School principals

The role of principal supervisors has changed significantly, moving away from a focus on compliance and towards a greater emphasis on nurturing principals' instructional leadership skills. As a result of this evolution, there is now an increased presence of supervisors in schools, but there are no clear guidelines for their activities. This study aims to fill this gap by developing a theory that explains how principal supervisors can effectively support principals in their roles. The insights gained from this study will have significant implications for the future training and professional development of principal supervisors, which aims to improve the effectiveness of principal leadership and, in turn, enhance student outcomes.
The study seeks to answer the key research question: "How do principal supervisors and their principals perceive how principal supervisors provide effective support?" Using a qualitative approach and grounded theory design, the study collected data through 15 semi-structured interviews involving three principal supervisors and 12 principals who had worked together for at least three years. The resulting grounded theory outlines a comprehensive framework that explains how principal supervisors can offer impactful support to principals.

Teacher turnover is a problem in all types of schools at all levels and is especially troubling in low-performing, high minority, urban schools. School principals have the challenge of building relationships with teachers in order to improve teacher retention while also balancing the many tasks and responsibilities they have throughout the day. Principals of low-performing, urban schools have difficulty retaining teachers and are challenged with hiring qualified teachers as many teacher candidates turn down opportunities to work in their schools. Teachers willing to work in low-performing schools are often lower quality, for example they have temporary teaching certificates or are teaching out of their content area (Baugh, 2021; Darling-Hammond & Post, 2000; Peske & Haycock, 2006). This staffing challenge, combined with vacant positions, has a negative impact on student achievement (Ronfeldt et al., 2013).
This study explores the impact of school leadership on teacher retention in an urban school district specifically focusing on high minority, low-performing, underserved schools. This qualitative multi-site case study explored ways that principals in four low-performing, urban schools in Miami-Dade County established and sustained relationships with novice and experienced teachers as they managed their day-to-day activities. The research was guided by the research question: How do school principals develop and sustain trusting relationships with teachers at low-performing schools and how do these relationships impact teacher retention? Data was collected through principal interviews, focus groups with novice and experienced teachers, and document reviews. Case data was analyzed individually and through a cross-case analysis.

Demographics of the United States’ school system continue to change and diversify. Meeting the needs of diverse learners is critical to the success of all children. Building and sustaining equitable learning environments has proven to be a challenging task for school leaders. Barriers that hinder equity continue to plague schools and are rooted in systems of organizational injustice. Research suggests that leaders who are able to utilize socially just and culturally responsive leadership practices build and sustain equitable learning environments. School leaders have a large impact on the equity driven practices that exist within the organization; however, research indicates that they may not be prepared to lead such practices. Therefore, supporting the path of aspiring leaders through coaching, since they will eventually lead the charge, has great potential to be critical in the success of equity in our schools, and was the focus of this study.
The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore and describe the coaching relationship between the principal and aspiring leader in order to understand how this relationship furthers the development of the aspiring leader into a school leader devoted to building and sustaining equitable learning environments.

Having an effective teacher in a school is paramount because they significantly influence student achievement (Shaw & Newton, 2014). Not having this vital resource contributes to the achievement gap between White and minority students. This phenomenological study examined the lived experiences of ten principals with hiring and retaining teachers for schools with a large percentage of minority students from low-income households who also struggle academically. All principals share a common experience – they receive a federal grant, Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF), which is additional funding for bonuses to hire and retain teachers and provide professional support. The study includes research that provides context to the factors that contribute to the teacher shortage problem within schools with this specific student demographic and the way in which this impacts the inequitable distribution of qualified instructors. The research also contains literature which informed the study's theoretical framework - Critical Race Theory and Theory of Oppression and the concepts of leadership practices, asset-based thinking, and teacher motivation.
The researcher found that the principals experience anxiety filling vacant positions due to teacher shortage. There were three prominent themes that framed the findings: Hiring Teachers, Retaining Teachers, and Teacher Shortage. Principals experience challenges with employing teachers because of their negative perceptions of the students. Most of the teachers they hire are Black and Hispanic, and the Teacher Incentive Fund grant did not help attract teachers to accept a position, but it helped retain them. The principals work arduously to keep teachers by giving them support and creating a positive school culture, in addition, most of them find that Black and Hispanic teachers remain at the school more than White teachers.

This qualitative case study explored the changing relationships and cultural evolution that occurred over the course of the initial year of a principal transition within a private upper school. Collected data included interviews, observations, and documents. All data were reviewed and analyzed in order to understand the experience that the transitioning principal, administrators, faculty, college counselors, and staff encountered during the course of the transition. The conceptual framework of this study was based on a social constructivist mindset and was ethnographic in nature: the researcher understood and defined the culture and transition experience through data synthesis, revealing varied interpretations of the culture and transition on the place and self.

Recognized leadership skills generally include communication skills and public speaking ability. Some children develop leadership and public speaking skills early in life. Some high schools and colleges emphasize public speaking. Adults frequently enroll in seminars such as Dale Carnegie programs or join organizations such as Toastmasters International. The researcher's own years of teaching and speaking experience have led her to believe in the potential value of public speaking for children, adults, and leaders in education organizations. Principals must speak competently and professionally. The purpose of this study was to determine how and when secondary school principals learned public speaking skills. The research also assessed their public speaking involvement and the importance they placed on public speaking for themselves, their staff, and their students. The researcher developed a questionnaire which was distributed to 101 middle and high school principals in Broward and Palm Beach county school districts in Florida. Completed responses were received from 52 principals. The most frequently cited-preparations for public speaking were college and high school courses. Public speaking skills were learned during high school and college years for 32 respondents. Only two had taken a Carnegie or Toastmasters course. Six principals said Carnegie or Toastmasters Youth Leadership type programs were offered in their schools, but 33 said they would be interested or wanted additional information. The principals most often cultivated public speaking skills by encouraging teachers to invite students to speak in class, inviting teachers and students to speak at assemblies, or by having drama clubs or debate teams. The last question was, "How important is public speaking in what you do today?" Very important was checked by 48 principals; somewhat important was checked by the remaining four respondents. The researcher believes that public speaking should be cultivated at all levels of education. Future research may consider whether resiliency of at-risk students could be enhanced by offering formal training in public speaking. The findings support the researcher's hypothesis that if school administrators recognize the importance of public speaking in their own experience, they are more likely to support its development among staff and students.

This multi-site case study focused on principals who participated in a unique professional development model: a learning community. The study was twofold. First, research was conducted in order to describe the experiences and perceptions of principals involved in a professional learning community and second, to understand how participation in a professional learning community influences principals' thinking and leadership practice. This inquiry was conducted in two districts located in the northeast and southeast parts of the United States. The sample consisted of twenty-one participants: sixteen principals, four learning community coaches, and one administrative director. Data was collected from 21 interviews, 39 hours of observations, and 66 documents. The study revealed nine major findings. The research found that the learning community provided a new level of professional development for principals and eliminated isolation. It was found that the demands of the principal's position limit the depth of involvement. The role of the learning community coach is significant. It was also found that challenges exist in sustaining the learning community. Goals of the learning community emerged as the group developed and perceptions of principals' work varied. Further, membership in the learning community fostered the principal's role as lead staff developer. Finally, there was evidence that changed professional practice and thinking exists for principals who participated in the learning community. Recommendations for design, establishing a system of accountability, promoting district and state support, and future research are provided. The design of the learning community needs a clearer, more defined role of the principal. A system of accountability, including documentation and evidence of improved performance may assist by giving credibility to the model. Documentation and evidence may also enlist the support of the district and state, which is greatly needed for sustaining this model. Finally, further research is needed regarding professional development for principals, particularly learning communities.

The purpose of this study was to determine if schools where higher degrees of servant leadership were practiced performed better than schools that practiced lower degrees of servant leadership. Servant leadership is the understanding and practice of leadership that places the good of those led over the self-interest of the leader. The characteristics of servant leadership include valuing people, developing people, building community, displaying authenticity, providing leadership, and sharing leadership. Variables utilized to determine the relationship between servant leadership and school effectiveness included the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) test scores in writing, reading, mathematics, annual learning gains in mathematics, annual learning gains in reading, annual learning gains made by the lowest 25th percentile of students, attendance, dropout rates, and critical incidents. Additionally, contextual variables were examined to determine their relationship between servant leadership and school effectiveness. Contextual variables included principal tenure, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and school size. The primary means of data collection for this exploratory quantitative non-experimental study were obtained utilizing the Organizational Leadership Assessment (OLA) instrument developed by James Laub (1999). This study gathered data from 24 high schools (N = 24) in Broward County, Florida. Each school was provided with 46 servant leadership surveys for completion by the school principal, 5 assistant principals, 12 department chairpersons, and 28 instructional staff members. A total of 1,104 servant leadership surveys were distributed and 884 were returned resulting in an 80 percent aggregate return rate. The data were subjected to correctional analyses utilizing a .10 level of significance due to the exploratory nature of the study. The major find of this study was that positive relationships were found to exist between servant leadership and student achievement. The study also found a relationship of bipolarity between servant leadership and ethnicity. However, the study did not find any significant relationship between other contextual variables and servant leadership. In general, in schools where greater degrees of servant leadership are being practiced, students are achieving at a higher rate than in schools were lower degrees of servant leadership are being practiced. The findings lend support to the conclusion that principals who embed the characteristics of servant leadership throughout their organizations may expect high levels of student achievement, particularly in mathematics, reading, and annual learning gains.

Higher expectations for student achievement, administrative shortages, and more diverse emotional, social and learning needs of students, make the job of the educational leader a challenging one for today's school principals and district administrators. Superintendents and educators across the nation report a shortage of qualified candidates to fill principal vacancies. Mentoring was studied as a strategy to support the retention and development of school leaders. This phenomenological study focused on mentoring practices across multiple generations of educational leaders that had been successfully mentored. Selected mentors identified proteges whom they had mentored. The identification of mentors and proteges continued through five school leader mentoring generations. Each family consisted of five participants who had served as both mentor and protege. Each participant was asked open-ended interview questions about their roles as a mentor and as a protege. A total of 10 school leaders participated in this study. There were two interrelated research purposes of this study: (a) To understand the different meanings/practices of mentoring and being mentored, and further; (b) to explore whether there may be intergenerational patterns of mentoring that have been "inherited" by members of mentoring "families." In studying the relationship between mentoring and leadership development, the research design identified two distinct "families" of mentors and proteges. The significance of this design allowed the researcher to focus on "inherited" patterns of mentoring in order to better understand how mentoring might simultaneously promote cultural transmission and reproduction as well as the need for mutual and continuous learning. This study found that the cultural norms and values of Mentoring Family 1 and of Mentoring Family 2 were passed on from the first generation to the next through traditional mentoring and/or co-mentoring strategies. Mentoring strategies passed on from one generation to the next in both Family 1 and in Family 2 through mentors providing opportunities that opened doors that lead to advancement, socialization of proteges into new professional roles, and the development of trust and friendship. Role modeling and informal communication were the key learning strategies identified. These mentoring traits passed on relatively unchanged from one dyad to the next in both families.

Family and community involvement literature reveals that principals play a key role in the success of family and community involvement initiatives. However, there is a paucity of information on specific strategies that principals use to increase involvement. This lack of information applies to schools in general and for schools with diverse populations with low socio-economic status. To help fill these gaps in information this researcher examines differences in communication and action strategies used by principals in, both Title I and non Title I schools, with exemplary family and community involvement programs (as evidenced by their school receiving the FL DOE Five Star School Award) compared to strategies used by principals whose schools did not receive such a distinction. Sixty-one potentially significant communication and action variables are extracted from the literature and grouped into three categories (one-way communication, two-way communication, and action-based communication strategies). Seven null hypotheses addressing the significance of these categories and the potential to develop a predictor model are tested using a specially designed Family and Community Involvement Principal Survey whose content, construct, and validity was subjected to the scrutiny of experts in the field and pilot tested for its reliability. Data was collected in January 2003 from a final sample of fifty-nine Palm Beach County. Florida elementary school principals (an 80% response rate). This data is subjected to a series of factorial Analysis of Variance and Discriminant Analysis, testing the null hypotheses at a .05 level of significance. The analyses identify statistically significant differences in action-based communication variables for Five Star, Title I, and an interaction among Five Star/Title I principals including: (a) planning teacher in-service on involvement, (b) funding involvement programs, (c) creating a Family Resource Center, and (d) encouraging family and community members to participate in shared decision-making. No significant differences were found in one-way or two-way communication variables for Five Star, Title I, or an interaction between Five Star/Title I. Further, the null hypothesis for a predictor model was rejected allowing for identification of key variables in a partnership classification model. Conclusions, recommendations, and implementations are discussed for further research and practical application.