“If I Ever Leave, I Have a List of People That Are Going With Me:” Principals’ Understandings of and Responses to Place Influences on Teacher Staffing in West Virginia

Purpose: Schools across the predominately rural state of West Virginia are experiencing widespread teacher shortages, though recruitment and retention difficulties are unevenly distributed across place. Using spatial in/justice as our framework, we explore how principals define place, how place influences principal perceptions of teacher recruitment and retention, and how principals respond to these staffing challenges given their leadership experiences, relationship to school community, and understandings of place affordances and disadvantages. Research Methods/Approach This research utilized interviews with eight principals across six school districts in West Virginia over a four-month time frame. We inductively coded interview transcripts in iterative cycles using our research framework as a guide for emic and etic codes. Findings: We find principals’ understanding of place influences on staffing to be specific to the unique attributes of each community and the placement of their leadership experiences – as community returners, seasoned though not originally from the community, and new-to-place. Their understandings of spatial in/justice as it relates to teacher staffing shape ideas of place affordances and disadvantages and recruitment and retention practices. These findings complexify the teacher staffing picture across geographically diverse rural places and the responses available to leaders given their leadership experience and relationship to place. Implications for Research and Practice The place-specific influences on teacher staffing problematize statewide policy mechanisms for ameliorating teacher shortages. The findings also suggest the need for further in-depth qualitative research within districts and across states, with an emphasis on racially diverse rural places.

Principal Perceptions of the Distance Learning Transition During the Pandemic

Drawing on data from the RAND American School Leader Panel 2020 COVID-19 Distance Learning Surveys, we analyze principal perceptions of school preparedness for distance learning with a specific focus on how different school types (e.g., rural, urban, and suburban) and student groups (e.g., students with mild disabilities, English learner students) were impacted by rapid school closure. These findings have important implications for how state education agencies, policymakers, and districts plan to address the growth of opportunity gaps among student groups. In addition, findings have important implications for education leadership and policy researchers seeking to design and implement studies to inform next generation policy and practice.

Application of Quantitative Computer-Based Analysis for Student’s Learning Tendency on the Efficient Utilization of Mobile Phones during Lecture Hours

The rapid pace of development and technology enhancements revolutionize the way people communicate and subsequently exert a considerable influence on a student’s involvement and motivation. Mobile phones are considered among the most important devices to have made a breakthrough in every aspect of human life. Students’ persistence in using mobile phones during classroom hours has become a significant concern because of distractions, disruptions, cheating, and inappropriate use. The objective of this paper is to identify the reasons why students use mobile phones during lecture hours by quantitative computer-based analysis. The participants were 520 undergraduate students who completed a questionnaire that is significantly based on the comparison of three principal perceptions of age, gender, and grades. To investigate the reliability of the proposed factors, Cronbach’s alpha parameter was adequately utilized in this study to check the consistency adaptation of these factors and to provide questions on the questionnaire. To validate the measurement scales, qualitative content validity was taken into consideration. The analysis of the correlation matrix that is based on the six administered variables in this study has been conducted in the statistic correlation level of 0.01, which is ranged from 0.043 to 0.601. Although no statistically significant differences were found in the students’ perception regarding their gender and age, the differences were significant regarding their grades as far as the addiction reason was concerned. Consequently, the overwhelming majority of the students tended to use mobile phones during the lecture hours for class-related purposes.

Useful or Useless? Principal Perceptions of the Texas Principal Evaluation and Support System

Principal evaluations can be important tools for improving leadership practice, but evaluations have often described by principals and researchers as unsystematic and lacking timely and actionable feedback. This study examines principal perceptions of the Texas Principal Evaluation and Support System (T-PESS). Survey data and interviews of principals in one pilot district are used to answer two primary research questions: (a) How did veteran principals understand and experience the T-PESS? and (b) What aspects of the evaluation tool and process did principals find most useful and as barriers to their professional growth? Findings reveal that positive evaluator–principal relationships and goal-setting activities can support professional growth.

Teacher Tenure in Tennessee: An Examination of Principal Perceptions Post–Race to the Top

This quantitative study examined perceptions of K-12 public school principals toward the Tennessee teacher tenure law under Senate Bill 1528 and how principals perceived that the law has affected their ability to evaluate and retain effective teachers. The Tennessee Teacher Tenure Principal Perception Survey was adopted and slightly modified from Davidson’s (1998) study of principal perceptions of teacher tenure in Tennessee. Quantitative results found that principals characterized the teacher tenure law as having a positive impact on their ability to evaluate and retain effective teachers. Results from this study highlight that future research and reform should focus on the use of stakeholder and principal perception data in policy initiatives and education agendas at the school building, community, and state levels.

Educational Decentralization Efforts in a Centralized Country: Saudi Tatweer Principal Perceptions of New Authorities Granted

This study captured the perspectives of school principals in Saudi Arabia regarding the new authorizes granted to them as part of their country’s education decentralization efforts. Specifically, this study explored these principals’ perceived ability to implement the new authorities, levels of support, effectiveness, and additional desired authorities. This study provided an opportunity to analyze the early efforts of a country with a very centralized educational system to implement more significant decentralization efforts.A total of 173 Tatweer school principals completed an online survey, and findings suggest these Saudi principals perceived limited ability, low to moderate support in implementing the new authorities, and only slight agreement that the authorities were likely to achieve desired outcomes. Multiple regression analysis revealed that beliefs on the effectiveness of the authorities at achieving MOE outcomes were predicted by perceived ability to implement administrative authorities, perceived support to implement technical authorities, and years of experience.

Do Differences in High School Principal and Assistant Principal Perceptions Predict Student Achievement Outcomes?

The assistant principal plays a key role in school success but research suggests there are differences between principals and assistant principals in their perceptions of their roles. The 2011 Teaching, Empowering, Leading, and Learning Kentucky survey responses of educator perceptions were statistically analyzed for the statewide sample of principals and assistant principals. Results indicate that principals and assistant principals reported significantly different perceptions regarding teacher leadership and school leadership. Differences in principal and assistant principal responses were not related to student achievement, however. Implications for collaborative engagement between principals and assistant principals as they focus on increasing school leadership and teacher effectiveness are discussed.

Distributed leadership and teacher job satisfaction in Singapore

Purpose Singapore is a country with low teacher attrition rates and high performance on international assessments (TIMSS 2011/2015 and PISA 2012/2015). Consequently, its education system is often considered as a model for other nations. The purpose of this paper is to extend research on teacher job satisfaction in Singapore and provide comparative information for other education systems. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents a secondary analysis of data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey with a focus on relationships among teacher and principal perceptions of distributed leadership and teachers’ job satisfaction in Singapore. Hierarchical linear modeling is applied to investigate teacher job satisfaction with principal perceptions and aggregate teacher perceptions of distributed leadership as school-level (level 2) variables and individual teacher perceptions of distributed leadership as a level 1 variable. Findings Results indicated that distributed leadership significantly predicted teachers’ work and professional satisfaction; higher distributed leadership scores were associated with higher satisfaction scores. Originality/value The significant positive relationship between distributed leadership and both dimensions of job satisfaction after accounting for individual teacher characteristics is a new finding in the Singapore schooling context.