Current research has described a changed central office perspective that not only includes campus principals as part of the district's leadership team, but also focuses on developing principals' instructional abilities with the purpose of supporting school reform. However, to date, research has not provided examples of a successful relationship between campus principals as a collective group and the district (central office) leadership team attempting to implement district-wide high school reform. This study was conducted in order to examine the perceptions of high school principals (in an urban school district in Texas) toward district-wide initiated high school reform. Methods used for data collection included semi-structured interviews, review of available artifacts, and case profile development. Questions derived from the researcher's review of the literature and ongoing professional interest were the basis for dialogue during the semi-structured interviews. All interviews were recorded, transcribed, and unitized. The data were further organized into categories and subcategories. The analysis of principals' perceptions provided insight and helped develop an understanding of obstacles that high school principals perceive in implementing district-led high school reform. This study has concluded that the district goals and mission do not define the daily operations of a campus. Instead, the district goals and mission are often reprioritized because principals are insecure, believe they have a better understanding of the local context than does the central office, and are oftentimes frustrated by the central office's political machinations. Recommendations include suggestions on how to eliminate these obstacles, improve the ability of principals to implement district-led high school reform, and how to suggest actions for the improvement of the high school reform process at the central office level.

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This ethnographic case study examines O. Perry Walker, a New Orleans high school the state of Louisiana had previously labeled "failing," during its closure from August 29, 2005 until December 14, 2005, due to the evacuation of New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina. This unprecedented evacuation of a major city closed the school, making its reopening the battleground for diverse actors seeking to shape the future of the school and the school system. This research includes interviews with the stakeholders who worked to control, reopen and reform this urban school: teachers, school administrators, elected officials, the California National Guard and staff with a private "turnaround" company, Alvarez and Marsal. It concerns the management of schools facing multiple disasters. The conversion of Walker from a traditional public school to a charter school provides insights into so-called urban school reforms, including ownership, privatization and control of public schools for numerous contentious stakeholders.

This is a phenomenological study of the experiences of three teacher leaders in the context of high school reform. It examines the essence of teacher leadership and how these teacher leaders made sense of their experiences. At the outset is a portrayal of my position and connection to the phenomenon of teacher leadership. This study reviews literature within three distinct areas. First, the nature of school reform is examined, including the rationale for reform, the challenges associated with reform, how to achieve sustainable reform, and a review of six drivers for effective reforms. Then, an investigation of distributed leadership follows which includes a discussion of the processes and forms of distributed leadership and a description of the facilitators and tensions for distributed leadership. The third area of the review is focused on teacher leadership including the roles and characteristics of teacher leaders, their connection to staff development, issues of effectiveness, and tensions for teacher leaders. Following this review, the research design and methodology is presented. Transcendental phenomenology including the concepts of phenomenological reduction and imaginative variation are explored in detail. Protocol writing was utilized to select participants for this study. From collected writings by formal teacher leaders, participants suited for phenomenological research were selected. Three teacher leaders participated in in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed by the researcher. Participants shared their experiences as teacher leaders. Additional questions were asked to elicit more details about their experiences and to find out how participants made sense of their experiences. In the experiences of the participants, five themes emerged: Grappling with teacher leadership identity, facing the uncertainties of sustaining the reform initiative, negotiating the tensions between management and leadership, experiencing challenges of leading, and feeling the empowerment of success. Participants made sense of their experiences in these four ways: learning, communicating, doing, and reflecting. Several forces that impact the experience of teacher leadership and facilitate the formation of teacher leadership identity emerged. Through the process of making sense of their experiences, teacher leaders came to understand theory, which they termed getting it, and then enacted their learning. The ways in which teacher leaders made sense of their experiences were influenced in part by their leadership persona and in part by the culture and context within which they lived. Among the implications for theory from this study is that more needs to be learned about the leadership identity of teacher leaders leading reforms. Implications for practice include the provision of time for teacher leaders to reflect on and discuss their experiences, as well as the provision of professional development focused on change praxis and leadership praxis for teacher leaders and instructional leadership for in-school administrators. Among the implications for research are the need to investigate teacher leaders association with administration, both in their aspirations and in how they are perceived towards administration, the cognitive changes that occur for teacher leaders, whether a context of instructional leadership eases tensions in teacher leadership, and whether formal teacher leader roles are an effective way for school divisions to plan for leadership succession. In addition, the phenomenological research method is reflected upon.

This is a phenomenological study of the experiences of three teacher leaders in the context of high school reform. It examines the essence of teacher leadership and how these teacher leaders made sense of their experiences. At the outset is a portrayal of my position and connection to the phenomenon of teacher leadership. This study reviews literature within three distinct areas. First, the nature of school reform is examined, including the rationale for reform, the challenges associated with reform, how to achieve sustainable reform, and a review of six drivers for effective reforms. Then, an investigation of distributed leadership follows which includes a discussion of the processes and forms of distributed leadership and a description of the facilitators and tensions for distributed leadership. The third area of the review is focused on teacher leadership including the roles and characteristics of teacher leaders, their connection to staff development, issues of effectiveness, and tensions for teacher leaders. Following this review, the research design and methodology is presented. Transcendental phenomenology including the concepts of phenomenological reduction and imaginative variation are explored in detail. Protocol writing was utilized to select participants for this study. From collected writings by formal teacher leaders, participants suited for phenomenological research were selected. Three teacher leaders participated in in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed by the researcher. Participants shared their experiences as teacher leaders. Additional questions were asked to elicit more details about their experiences and to find out how participants made sense of their experiences. In the experiences of the participants, five themes emerged: Grappling with teacher leadership identity, facing the uncertainties of sustaining the reform initiative, negotiating the tensions between management and leadership, experiencing challenges of leading, and feeling the empowerment of success. Participants made sense of their experiences in these four ways: learning, communicating, doing, and reflecting. Several forces that impact the experience of teacher leadership and facilitate the formation of teacher leadership identity emerged. Through the process of making sense of their experiences, teacher leaders came to understand theory, which they termed getting it, and then enacted their learning. The ways in which teacher leaders made sense of their experiences were influenced in part by their leadership persona and in part by the culture and context within which they lived. Among the implications for theory from this study is that more needs to be learned about the leadership identity of teacher leaders leading reforms. Implications for practice include the provision of time for teacher leaders to reflect on and discuss their experiences, as well as the provision of professional development focused on change praxis and leadership praxis for teacher leaders and instructional leadership for in-school administrators. Among the implications for research are the need to investigate teacher leaders association with administration, both in their aspirations and in how they are perceived towards administration, the cognitive changes that occur for teacher leaders, whether a context of instructional leadership eases tensions in teacher leadership, and whether formal teacher leader roles are an effective way for school divisions to plan for leadership succession. In addition, the phenomenological research method is reflected upon.

The study examined urban university faculty members’ perceptions of their presidents’ leadership role in urban school reform. The population for this study consisted of faculty members from five urban research universities. All of the universities are members of the Great Cities’ Universities (GCU) coalition, an alliance of 19 public urban research universities that are collaborating to address educational challenges in their communities. The study entailed a purposive sample with universities chosen on the basis of their membership in the GCU. The subjects were 245 faculty members from colleges of education and colleges of arts and sciences at the five urban research universities. All participants completed the Urban Faculty Questionnaire (UFQ), a confidential, web-based questionnaire designed by the researcher. The questionnaire consisted of five statements about general perceptions of urban school reform, 30 statements about perceptions of the university presidents’ leadership roles in the specific institutions’ urban school reform initiatives, eight statements regarding personal characteristics and a section for optional additional comments. The statements corresponded to seven internal scales of analysis. The seven scales were (a) Perceptions of Urban School Reform, (b) University Structure and Culture, (c) Presidential Awareness, (d) Internal Relationships, (e) External Relationships, (f) Resources and Support and (g) Accountability and Recognition. The data show faculty believe urban schools need reform. Faculty also believe universities located in urban communities should be involved actively in urban school reform. Faculty generally do not take personal responsibility, however, for urban school reform initiatives at their universities. Faculty seem more aware of their presidents’ external relationships than their internal relationships in urban school reform. Faculty tend to agree that their presidents build strong relationships with the local business community and with the local political community; however, they tend only somewhat to agree that their presidents build strong relationships with local public school representatives and local families and citizens. The study also reveals that no statistically significant difference exists in faculty perceptions of their presidents’ leadership in urban school reform by the faculty members’ academic college, academic rank, years of service at their current institutions, highest academic degree earned, gender and ethnicity.

This ethnographic study examines the relationship between teachers’ literacy teaching practices and the pressures created from large-scale reform and high-stakes testing. The participants were staff members at one elementary school that primarily serves Latino students, with a history of low-test scores. Primarily drawing on field notes of classroom observations and meetings as well as interview transcripts, this study demonstrates how testing infiltrated literacy teaching at the school and classroom level. Organizational decisions were made to support test preparation in 3rd-5th grades, but resulted in uneven support for teachers and students in the form of monetary resources and how support staff were used. In terms of bilingual education, informed decisions determined students’ language of instruction and testing, but otherwise received little attention. At the classroom level, test preparation infused daily literacy instruction despite a general consensus among teachers that teaching to the test was against their own beliefs. The subsequent literacy teaching practices resulted in narrow definitions of literacy reduced to disconnected skills in isolation without clear connections to meaningful uses of literacy. The ways in which test preparation affected the classroom life could be seen in the ways teachers organized their class schedules to accommodate test preparation, the specific strategies test-taking strategies they taught, and the use of assessments to track student progress and make instructional decisions. While teaching to the test presented challenges for their beliefs, a minority of teachers found ways to make their practices as theoretically defensible as possible while still supporting students with test preparation, such as through the use of high quality children’s literature. Some teachers also participated in conferences and organizations outside of the school as a way of extending their teaching and the curriculum. The findings from this study expand on what we know about teachers’ response to reform and testing because of their ability to respond with agency in a context that otherwise positions them as less-than-professionals. These teachers offer a heartening example of what we really need—proactive decision makers in the classroom who can navigate the demands of working in a high-stakes testing culture while still promoting quality literacy instruction. / text

The purpose of this study was to explore the implementation experiences of school leaders and teachers in a public, all-female, single-sex campus that experienced successful student outcomes. This research examined the participants' views of the factors that influence successful implementation of this model. Three research questions guided the study: (1) What are stakeholder perceptions of the factors that influenced the successful implementation of an all-female, single-sex, whole-school reform? (2) What are stakeholder perceptions of the successes experienced during the successful implementation of an all-female, single-sex, whole-school reform? (3) What are stakeholder perceptions of the challenges to the successful implementation of an all-female, single-sex, whole-school reform? This qualitative study used a grounded theory approach and a case study design to examine the implementation of whole-school, single-sex reform on a campus that experienced successful student outcomes, as evidenced by receiving the highest rating from the state accountability system in 2010-2011. Participants for this study were selected through purposive, theoretical sampling using a referral technique to generate the participant pool. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, an open-ended questionnaire, and a review of documents. To produce a substantive theory, data analysis followed the open, axial, and selective coding processes outlined by Strauss and Corbin (1990). The participant perceptions and major findings were analyzed to determine the relationships between causal conditions in order to develop theoretical explanations about the factors that influenced the implementation. The major factors influencing the implementation of the all-female, single-sex campus in this study were: (1) Community, (2) External factors, (3) District-level factors, and (4) School-level factors. The data and findings from this research were used to generate a substantive theory regarding the factors that influence successful implementation of this model so that leaders in public school districts may have a greater knowledge base with which to augment the decision-making process when considering the implementation of all-female, single-sex campuses as a whole-school reform model. Also, districts planning to implement this model may use the findings as a guide when considering the factors in their own districts that may influence implementation. / text

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of the professional development component of Comprehensive School Reform on the mathematics achievement of third and fifth grade students attending selected Title I schools in Virginia. A qualitative research design was used to examine data from a focus group of four technical assistance providers, six principal interviews, and thirteen teacher surveys. This study involved participants of the 2003 cohort of the Comprehensive School Reform process during a 3-year period from 2003 through 2006. A set of questions was developed for each group of participants to acquire their perceptions of the components of professional development that impacted instruction and enhanced student achievement in mathematics. A constant comparative method was used to analyze key words and direct quotes from the focus group interview, principal interviews, and teacher surveys. Triangulation of these data was utilized to identify emergent themes. The findings revealed that the professional development component of Comprehensive School Reform had a significant impact on classroom instruction and student achievement in mathematics. Findings also revealed that the technical assistance provider served as a coach and resource for professional development. Findings indicated that professional development included data analysis and research-based instructional strategies as contributing factors for increased student achievement. The Virginia Standards of Learning pass rates of spring 2006 showed significant gains in the mathematics achievement of students in Grades 3 and 5 attending the Title I schools participating in Comprehensive School Reform. It was evident in the findings of this study that professional development significantly impacted the mathematics achievement of students attending the 2003 Comprehensive School Reform cohort of selected schools in Virginia. This information will serve as a resource for administrators of Title I schools in Virginia that have not met the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. / Ph. D.

The face of America's schools is changing. An increasingly diverse and challenging population of students blends assorted ethnic backgrounds, varied approaches to learning, and different socio-economic backgrounds into one student body. Faced with the realities of environmental and educational stressors, some students may find the educational milieu difficult. One particular group of students who may fit this category are those placed at-risk of school failure. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the latest government reform in education to affect our nation's schools, created additional pressures on educators and students alike. In this climate of increased testing and accountability, educators must be trained to work with today's students. Staff development is one method of assisting educators to become knowledgeable about the needs of students placed at-risk of school failure in the current reform era. Guiding issues for this study were the nature of staff development with regard to students placed at-risk of school failure in an era of educational reform as viewed through staff development. Guiding questions were how many staff development courses were aimed at meeting the needs of students placed at-risk of school failure and how much of this training was done relative to content-based staff development. Staff development offices were chosen because they are the conduits through which school district employees often gain substantial knowledge and training, and because of their importance in the field of training and professional development. The method used in this study was a content analysis of staff development course documents from the 100 largest school districts in the United States. The intent of this quantitative content analysis was to explore how school district staff development offices approach the task of educating their employees to work with a complex, diverse school population, often seen as at-risk of school failure. This study was important to the field of educational leadership because it provided essential and useful information, both for educators working with an increasingly diverse student population, especially students at-risk of school failure, and for district leaders whose task it is to provide staff development for those who teach our children. Quantitative analyses of the staff development course documents showed no relationship between school district size and number of courses with coded words; the total number of courses a school district offered was, however, a predictor for the total number of targeted courses. All but one of the school districts sampled had at least one course with a coded word. A qualitative analysis of the coding of the categories and indicators revealed that the coded words were applied broadly to the themes and patterns that emerged. School district staff development offices continue to play a positive role in the training of educators striving to meet the needs of a diverse student body in the 21st century. / Ed. D.