a call center context. Within the first year of their respective career, multiple source data were gathered from employees about their formal CRCL activities, their initial performance, as well as their perception about learning climate.FindingsResults indicated that CRCL predicted final job performance and mediated the impact of learning climate on final job performance. A total of 28 percent of final job performance was explained by the proposed model, highlighting the importance of CRCL for organizational contexts.Practical implicationsThe results of this study support the notion that CRCL programs are highly useful for both employees and organizations.Originality/valueFor the first time, the impact of CRCL on job performance is demonstrated empirically.

Understanding validity issues surrounding test-based accountability measures in the US

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-52
Author(s):  
Nancy Koh ◽  
Vikash Reddy ◽  
Madhabi Chatterji
Keyword(s):  
Public Education ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
School Reform ◽  
Public Accountability ◽  
Assessment Data ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Us ◽  
Test Use

Purpose – This AERI-NEPC eBrief, the fourth in a series titled “Understanding validity issues around the world”, looks closely at issues surrounding the validity of test-based actions in educational accountability and school improvement contexts. The specific discussions here focus testing issues in the US. However, the general principles underlying appropriate and inappropriate test use in school reform and high stakes public accountability settings are applicable in both domestic and international settings. This paper aims to present the issues. Design/methodology/approach – This policy brief is based on a synthesis of conference proceedings and review of selected pieces of extant literature. It begins by summarizing perspectives of an invited expert panel on the topic. To that synthesis, the authors add their own analysis of key issues. They conclude by offering recommendations for test developers and test users. Findings – The authors conclude that recurring validity issues arise with tests used in school reform and public accountability contexts, because the external tests tend to be employed as policy instruments to drive reforms in schools, with unrealistic timelines and inadequate resources. To reconcile the validity issues with respect to educational assessment and forge a coherent understanding of validity among multiple public users with different agendas, the authors offer several recommendations, such as: adopt an integrated approach to develop content and standards of proficiency that represent a range of cognitive processes; support studies to examine validity of assessments and the effects of decisions taken with assessment data before results are fed into high stakes accountability-related actions that affect teachers, leaders or schools; align standards, curricula, instruction, assessment, and professional development efforts in schools to maximize success; increase capacity-building efforts to help teachers, administrators, policy makers, and other groups of test users learn more about assessments, particularly, about appropriate interpretation and use of assessment data and reports. Originality/value – Baker points out that in response to growing demands of reformers and policy-makers for more frequent and rigorous testing programs in US public education, results from a single test tend to get used to meet a variety of public education needs today (e.g. school accountability, school improvement, teacher evaluation, and measurement of student performance). While this may simply be a way to make things more cost-efficient and reduce the extent of student testing in schools, a consequence is inappropriate test use that threatens validity in practice settings. This policy brief confronts this recurring validity challenge and offers recommendations to address the issues.

Leading school-wide improvement in low-performing schools facing conditions of accountability

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelby Cosner ◽  
Mary F. Jones
Keyword(s):  
School Districts ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Low Performing Schools ◽  
Departments Of Education ◽  
Work First ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
State Departments Of Education

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to advance a framework that identifies three key domains of work and a set of more nuanced considerations and actions within each domain for school leaders seeking to improve school-wide student learning in low-performing schools facing conditions of accountability. Design/methodology/approach – Review of literature. Findings – Drawing from the work of Robinson et al. (2008), the authors identify and discuss a set of nuanced considerations and actions for school leaders seeking to improve school-wide student learning in low-performing schools facing conditions of accountability. These considerations and actions fall into three broad domains of leader work: first, goal setting and planning for goal achievement; second, promoting and participating in teacher learning; and third, planning, coordinating, and evaluating teaching and curriculum. Practical implications – This paper generates implications for school leaders, and school leader developers, school districts, and state departments’ of education. The authors detail two key implications for school districts and/or state departments’ of education as they seek to offer guidance and support to low-performing schools facing conditions of accountability. It also generates a testable framework that can be drawn upon to examine school improvement and the work of school leaders in low-performing schools facing conditions of accountability. Originality/value – The analysis reveals unique challenges and considerations situated within each of the three domains of leader work found by Robinson et al. (2008) to have moderate to strong effects on student outcomes. These issues motivate an assortment of more nuanced leader actions and considerations in each of the three domains of leader work of consequence to student learning. The analysis provides an important accounting of an assortment of nuanced actions and considerations likely to be necessary if leaders are to support the improvement of student learning in these uniquely challenged settings.

scholarly journals Approved to fail: a case study of leadership at three new high schools

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Melvoin Bridich
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
High Schools ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
School Design ◽  
New Schools ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Urban District ◽  
Content Type

PurposeThis paper explores how leaders of new public high schools – one charter and two innovation schools – navigated the journey from school-in-theory to school-in-practice during the school's first three years. School leaders at charter and innovation schools have increased freedom over curriculum, budget, scheduling and personnel when compared to leaders in traditional public schools.Design/methodology/approachUsing case study research, this qualitative, multisite study of school leaders at three schools in an urban district in Colorado examined the realities leaders experienced during the first three years of their schools. School leaders participated in semi-structured interviews, which were coded and analyzed for data individual to each school and across the three schools. Initial school design plans and district accountability data were also reviewed.FindingsThe study identified two distinct challenges for leaders of these new schools: (1) opening a new school contributes to burnout among school leaders and (2) school leaders face systemic, district-level barriers that impede implementation of a school's founding mission and vision.Research limitations/implicationsA qualitative study of three standalone charter and innovation schools in one urban school district limits generalizability.Originality/valueThe lived experience of school leaders at new, standalone charter and innovation schools is largely neglected in empirical studies. This research illuminates key struggles school leaders experience as they seek to establish new schools with fidelity to district-approved school plans.

Principals’ sensemaking and enactment of teacher evaluation

2015 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 374-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica G. Rigby
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Evaluation ◽  
Instructional Leadership ◽  
Principal Preparation ◽  
Organizational Context ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
First Year ◽  
Preparation Programs ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sensemaking Theory ◽  
First Year Principals

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look across six first-year principals to investigate their engagement with and sensemaking of specific messages of instructional leadership around teacher evaluation. Design/methodology/approach – This research project, a cross-case study, was carried out using in-depth qualitative observations and interviews of six first-year principals over one school year. Sensemaking theory was used to analyze both how and the mechanisms through which principals understood their roles as teacher evaluators. Findings – The results demonstrate that first, principals received a variety of messages about how to conduct teacher evaluations, and second, that connections to specific individuals influenced their associations to specific messages they received about instructional leadership and how they enacted teacher evaluation practices on their campuses. Research limitations/implications – This is an in-depth qualitative analysis, and therefore is not generalizable to all first-year principals, school districts, or principal preparation programs. However, it adds to the field’s understanding of the meso level of policy implementation, highlighting the process of individuals’ sensemaking and the importance of their informal connections in the associations they make to messages about instructional leadership. Practical implications – This research adds to the field of principal preparation and induction as it highlights what is important for first-year principals as they build their professional identities. Further, it highlights the variability in principals’ understanding and enactment of teacher evaluation policies, an important feature as this practice is coming to the fore both in current practice and research. Originality/value – This study adds to an understanding of institutional theory by looking at the interaction between the organizational levels, and further explicates individual actors’ agency within a socio-organizational context. The findings also add to a dearth of empirical studies on the routine of teacher evaluation from the principal perspective.

scholarly journals Knowledge Management for Educational Information Systems

2001 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Thorn
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Information Systems ◽  
Systemic Reform ◽  
Urban District ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Decentralized System ◽  
Design Elements ◽  
8Th Grade ◽  
Educational Information

This article explores the application of Knowledge Management (KM) techniques to educational information systems—particularly in support of systemic reform efforts. The first section defines knowledge and its relationship to information and data. There is also a discussion of various goals that might be pursued by organizations using KM techniques. The second section explores some of the fundamental design elements of an educational KM system. These include questions surrounding the unit of analysis, distributed computer resources, and organizational characteristics of successful KM efforts. Section three outlines the benefits that organizations expect to gain by investing in KM. Section four is a case history of the introduction of a district-level data system and the parallel efforts to support the aggregation and reporting of high-stakes educational outcomes for 8th grade students in the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) district. Finally, there are some preliminary conclusions about the capacity of an urban district in a complex policy environment to respond to the knowledge management needs of a decentralized system.

Improving Low-Performing Schools: A Meta-Analysis of Impact Evaluation Studies

2021 ◽  
pp. 000283122110608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth E. Schueler ◽  
Catherine Armstrong Asher ◽  
Katherine E. Larned ◽  
Sarah Mehrotra ◽  
Cynthia Pollard
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
English Language ◽  
Evaluation Studies ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Low Performing Schools ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
K 12

The public narrative surrounding efforts to improve low-performing K–12 schools in the United States has been notably gloomy. But what is known empirically about whether school improvement works, which policies are most effective, which contexts respond best to intervention, and how long it takes? We meta-analyze 141 estimates from 67 studies of post–No Child Left Behind Act turnaround policies. On average, policies had moderate positive effects on math and no effect on English Language Arts achievement on high-stakes exams. We find positive impacts on low-stakes exams and no evidence of harm on nontest outcomes. Extended learning time and teacher replacements predict greater effects. Contexts serving majority-Latina/o populations saw the largest improvements. We cannot rule out publication bias entirely but find no differences between peer-reviewed versus nonpeer-reviewed estimates.

Irrational Exuberance for Market-based Reform: How Federal Turnaround Policies Thwart Democratic Schooling

2015 ◽  
Vol 117 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Tina Trujillo ◽  
Michelle RenÉE
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Public Education ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Low Income ◽  
School Level ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Systematic Research ◽  
School Improvement Grant ◽  
High Stakes

Background In 2009, the Obama Administration announced its intention to rapidly “turn around” 5,000 of the nation's lowest-performing schools. To do so, it relied on the School Improvement Grant (SIG) program to provide temporary funding for states and schools, and to mandate drastic, school-level reforms. Most of these reforms require massive administrative and teacher layoffs, especially under the “turnaround option.”In the public debate about the SIG program, reforms such as turnarounds have been described as new and innovative. In reality, the nation has significant experience with them, particularly over the past 40 years. Turnaround-style reforms are not only based on unwarranted claims; they ignore contrary research evidence about the potential of mass firings to improve organizational performance. Purpose This paper considers the tensions with democratic education inherent in the federal SIG program's market-based school reforms. It examines the evolution of and intent behind the 2009 federal SIG program. From there, it considers the lessons of forty years of research on educational effectiveness and high-stakes accountability. It builds on this evidence, as well as the growing literature on communities’ engagement in reform, in its analysis of the school turnaround research and practice. The paper culminates in a set of recommendations that are intended to re-center the purposes of public education for low-income students, students of color, and local communities in developing more equitable, democratic school turnarounds. Research Design This article synthesizes forty years of research on school and district effectiveness, high-stakes accountability, and community engagement in school reform to evaluate the federal School Improvement Grant program's potential to cultivate democratic, equitable public schools. It also reviews the small, but rapidly growing literature on school turnarounds, paying particular attention to the ways in which this new field reproduces or departs from earlier literature that examined reform models that are analogous to the current SIG-funded school turnarounds. Conclusions: Based on the provisional lessons that are emerging from current SIG-inspired turnarounds, from research on earlier efforts to improve school and district effectiveness, and from pockets of promising community-based practices that are developing at local and national levels, we propose five steps that federal, state, and local policymakers can take toward fostering more equitable, democratic turnaround processes. First, increase current federal and state spending for public education, particularly as it is allocated for more democratic turnarounds. Second, focus turnaround policies on improving the quality of teaching and learning rather than on technical-structural changes. Third, engage a broad cross-section of schools’ communities—teachers, students, parents, and community organizations—in planning and implementing turnaround strategies that are tailored to each school and district context. Fourth, incorporate multiple indicators of effectiveness—apart from test scores—that reflect the range of purposes for schools. Fifth, support ongoing, systematic research, evaluation, and dissemination examining all aspects of turnaround processes in schools and districts.

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