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41 – 50 of over 27000
Article
Publication date: 8 February 2021

Richard Welsh, Sheneka Williams, Karen Bryant and Jami Berry

Conceptualizing schools as learning organizations provides a potential avenue to meet the pressing challenges of school improvement in the USA. District and school leaders play an…

Abstract

Purpose

Conceptualizing schools as learning organizations provides a potential avenue to meet the pressing challenges of school improvement in the USA. District and school leaders play an important role in creating and sustaining the conditions for a learning organization, yet little is known about how leadership responds to learning-resistant contexts in their mission to improve schools. This study aims to examine the relationship between the district and school leadership and schools as learning organizations. The focus is on the conceptualization of schools as learning organizations and the challenges involved in creating and sustaining conditions and processes in which to improve schools.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses semi-structured interviews with district and school leaders in the state of Georgia and data from completed dimensions of a learning organization questionnaire (DLOQ) study to analyze how district and school leaders conceptualize or make sense of schools as learning organizations and overcome challenges associated with creating and sustaining a learning organization in learning-resistant contexts.

Findings

The analysis find that participants perceive their school or district as a learning organization when the structure allows others to work together to learn and grow for the benefit of students.

Originality/value

This study is unique in that it adds to a growing number of studies that examine schools as learning organizations using the DLOQ and sheds light on the nature of learning-resistant contexts.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 28 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 January 2019

Jenna Grzeslo, Yang Bai, Bumgi Min and Krishna Jayakar

This study aims to analyze the impact of the 2014 E-Rate reforms on the pattern of distribution of funds of the program.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to analyze the impact of the 2014 E-Rate reforms on the pattern of distribution of funds of the program.

Design/methodology/approach

Using Pennsylvania data, the paper investigates whether a school district that successfully applied for funding received increased support post-reforms, and what socio-economic characteristics of school districts were associated with successful applications. Furthermore, it asks whether the reforms reduced the barriers that disadvantaged school districts face in obtaining support.

Findings

The finding suggests that, even after controlling for changes in the school districts’ eligibility and application skills, the amount of funding committed to the school districts was still significantly higher after the reform.

Originality/value

The analysis shows that, immediately after the reform, the non-urban school districts were committed more funding than urban school districts were; they also received more funds than they would have without the reforms. This indicates that the 2014 reform might have benefited disadvantaged applicants, especially rural school districts.

Details

Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance, vol. 21 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2398-5038

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 June 2013

Tina Trujillo

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the district effectiveness literature. It begins by summarizing the school effectiveness research, the correlates of effective schools, and…

1543

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the district effectiveness literature. It begins by summarizing the school effectiveness research, the correlates of effective schools, and the conceptual and methodological characteristics of this field. It then describes the findings from a review of 50 studies of district effectiveness, the most frequently identified correlates of effective districts, and the conceptual and methodological features of this research. From there, it compares and contrasts the two fields, paying attention to the ways in which they frame notions of success, purposes of education, the contextualized nature of school performance, and theoretical explanations for student success.

Design/methodology/approach

Data sources for this literature review included 50 primary documents on district effectiveness. The studies were bound to those that presented the original results from investigations of the relationship between district‐level policies, routines, behaviors, or other characteristics and classroom‐level outcomes.

Findings

Several themes run through the literature on district effectiveness. These include findings that standards‐aligned curricula, coherent organizational structures, strong instructional leadership, frequent monitoring and evaluation, and focused professional learning lead to higher test scores. Most of these investigations are framed from technical perspectives that explore the relationship between organizational regulations and improved test performance. Less common are inquiries about the socio‐political and normative forces that shape districts’ improvement experiences. One consequence of this technical focus is that the field of district effectiveness has come to share several of the conceptual and methodological properties that characterized the former school‐level research.

Research limitations/implications

The article concludes by discussing the implications for the growing volume of district‐level research on educational leadership, district improvement, and educational equity.

Originality/value

This article details the ways in which a sharp focus on questions of what works in the district effectiveness literature has deepened researchers’ and practitioners’ knowledge of the specific mechanisms that may produce more desirable results in test performance, yet these questions alone, decoupled from corresponding inquiries about the complex, highly contextualized character of higher or lower scoring districts, leave researchers and practitioners vulnerable to the same scholarly and practical pitfalls of their predecessors.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 51 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1986

JOSEPH MURPHY and PHILIP HALLINGER

The study reported on in this article examines how instructional leadership is exercised by superintendents in effective school districts. We employ concepts drawn from school

Abstract

The study reported on in this article examines how instructional leadership is exercised by superintendents in effective school districts. We employ concepts drawn from school effectiveness studies and from organizational literature on coordination and control in an attempt to understand how superintendents organize and manage instruction and curriculum in these effective districts. Specific instructional management practices are examined within a framework of six major functions, setting goals and establishing expectations and standards, selecting staff, supervising and evaluating staff, establishing an instructional and curricular focus, ensuring consistency in technical core operations, and monitoring curriculum and instruction. Based on interviews with superintendents from 12 of the most instructionally effective school districts in California and analysis of selected district documents, we present descriptions of district‐level policies and practices that these superintendents use to coordinate and control the instructional management activities of their principals. Similarities and differences in the patterns of control and coordination found in these districts are highlighted. The implications of the findings are then examined in light of recent findings regarding coupling and linkages in schools. The results of this study suggest that superintendents in instructionally effective school districts are more active “instructional managers” than previous descriptions of superintendents would have led us to expect. In particular, coordination and control of the technical core appears more systematic in these districts. The results do not, however, provide a uniform picture of how instruction is coordinated and controlled. A wide range of both culture building activities and bureaucratic policies and practices were emphasized by the superintendents in this study as they exercised their instructional leadership roles.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 24 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Article
Publication date: 14 October 2013

Sreekanth Yagnamurthy

The present paper provides an educational status related to instructional days at elementary level in the districts identified as focus districts of left-wing extremism (LWE). The…

Abstract

Purpose

The present paper provides an educational status related to instructional days at elementary level in the districts identified as focus districts of left-wing extremism (LWE). The focus districts are those which have high intensity and presence of LWE. Educational development is not only influenced by the LWE, but many others, such as socio-economic, political and cultural, etc. Accordingly no direct correlations can be drawn between low educational development or otherwise with the influence of LWE. However, instructional days in school is an important physical indicator on school functioning.

Design/methodology/approach

The research is based on the secondary analysis of District Information System for Education (DISE) data, which provides comprehensive information of school-based indicators, facility indicators, enrollment based indicators and teacher-related indicators for every year. The DISE data relating to number of instructional days for the years 2005-2006 to 2009-2010 is studied among the districts identified as LWE districts. For the purpose of analysis, the number of days is classified into seven categories, and the schools functioning at district level is analyzed.

Findings

Education is critical in the LWE districts, which are areas with low literacy, large percentage of rural and backward sections of population. It was found that though there is an apparent improvement in the schools functioning, still number of schools fell under the category low/non-functional schools. In two out of five years, other districts had significantly lower average instructional days than focus districts. Hence, in terms of instructional days the situation is not all that bad.

Research limitations/implications

The study is based on the secondary analysis of the DISE data. A large data related to number of students goes unaccounted and unregistered. The data is analyzed on mean instructional days at district level. Further down at sub-district and village level could provide a much more realistic picture.

Originality/value

The research paper analyzes the number of instructional days, which is an indicator that provides the basic empirical information related to schools functioning. Before policy makers can think of quality, it is pertinent to know whether the schools are working for the number of days that they are expected to. As of now hardly any study has taken place to provide information on the LWE districts in relation to elementary education.

Details

Asian Education and Development Studies, vol. 2 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2046-3162

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 May 2020

Michael Ford and Douglas Ihrke

The purpose of this research was to determine the extent to which American school board members faced electoral competition, as well as the factors influencing the likelihood of…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research was to determine the extent to which American school board members faced electoral competition, as well as the factors influencing the likelihood of competition.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors utilized original national survey data of American school board members linked with school district demographic data obtained from the National Center for Education Statistics. Several hypotheses were tested using three state-level fixed-effects logistic regression models predicting electoral competition.

Findings

The authors found that 39.6% of American school board members reported not having an opponent in their most recent election. School board members serving larger urban school districts with higher percentages of special needs students and racial minorities were more likely to have faced electoral competition.

Originality/value

The authors highlighted potential flaws in the traditional model of local democratic governance and helped expand understanding of the dissatisfaction theory of American democracy and continuous participation theory. The authors concluded with several suggestions on how the results can be used to inform future local governance reforms that increase electoral competition and/or create more effective governance models.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 58 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 June 2018

Yi-Hwa Liou and Alan J. Daly

Secondary school leadership provides multiple challenges in terms of the diversity of tasks, multiple demands on time, balancing communities and attending to instructional…

Abstract

Purpose

Secondary school leadership provides multiple challenges in terms of the diversity of tasks, multiple demands on time, balancing communities and attending to instructional programming. An emerging scholarship suggests the importance of a distributed instructional leadership approach to high school leadership. However, what has been less thoroughly explored is how secondary school leadership is distributed leaders across a school district. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the social structure and positions urban high school principals occupy in the district system.

Design/methodology/approach

This study was conducted in one urban fringe public school district in southern California serving diverse students populations. The data were collected at three time points starting in Fall 2012 and ending in Fall 2014 from a district-wide leadership team including all central office and site leaders. All leaders were asked to assess their social relations and perception of innovative climate. The data were analyzed through a series of social network indices to examine the structure and positions of high school principals.

Findings

Results indicate that over time high school principals have decreasing access to social capital and are typically occupying peripheral positions in the social network. The high school principals’ perception of innovative climate across the district decreases over time.

Originality/value

This longitudinal study, one of the first to examine high school principals from a network perspective, sheds new light on the social infrastructure of urban high school principals and what this might mean for efforts at improvement.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 56 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 September 2021

Sarah Melvoin Bridich

This 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…

Abstract

Purpose

This 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/approach

Using 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.

Findings

The 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/implications

A qualitative study of three standalone charter and innovation schools in one urban school district limits generalizability.

Originality/value

The 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.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 59 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 June 2019

Kenneth Leithwood, Jingping Sun and Catherine McCullough

The purpose of this paper is to test the effects of nine district characteristics on student achievement, explored the conditions that mediated the effects of such characteristics…

2195

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to test the effects of nine district characteristics on student achievement, explored the conditions that mediated the effects of such characteristics and contributed to understandings about the role school-level leaders play in district efforts to improve achievement.

Design/methodology/approach

Data for the study were provided by the responses of 2,324 school and district leaders in 45 school districts to two surveys. Student achievement evidence was provided by multi-grade provincial measures of math and language achievement. The analysis of these data included calculation of descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis and regression mediation analysis.

Findings

Seven of nine district characteristics contributed significantly to student achievement and three conditions served as especially powerful mediators of such district effects. The same three conditions, as well as others, acted as significant mediators of school-level leader effects on achievement, as well.

Practical implications

District characteristics tested in the study provide a powerful framework for guiding the district improvement work of senior educational leaders. The organizational improvement efforts of both district and school leaders would be substantially enhanced by a better understanding of how to diagnose and improve the status of those conditions acting as significant mediators of the effects of both district and school leadership on student achievement.

Originality/value

This is one of a very few large-scale quantitative studies examining the extent to which characteristics frequently identified by district effectiveness research explain variation in student learning. It is also one of the very few studies identifying classroom, school and family variables that mediate district effects on such learning. The study also adds to a growing body of evidence about variables which mediate school leaders’ effects on such learning.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 57 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 June 2019

Jessica Rigby, Emily Donaldson Walsh, Shelley Boten, Allison Deno, M. Scott Harrison, Rodrick Merrell, Sarah Pritchett and Scott Seaman

Research on principal supervisors (PSs) is an emerging field, and principal supervision for racial equity has not yet been studied or theorized. Conducted in partnership with…

Abstract

Purpose

Research on principal supervisors (PSs) is an emerging field, and principal supervision for racial equity has not yet been studied or theorized. Conducted in partnership with practicing district leaders, the purpose of this paper is to examine current PS leadership in three districts at various points of engagement in equitable leadership practices and set forth a framework for conceptualizing systems equitable leadership practice.

Design/methodology/approach

This collaborative study emerged from an EdD course project in which groups of practitioner–scholars identified and collected qualitative interview, survey and artifact data about problems of practice in their districts. University researchers supported data collection and conducted analyses across settings, building on Ishimaru and Galloway’s (2014) equitable leadership practices framework.

Findings

Equitable PS leadership practices were variable. No district engaged with “proficiency” across all drivers of equitable leadership practice, but the district that engaged in equitable PS practices most deeply framed the work of schooling as a race-explicit endeavor, suggesting that framing is a fundamental driver.

Research limitations/implications

This paper builds on PS and equity-focused leadership research by adding a systems-level equity focus.

Practical implications

Findings suggest that districts should focus on equity framing as the foundation for principal support and development.

Originality/value

This researcher/practitioner–scholar collaboration shows how practitioner–scholars provide focus and expertise to the field unavailable to traditional researchers.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 57 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

41 – 50 of over 27000