Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the practice of new principal coaching in schools from the coaches’ perspective.

Six coaches of new principals were interviewed over a one-year period. Through the use of a qualitative, constant-comparative approach, the participants’ voices were used to discover their views. Data analysis employed emergent coding (Creswell, 2008; Denzin, 2005; Glaser and Strauss, 1998; Spradley, 1979). The study took place in the San Francisco Bay Area, a linguistically and ethnically diverse area, in the state of California, USA.

Thematic analysis of interview data from principal coaches revealed a process-oriented focus within principal coaching as a primary finding. Process-oriented coaching, rather than specific, skill-focussed content, was the main mechanism coaches used to support new principals.

Findings are limited to the sample of principal coaches used for this analysis, although there are potential applications to similar school settings in other locations. Researchers are encouraged to examine new principal coaching in other contexts.

The results of this inquiry point to the importance of process skills in new principal coaching, suggest the need for new approaches in principal mentoring programs, and call for further research on specific process tools in coaching to promote reflection and inquiry.

The paper identifies process-oriented coaching as a valuable support mechanism for new principals, particularly during their first year in the role.

The purpose of this paper is to use empirical data on new principals to clarify the connection between different succession situations and the challenges their successor principals face.

The study draws on two waves of interview data from a random sample of 16 new elementary school principals in a major urban school district in the USA.

New principals face distinct practice challenges depending on the nature of their successions. The less planned the succession, the less information and knowledge the new principal tends to possess. The more discontinuous the new administration’s trajectory is with the previous administration, the greater the staff resistance that the successor principal tends to face.

Few studies systematically examine how succession situations differ in schools that are in need of transformation vs those in need of stability. This study addresses this gap by illuminating the varied processes of succession and highlighting specific mechanisms that link these processes to different organizational trajectories.

For district officials, this study suggests that principals in unplanned successions need greater support in quickly gathering information about their new schools while principals in discontinuous successions need greater expertise in how to balance trust-building and accountability in their attempts to promote transformational change.

This study’s primary value is its detailed articulation of how certain characteristics of succession situations are associated with specific types of challenges. Only studies at this level of specificity can be effective guides to practitioners and policymakers who are charged with preparing, selecting, and supporting new principals and their schools.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how elementary school principals adjust their leadership practice in response to Washington’s new teacher evaluation policy.

The authors conducted a modified content analysis of open-ended survey responses collected from elementary school principals in Washington State. In all, the survey included responses from 354 elementary school principals representing 25.0 percent of the state’s elementary school principal population. ATLAS.ti supported data analysis and assisted in the derivation of three key findings.

Elementary school principals changed their instructional leadership practice in response to the new teacher evaluation policy in three significant ways. First, principals adjusted their approach to classroom observation to complete more intentional, in-depth observational activities. Second, principals redistributed non-instructional responsibilities to clerical staff members to allow themselves and other administrators more time for classroom observation. Third, principals adopted a learning stance to the new policy and thus sought external support, especially coaching, to assist them with the implementation of new evaluation practices.

The study faced three limitations. First, the sample of respondents included in this study cannot be generalized to the state as participants were not randomly selected. Second, the survey did not utilize a longitudinal design, and thus its findings only relate to the first year of the policy’s implementation. Third, the study does not include school-based evidence to triangulate principals’ survey responses.

The study contributes to the instructional leadership literature. Specifically, the study offers further insights into the adjustments principals make in their leadership to accommodate expectations found in new teacher evaluation policy.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceived efficacy of a US-based national principal mentor training program.

A sample of 370 protégés who received services from principal mentors in a national mentor internship program were invited to complete an electronic survey. Responses were obtained from 54 protégés.

The 54 respondents rated the mentor program highly, indicating that mentors were well prepared, good listeners, and instrumental in strengthening their instructional leadership.

This study provides preliminary information on the perceived efficacy of the program. To more fully understand the needs of new principals and the value of varying mentor approaches, follow-up interviews, a research design that provides for data to be disaggregated by specific mentor trainers and dates/locations of training sessions, and comparative data from protégés supported by mentors prepared by other programs are needed.

Protégés reported high job satisfaction and recommended the program to others.

New principals reported that the principal mentoring was critical to their adjustment and success during their first year. This is the only known principal mentor program requiring a nine-month internship. The outcomes revealed the value of evaluating perceptions of protégés for continuous quality improvement.

This paper aims to explore the extent to which the programme for principal preparation in Scotland relates to what is expected of principals once they are in post and what it is that they actually do.

The paper analyses the professional experience of five relatively new elementary school principals reported in monthly logs maintained over a six‐month period.

The preparation for headship programme appears to help develop the professional identity of aspiring headteachers, broaden their outlook and develop confidence and self‐belief. What is not clear is the extent to which the programme is developing principals with the strength of purpose required to work towards schools centred on educational values.

The paper builds on previous work by the authors and makes a contribution to the research on principal preparation and the work of new school principals.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether and how success has been sustained over time in schools which were identified as being successful five years ago.

Three schools were selected for a revisit, and the sample included two combined schools (grade 1‐10) and one upper secondary school (grade 11‐13). In two schools the same principals were still in post, and in the third school there had recently been a change in principalship. Interviews with the principal and a group of teachers at each school were the major source of new data. Questions that guided the study: What structural and cultural changes can be identified within the schools compared with five years ago? What factors might help sustain success over time?

The learning‐centred approach identified earlier had been sustained in the schools during the five years. All principals focused on multiple ways of influencing staff motivation, commitment and working conditions, teamwork was a vital characteristic, and they also reported on their struggle to sustain and promote equity and social justice. For the two schools with principals still in post one could hardly detect any change in preferred strategies, but for the third school with the new principal there was a significant change. Although his ethos was closely connected to that which existed at the school five years ago, his leadership approach and the agenda for school improvement were different. As such, the study provides an example of how principals have the power to set the tone and the agenda for school development even though leadership practice is an interactive process involving many people.

The paper provides knowledge about sustainable leadership in a context where new expectations are raised towards schools, and principals are in particular challenged to respond to new and sometimes contradicting expectations.

The purpose of this paper is to define and describe the mentoring mindset in a protégé. The central research question was: What constitutes a mentoring mindset in a protégé who is poised to receive maximum benefits from a mentoring relationship, as described by the mentor?

A phenomenological approach was used to conduct this study. Interviews were conducted with veteran school principals who were trained mentors, assigned and paired with newly appointed principals for a year of mentoring. The identification of the phenomenon of the mentoring mindset of the protégé was derived from the mentors’ perspectives of their protégés’ behaviors, dispositions, attitudes, and competencies, as they were conveyed in the research interviews.

A definition of the protégé's mentoring mindset was created after analysis of the interview data, and indicators of the presence and absence of the mindset were formulated into a Protégé Mentoring Mindset Framework that provides information on protégé competencies. The protégé with a mentoring mindset takes initiative, possesses a learning orientation, has a goal orientation, is relational and reflective. Conversely, the protégé who does not have a mentoring mindset lacks initiative, lacks a learning orientation, a goal orientation, and is not relational or reflective.

One limitation of the study is that it only gathered the perceptions of the mentor, but the protégé is the one being described. This, however, is consistent with other studies of protégé competencies. The study was conducted with a specific population (school principals) in a southern state of the USA. Hence, it cannot be assumed to be generalizable to other populations or fields of study. Replication of this research in other settings is suggested, so that the Framework can be further affirmed, disconfirmed, or augmented. Implications of this research could be that the Mentoring Mindset Framework can be used for considering the varied competencies of the protégé, and can be used in both mentor and protégé training.

To this researcher's knowledge, there has not been a Protégé Mentoring Mindset Framework of competencies created in mentoring research.

During the 2000‐2004 period, one New Zealand tertiary institution provided a management development programme for experienced secondary school principals. Aims to determine the extent to which the learning had been sustained beyond the formal programme

A postal questionnaire was administered to 80 participants seeking responses to questions concerning the programme and whether the learning had been transferred to their organisations.

Empirical data suggested that while the programme was highly valued and there was a high degree of willingness to sustain the learning, this is only possible if school boards actively support principals to engage in critical reflection by providing time and opportunity. This research project provides evidence of the need for principals to participate in advanced management development in order to stimulate their own leadership learning.

Findings from this research will be of benefit to policy makers, employing authorities and principals.

To explain a new set of rules, detailed in FINRA Regulatory Notice 17-30, proposed by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that revise and streamline the number and types of proficiency exams broker-dealer personnel must take in order to become registered, as well as the categories of registration.

Discusses the background, including FINRA’s consolidation of National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) rules; the new registration regime; conditions for waivers; criteria for “permissive” registration; firms’ requirement to designate “Principal Financial Officers” and “Principal Operations Officers”; new categories of principal registration; FINRA’s elimination of certain registration categories; research analyst, research principal and supervisory analyst exam requirements; the ability of a registered representative to function as a principal for a limited period; the prohibition of unregistered persons to accept orders from customers; and the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) Examination Content Outline.

The new structure is intended to bring greater consistency and uniformity to the qualification process. Among other changes, it eliminates several registration categories that either have become outdated or have limited utility, permits persons not yet associated with a broker-dealer or employed in the securities industry to take a preliminary registration exam prior to entering the securities industry, and makes other changes intended to modernize the registration and examination regime for broker-dealer personnel.

Practical guidance from lawyers with broad stock brokerage, investment management and related financial services experience.

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.

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.

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.

Future work should examine principals’ work to balance the demands of accountability and commitment in a variety of organizational contexts.

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.

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.