Growing Your Own Educational Leaders: Implications for Rural School Districts and Institutions of Higher Education

The purpose of this article is to examine a ‘grow your own’ model of leadership preparation and placement of educational administrators in the state of Tennessee. The growing need for school and district administrators in the rural counties of Tennessee mirrors a nationwide issue, and state policymakers and practitioners must respond appropriately to sustain adequate K-12 educational leadership that is representative of state demographics. Recommendations for policy and practice are provided for state and local education agencies as well as principal preparation programs in higher education.

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

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.

Understanding Principals’ Knowledge of Special Education

The percentage of students identified as eligible to receive special education services in the United States has grown from 8.3% in the 1976-77 school year to 14% during the 2018-19 school year (Hussar et al., 2020). Given this level of growth and the myriad of levels of support principals provide for students with disabilities, one would assume that principal preparation programs have adjusted their curriculum to ensure future school administrators are prepared to support every student, including those with disabilities. The purpose of this research study is to better understand how current school administrators learned special education-related information for their role, what they believe are the most important aspects of special education, and to identify how background, experience, and self-efficacy play a role in principals’ skills related to their role as their building’s special education leader. A web-based survey was used to gather information from current school administrators working in Idaho’s P-12 school districts. Results of this study show that the majority of Idaho’s school administrators are learning special education-related knowledge and skills on the job and through professional development, rather than as part of their principal preparation programs. Recommendations are made to enhance the learning opportunities in both principal preparation programs as well as in-service professional development to develop strong, supportive, school-based special education leaders.

Doing it for Culturally Responsive School Leadership: Utilizing Reflexivity from Preparation to Practice

To collectively engage future administrators in reforming culturally responsive practices that have been traditionally understood from socially just approaches, principal preparation programs must embed curricula that is utilized beyond the classroom. In this article, I reflect on the rap group Migos’ popularized phrase “do it for the culture” and contend that doing it for culturally responsive leadership will carry out actions that benefit the shared culture of teaching and learning that represents all teachers and students equitably. A consistent idea that permeates within the field is that a course(s) will prescribe the adequate tools on what to do instead of how to be cultural responsible. Utilizing the role of reflexivity, this case study offered six themes that stemmed from session discussions. The themes that arose were: (1) Interpretations of Cultural Responsiveness, (2) Culturally responsive is what you are not what you do, (3) Self-identity is recognized, (4) Learned the community diversity, (5) Celebrate all, and (6) Practice by disruption. The personal reflections illuminate the significance of relationships between the faculty researcher, future administrators, communities, the effortless disposition of the insider-researcher, and the intricacy of developing the narrative research that promotes culturally responsiveness.

A systematic review of principal time use research

PurposeTo advance the study of principal time use (PTU), the purpose of this study is to report findings from a systematic review of PTU research. In addition to identifying common findings, this study also examined the supporting evidence and methodologies of PTU studies. From this dual approach, this study specified the evidence that supports claims about PTU, as well as identified areas requiring future examination.Design/methodology/approachA systematic reference review process considered 5,746 potential PTU manuscripts. The inclusion criteria identified 55 studies published between 1920 and 2015. This review synthesized data pertaining to the methodologies and findings of PTU research.FindingsFindings from studies conducted across decades indicated that principals worked extensive hours. Moreover, the workdays of principals consisted of brief and unrelated activities, most often focused on noninstructional tasks. Contrary to common hypotheses, studies indicated that PTU dedicated to administrative tasks exhibited positive correlations with educational outcomes. However, claims about PTU have been derived from samples overrepresented by large urban school districts and limited periods of observation.Practical implicationsFuture studies should implement diversified sampling strategies and extended observation periods. For principal preparation programs, the results indicated an opportunity for increased instruction on time management skills.Originality/valueThis systematic review identifies the overlooked history of the research and specifies the evidence that supports common claims about PTU, which provides empirically derived guidance for future PTU studies.

Images of Educational Leadership: How Principals Make Sense of Democracy and Social Justice in Two Distinct Policy Contexts

Purpose: This article investigates how school leaders make sense of social justice and democracy in their practice in two settings, a high-stakes testing and accountability context, the San Francisco Bay Area, California, and a low-stakes testing and accountability context, Norway. It demonstrates how leaders view relationships among education, democracy, and social justice, when located in a neoliberal democracy with a minimalist welfare state or in a social democracy with a robust welfare state. Design and Evidence: Through a comparative design, we analyze qualitative data from two international principal exchanges designed to capture outsiders’ impressions of schools in each context. Participants included alumni from an American and a Norwegian university’s principal preparation programs. Through preobservation and postobservation interviews and focus groups, we explore observations by practitioners, who acted as coconstructors in the research. Findings and Implications: The article presents three findings: (1) While principals in both systems conceptualized equity similarly, their conceptions of democracy were aligned with the type of democracy in which they were embedded; (2) Schools’ norms, climate, structures, and leadership, as well as students’ daily lives, reflected the values implicit in their respective political contexts; (3) Principals perceived elements of their macro- and micro-level settings to enable or constrain their ability to craft democratic, socially just schools. These findings help scholars move beyond discourse about the need for leaders to advocate for equity, to deeper understandings about conditions that shape democratic schools, such as values about collectivism, welfarism, and the common good—tenets of a socially just civic society.

All We Need Is One Mic: A Call for Anti-racist Solidarity to Deconstruct Anti-Black Racism in Educational Leadership

In this article, we outline some of the vital measurements of racism and anti-blackness as a macro system in education. We contend that principal preparation programs have not explicitly prioritized anti-racist school leadership, while often resisting the possibilities of solidarity or one mic of knowledge to increase anti-racist dispositions. Considering the lexicon of whiteness as an assemblage, a racial discourse should be “supported by material practices and institutions,” that prepare educational leaders to examine anti-blackness curriculum that have been embedded as a standard method. We also posit that theoretical understanding of racism as global whiteness from a post-oppositional lens and decoloniality that will challenge the way racism is currently referenced in educational leadership scholarship. Moreover, current global and decolonial research gives way for a new vision of solidarity by humanizing scholarly resistance that cultivates a vision of community that regards differences of knowledge across groups and investigates racist policies and practices in educational leadership programs.

A Case Study of Lessons Learned from a Decade of Success in Preparing and Supporting Quality School Leadership Through District–University Partnerships

The purpose of this case study was to explore the context and key features of a successful decade-long district and university principal preparation program. Despite the importance of such partnerships, long-standing partnerships appear to be far from the norm. The partnership was designed in collaboration with faculty at a flagship university in the American Southwest and district leaders in a large urban school system. At the initiation of the partnership, the school district faced challenges similar to other districts in ensuring a steady pool of quality school leaders. The study was grounded in theory and anchored in relevant scholarly literature. Research methods included data collected from a qualitative analysis of the perspectives of key personnel who co-created the principal preparation program and supplementary data from external evaluations conducted by recognized appraisers. Findings indicate that district–university partnerships are more likely to endure when the partners are able to strengthen shared goals, leverage existing assets, sustain trusting relationships, uphold mutuality of purpose, and support collaborative interactions. The implications and recommendations from the study may appeal to other providers of principal preparation programs who desire to adapt the lessons learned and build on the assets that exist in their own unique school and community contexts. Future research on long standing district–university partnerships may help inform states in their oversight of principal preparation programs and university and district partners who wish to start or sustain the recruitment, preparation, placement, and retention of quality educational leaders in contextually specific and complex school environments.

A Clear and Consistent Focus on Students: Principals’ Perceptions of the Role of School Counselors

As greater emphasis is placed on addressing critical school issues such as school-based mental health, violence prevention, and the effects of trauma, the utilization of school counselors should be examined to ensure that these uniquely-trained professionals are mobilized by school administrators to engage these issues. Q methodology was employed to explore how a convenience sampling of 32 current principals across varying demographics and grade levels conceptualize the role of the school counselor. The results of this study provide a rich understanding of how principals view school counselors in relation to the needs of their respective school communities. Evident is a clear and consistent emphasis of principals on the need for school counselors to have a strong rapport with their students. Discussed are additional steps that may be considered in further advancing the relationships between these two types of professionals, as well as insights to inform school principal preparation programs in how school leaders can appropriately utilize student services personnel.

Using Adolescent Perceptions of Misconduct to Help Educational Leaders Identify and Respond to Sexual Misconduct

Purpose. In the current study, we present data describing adolescents’ perceptions and knowledge of educator sexual misconduct. Prior research has not investigated how adolescents understand these situations, and this information can help school leaders, educators, and researchers both understand how these situations begin and develop programs aimed at identifying cases of misconduct in order to reduce future occurrences. Research Design. The study took place in a Texas city designated as an “Other City Center” District Type by Texas Education Agency. The study’s 1,203 participants were secondary students from the district. Findings. Findings indicate that almost 2% of those surveyed openly admitted to currently being consensually sexually involved with a teacher. Those in a relationship were equally likely to be male or female, were older, and were engaged in risky online activities, including using the internet to connect with strangers, sending or receiving sexually suggestive pictures and videos, and searching for their teacher on social media. Implications. There are numerous implications for policy and preparation at various levels, from state and national legislation to school and school district policy to teacher- and principal-preparation programs.