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The term professional learning community is generally defined as a group of people sharing and critically interrogating their practice in an “ongoing, reflective, collaborative, inclusive, learning-oriented, growth-promoting way and operating as a collective enterprise” (Stoll, Bolam, McMahon, Wallace & Thomas, 2006, p. 223). The professional learning community is increasingly being used as an explicit change strategy for generating, sharing and managing knowledge in educational organizations. Improving the performance of a district requires district supervisory officers to build their capacity for learning how to improve leadership practices. In this retrospective qualitative study, I investigate to what extent leadership practices change for a group of district supervisory officers, that is, the senior leaders responsible for the district leadership functions, while they responded to provincial reform mandates between 2000 and 2006. I also examine whether this group of supervisory officers in one Ontario English Public School District, renamed Green Ridge District School Board (GRDSB) for anonymity, functions as a professional learning community. Data sources used in this investigation were developed through a university partnership between GRDSB and an Ontario Institute for Studies in Education field center known as the Midwestern Centre. Data were gathered from six research reports, written annually between 2001 and 2006; interviews from seven supervisory officers conducted in 2006; and interviews from 12 school administrator interviews held in 2005. One limitation of the study is that participants were selected from school sites that chose to become involved with the district change strategies and therefore tended to take a positive orientation when responding to semi-structured questions. The data gathered did not reflect the views of those who chose not to be actively involved in the district change strategies. This investigation’s findings inform leadership theory and practice with respect to the descriptions of evolving leadership practices of a group of supervisory officers as they worked to re-culture the GRDSB. Findings provide empirical support for the contention that a socially constructed environment, such as a professional learning community, provides a context for supporting changes to leadership practices through collective professional learning, problem solving, knowledge creation and knowledge sharing (Anderson, 2006; Honig, 2008; Louis, 2008).

The purpose of this study was to determine what relationship, if any, existed between student participation in the C.L.A.S.S. Project and student achievement as measured by the ISTEP testing program. This study was designed to provide statistical data for teachers, administrators, and other educators looking for instructional methods to provide students with increased learning opportunities to improve education.There were two groups of subjects in this study. The experimental group consisted of schools who had been participating in the C.L.A.S.S. Project for a minimum of two years. Thirty-seven Indiana schools made up this group. Thirty-seven schools were selected for a control group. They were randomly selected as not significantly different from schools in the experimental group by using performance based leagues determined by a statistical formula and provided by the Indiana Department of Education.Data collected regarding the schools in the study included rank and league placement as determined by the Indiana Department of Education and ISTEP scores provided by the Indiana Department of Education. ISTEP scores were used for grades two and three in the subject areas of Reading, Language Arts, Math, and Total Battery.The primary hypothesis of this study, stated in null form, is that the C.L.A.S.S. Project has no effect on student achievement as measured by the ISTEP testing program. Alternate null hypotheses were stated regarding the results of the individual subject areas: Reading, Language Arts, and Math.The results of this study failed to find significant differences between the schools using the C.L.A.S.S. Project and those in the control group. Analyses of variance were conducted on the experimental and control groups' data from test scores achieved on 1993 ISTEP test. Multivariate analysis (MANOVA) and univariate analyses (ANOVAs) were conducted to determine if the C.L.A.S.S. Project had any significant effect on isolated subject areas as tested on ISTEP and to see if the C.L.A.S.S. Project had any significant effect on anticipated achievement compared to actual achievement. The .05 alpha level was used to test the level of significance in this study. / Department of Educational Leadership

By 2014, Indiana public schools are required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and Public Law 221, the state's K-12 comprehensive accountability system, to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) by assuring that all students achieve proficiency in mathematics and language arts, demonstrate high attendance and graduation rates, and under the direction of a broad-based school/community steering committee submit an improvement plan to the Indiana Department of Education and a state-approved accrediting agency. According to various school improvement models, the school/community steering committee should include all stakeholder groups: administrators, licensed and non-instructional staff, parents, community members, and when appropriate students. However, non-instruction staff members are many times excluded or under-represented in the school's efforts to improve. This descriptive study was conducted to investigate the extent to which non-instructional public school employees are included in school improvement efforts. A survey was emailed to randomly selected public elementary, middle, and high school principals in Indiana. The researcher sought to understand the degree to which non-instructional staff participate in school improvement groups and activities, the tasks assigned and completed by non-instructional staff that participate, factors that limit participation in school improvement activities, and principals' perceptions regarding the value added by non-instructional staff to school improvement efforts. Responses from the survey were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The researcher found few studies in the current literature that investigated the role non-instructional staff play in school improvement. The findings from this study were discussed and used to establish new understanding in the area of stakeholder involvement, specifically with non-instructional employees, in the school improvement process. Recommendations were made to administrators and school improvement teams for ways to include non-instructional staff in efforts to achieve the school's goals as well as a recommendation for additional research in this area. / Department of Educational Leadership

Schools within South Africa are not performing as they should be due to a variety of issues within the school system. It is for this reason that there has been an increased interest in the field of school improvement. This research study is an articulation of a case for school improvement. In the Rorke‟s Drift / Isandlwana area of KwaZulu-Natal the David Rattray Foundation (DRF) implements school improvement projects at partner schools within the area with an aim to bring about school improvement. This qualitative study entailed the researcher conducting semi-structured interviews, a document analysis, non-participant observation with the use of a checklist, a preference analysis, and Participatory Action Research (PAR) to formulate a case study of the David Rattray Foundation (DRF). There were three main themes that emerged from the data of this research, namely (a) school improvement, (b) partnerships and (c) wider system issues. Within this study the researcher identified a shift from a charismatic approach to school improvement to one that is more systematic and business like on the part of the foundation. An interesting approach to whole school improvement is articulated by the manner in which the foundation operates. With the complexity of the school system, the researcher has identified that the DRF uses business principles to counter the problems that arise with the implementation of school improvement interventions, thus within this study the researcher presents a business model of school improvement. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

The aim of this study is to examine the role of teacher as agent for change in the school environment after the provision of in-service teacher training. Ministry of Education provides in-service teacher training in collaboration with the International English Language Education Association (INGED- Turkish acronym- for short) in order to keep English language teachers up to date and adapt to the changing nature of the modern world. To what extent in-service teacher training enables teachers perform as leaders, whether they act as agents for change and more importantly whether teachers contribute to school improvement are the areas that this study conducts a research on. Qualitative research method was employed in this study. Data were collected through interviews in two phases in the city of &Ccedil / anakkale. Phase 1 took place during the Ministry of National Education in-service teacher training seminar, Phase 2 was after six months of the seminar. Sample in the first phase was v made up of 19 course participants, in the second phase the sample contained both 19 course participants and their 38 peers and 10 principals. Findings revealed that some teachers who work in a more democratic school environment were enabled with their change agentry roles as their principals created a flexible institutional culture. However, teachers who work in more rigid and centralized work environment were not given the freedom for applying the ideas that they were encouraged through in-service teacher training. This shows that on the one hand even one shot in-service teacher education contributes to teacher development in building change agents by raising teacher awareness on her subject knowledge and role but on the other hand to practice leadership and change agent role very much depends on the school culture.

I conducted the research reported in this portfolio at the large western suburbs primary school of which I am the principal. My interest in the sense children make of their everyday school experiences results from having spent most of my life in schools, initially as a student, then as a primary school teacher and now as a school principal. My long term involvement in primary schools has led to my awareness that adults do not ask children about their perceptions of their schools. My observations have been confirmed by researchers who have shown that students' perspectives, especially those of primary school age children, have been under-researched. / In my research I focus on children's perspectives by inviting them to represent through artwork and photography the school places they like and those they want to talk about. I further explore children's understandings of the relationship between the physical places of their school and their positioning within that school by asking them to interpret their photographs. I then enable children to identify the places in their school they want to change and to action those changes. / Thesis (PhDEducation)--University of South Australia, 2007.

Thesis (PhD.(Assessment and Quality Assurance))-University of Pretoria, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 301-333) Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Georgia Southern University, 2007. / "A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Education." Education Administration, under the direction of Walter S. Polka. ETD. Electronic version approved: December 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-210) and appendices.

Thesis (PhD.(Educational psychology))-University of Pretoria, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.