School administrators are charged with guiding, overseeing, and ensuring the successful education of all students. They use myriad techniques to this end, though not all students share in the success. For example, Black male students are more likely to underperform than are other groups of students, which places their academic and economic survival at risk (Kirsch, Braun, Yamamoto, and Sum, 2007). The focus of this study was on Black male student performance in Algebra 1.
Algebra 1 plays a pivotal role in academic success and is a leading indicator of a students likelihood of success in advanced mathematics courses (Wang and Goldschmidt, 2003). Failure to learn and understand the content in Algebra 1 results in limitations on further mathematical opportunities in the short-term, which, in turn, reduces prospects for continued education beyond secondary school.
The purpose of this study was to examine and identify specific school leadership practices that influence and improve the Algebra 1 performance of Black male students. Interviews with principals, lead math teachers, and school counselors provided qualitative data related to school-level leadership practices. Additionally, I conducted document reviews of school newsletters, parent letters, robocall messages, lesson plans, and websites. Analyses of the interviews and documents revealed six themes: (a) effective instructional leadership, (b) culture of collaboration, (c) facilitation and scheduling, (d) parental involvement, (e) intervention and remediation, and (f) resources. This study has implications and applications for the practices of school leaders, mathematics teaching and learning, and programs to support Black male students. / Ed. D. / The Algebra 1 performance gap between Black males and their White counterparts has been well documented by statistical data from national assessment databases (i.e., National Center for Education Statistics [NCES]). Unfortunately, there have been few considerations as to how to combat the issue of low performance in mathematics, specifically Algebra 1, by Black male students. Improving the Algebra 1 performance of Black male students is a priority for many school leaders because of today’s high stakes testing and accountability requirements.
The purpose of this study was to examine and identify specific school leadership practices that influence and improve the Algebra 1 performance of Black male students. Interviews with principals, lead math teachers, and school counselors provided qualitative data related to school-level leadership practices. Document reviews included the school newsletters, parent letters, robocall messages, lesson plans, and websites. Analyses of interviews and documents from two schools revealed six themes: (a) effective instructional leadership, (b) culture of collaboration, (c) facilitation and scheduling, (d) parental involvement, (e) intervention and remediation, and (f) resources. Themes are discussed to support the school leadership practices that improve the Algebra 1 performance of Black male students.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/76734 |
| Date | 30 March 2017 |
| Creators | Addo, Felix Akwei |
| Contributors | Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Glenn, William Joseph, Mallory, Walter D., Barco, Margaret Jackson, Patrizio, Kami M. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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