This study of district instructional leadership for school improvement sought to identify leadership practices among Indiana curriculum directors and to investigate relationships between their self-rated practices, student achievement, and certain demographic variables. For the purposes of this study, the curriculum director was designated as the administrator with primary responsibility for oversight of district curriculum and instruction, irrespective of specific position or title. Using Kouzes and Posner's Leadership Practices Inventory: Self (3rd ed.), participants provided self-ratings of their leadership behaviors on five sub-scales: challenging the process, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, modeling the way, and encouraging the heart. Three of these practices, challenging the process, inspiring a shared vision, and enabling others to act, were of particular interest since these skills are repeatedly cited in the literature as critical to effective district leadership for school improvement. Data provided by 262 (89.4%) of Indiana's 293 public school districts suggested that curriculum directors' relative strengths were enabling others to act and modeling the way. A key issue emerging from the study was the need for curriculum directors to further develop their skills in challenging the process and inspiring a shared vision since these are essential to effective instructional leadership but were among the least likely to be endorsed. Several demographic variables were noted as predictors of self-rated leadership skills; advanced levels of education were positively correlated to challenging the process and inspiring a shared vision, and the position held by the curriculum director was associated with four of the sub-scales: challenging the process, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, and modeling the way. Notably, in 56.5% of the districts the superintendent acted as the curriculum director and provided instructional leadership in addition to other typical responsibilities. This finding suggests that expertise in instructional leadership as well as school finance and human resource development is important for aspiring and practicing superintendents. Finally, after controlling for demographic variables, the researcher concluded that no correlation existed between self-rated leadership practices of Indiana curriculum directors and student achievement. / Department of Educational Leadership
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/181396 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Thompson, Linda J. |
| Contributors | McKinney, Joseph R. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | ix, 192 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
| Coverage | n-us-in |
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