Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Leadership capacity building'

The increase of intense pressures to ensure long-term education reforms have created a challenge to school leaders as they direct and nurture the abilities of others. Although there is no single model of successful leadership, there is a common repertoire of values and actions used for sustainable school improvement. Raising capacity is a key task for principals. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand and describe suburban elementary principals’ practices and perceptions as change leaders related to capacity building. The study further explored the reciprocal effects model on how principals responded to the changing environment. Three principals, their superintendents and one teacher for each case provided data collected through interviews, documents, and a researcher journal. Inductive and deductive analysis were used, first within-case and then through a concluding cross-case. Findings confirmed that building capacity is all encompassing. As principals seek to build capacity, there are many interconnected actions. Results demonstrated varied practices, skills, and responsibilities used among principals, including: setting goals; professional development; collaboration; teacher leadership; and shared responsibility. This study can provide guidance to universities, Boards of Education, and other administrators. Recommendations for further research include expanding the sample to include secondary principals and to explore capacity building in rural and urban settings. Additionally, there should be continued research on the reciprocal effects model using mixed methods.

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify and describe the most important factors that motivate or deter teachers in deciding to take on the informal or formal role of teacher-leader in Riverside County elementary school districts.

Methodology: Endemic of a Delphi method, the instruments used within this study collected data from an expert panel of elementary school teacher leaders from Riverside County, California through electronic surveys in a four-round process. The expert panel consisted of teacher leaders in formal and informal roles as selected by elementary site administrators using criteria established by the researcher. The researcher collected data and tabulated frequency distribution, percentages of participant responses on the level of importance, median scores, and factors reaching 70% consensus.

Findings: The research data showed that increasing student achievement, making a difference, creating a collaborative community, being informed, and informing others are the most important factors motivating teachers in deciding to become a teacher leader in a formal or an informal role. Additionally, making decisions was important in a formal role, and recognition and respect were important in an informal role. The most important deterrents for a formal and an informal teacher leader role were lack of time, lack of support, lack of direction or goal, and increased responsibility. Another deterrent in a formal role was fear; for an informal role, it was not having enough pay.

Conclusions: These findings support the need to build a collaborative culture of authentic decision-makers through distributive leadership. The lack of time, support, and direction that teachers experience must be addressed by building teacher-leadership capacity.

Implications for Action: Districts should train teachers in the Teacher Leadership Model Standards, provide teacher pre-service coursework in leadership skills and distributed leadership, train or hire administrators and teachers who support an authentic collaborative leadership culture, recognize and monopolize individual’s areas of expertise, re-examine job titles, change the traditional school calendar, create or change support personnel positions to be housed at the site level where teacher leaders can support teachers on-site.

New Castle County Vocational Technical School District (NCCVT) is a vocational school district in Delaware consisting of four high schools. NCCVT’s vision “is to deliver world-class Career and Technical programs combined with rigorous academic curricula to equip students with the 21st century skills that will best serve the State of Delaware and the global community” (NCCVT, 2018, para. 1). I have served as the principal of St. Georges Technical High School (St. Georges) since 2012. As the principal, I have recognized the value of distributive leadership.

Distributive leadership involves working with several people to help inform decision-making that will improve the performance of educators and increase student achievement. The shared responsibility and experiences that teachers encounter through distributive leadership affect teacher capacities and motivation. The portfolio focuses on building the necessary leadership capacity to both achieve our instructional focus and reach our student achievement goals. Specifically, the ELP (Building the leadership capacity to achieve instructional focus and increase student achievement) centers on developing three school-based teams of teachers and administrators working together to improve teacher practices focused on literacy. The three leadership teams developed are the Powerful Development Team (PDT), Instructional Leadership Team (ILT), and the Instructional Coaches. Particular attention is given to the PDT because they exemplified an effective model of how distributive leadership can be operationalized at the building level. The improvement strategies centered on achieving the instructional focus goals, increasing capacity and distributing leadership. Teachers and administrators worked collaboratively to complete the following: a) select leaders and establish the PDT, b) build leadership capacity, and c) teach leadership skills and literacy strategies. The improvement strategies resulted in the development of: a) a qualified team of teachers working collaboratively to accomplish the school-wide instructional goals, b) two teams of teachers (ILT and coaches) supporting instructors with implementation of the school-wide instructional focus, c) a PDT team learning leadership skills and literacy strategies; d) three teams (PDT, ILT, and coaches) enhancing the instruction of teachers. These developments led to an increase in student achievement, including an increase in scores on the PSAT and SAT. On both assessments the school scored above the district and state average. The PDT believes that our instructional focus on research-based literacy strategies that is aligned with the Common Core Standards played a major factor in the students’ increased achievement on the PSAT and SAT. Recommendations for the future include providing specific feedback and resources for candidates who are not selected to participate on the PDT, collecting and analyzing data to determine goals for the instructional leadership groups, reevaluating the administrative walkthrough tool, creating a coaches’ walkthrough tool, and providing additional training on the four disciplines that will help build a cohesive team and healthy organization.

With the increasing focus on student achievement, teachers are being scrutinized in their practices. States are mandating that accountability measures be put in place to ensure teachers are providing high quality education to students. With these added pressures along with various other factors, teachers can become overwhelmed and not able to maintain their focus on student achievement. Thus, teachers may begin to burnout and seek other professions. Leaders must take action to rekindle a passion in teachers so they will stay the course in the profession. What makes teachers stay in the profession? Where do high levels of faculty trust contribute to teachers intending to stay in the profession? Does high teacher morale influence teachers to stay in the profession? Where leaders engage in capacity building within their school organization, is there a higher rate of teachers who intend to stay in the profession?

As a result of increased principal responsibilities in terms of complexity, accountability, and demands for improved student achievement, sources have concluded that in order for school districts to undertake transformations that improve teaching and learning, schools must be aligned to best practices, and have a functioning professional learning community and shared leadership (Copeland, 2003; Dufour, 1997; Elmore, 2004; Gronn, 2008; Lambert 2002; Murphy, Smylie, Mayrowetz, & Louis, 2009). Most elementary schools have only one principal; therefore, the impact on teaching and learning led by one person may not result in organizational reform even if that individual is an instructional leader, due to the multitude of responsibilities carried by that individual as a result of the influence of other leaders (formal and informal) within the organization (Lambert, 2002; Shivers-Blackwell, 2006; Spillane 2005, 2006, and 2010). Districts take a variety of approaches to address this challenge, ranging from efforts to improve the content knowledge of their leaders to setting up formal structures to distribute instructional leadership in the form of formal teacher leaders (Timperley, 2005; Sherer, 2008).

This study determined, through analyzing decision-making styles of lead teachers and their perception of their principals, principals were more participatory and less laissez-faire than lead teachers. In addition, lead teachers utilize many leadership practices; however, they do not utilize them equally or consistently. The theory of distributed leadership and literature reviewed conclude that when leadership is distributed, schools have the ability to build capacity and grow initiatives around instructional improvement. Distributed leadership implies interdependency of leaders sharing responsibility with followers (Harris, 2003). This study has provided additional information for future researchers to use as the academic community continues to define the behaviors and practices that support a distributed leadership model. Recent studies express the way leadership is distributed in schools, suggesting the question is not if teachers lead along with the principal and district officials, but how (Katzenmeyer & Moller, 2001; Margolis, 2008).

This grounded theory study sought to create a viable framework that may help school leaders accelerate the expansion of an authentic 21st century instructional model. The U.S. economy is now more dependent on knowledge work than manufacturing. Yet, many for-profit, non-profit, and public sectors perceive schools as not adequately preparing students for 21st century careers and colleges. However, customary principal-led change is challenging. Leaders face several complex organizational challenges, including a modern-day duty and role expansion that limits time, and the inherent difficulty of human-behavior and organizational change, observed in the fact that schools have deeply entrenched norms: an estimated 150 years of traditional lecture-dominant instruction.

As such, a singular research question informed this study: What leadership competencies do 21st century change-savvy school administrators perceive as critical to accelerate successful change to a 21st century instructional model? Using a purposive sampling method, change-savvy school leaders (n = 22) with lived experience were interviewed covering germane topics such as what worked for them, professional development, and change management.

Utilizing Charmaz’s (2014) constructed grounded theory coding process and data analysis technique, the results include two key findings: five leadership competencies (discerning, authentic, facilitative, collaborative, and communicative) and the Authentic 21st Century Leadership Framework, which integrates the respective competencies to provide a user guide for the contemporary time-burdened school leader. Ultimately, the study concluded the following: (a) the leadership competencies are essential; (b) the framework provides a supportive guide to accelerate expansion of the 21st century instructional model; (c) 21st century leadership is chiefly collaborative; (d) leader created and sustained growth culture is critical; and, lastly (e) as the 21st century instructional model magnifies in utilization across schools, opportunities for all students improve.

The purpose of this exploratory correlational research study was to examine the degree to which school leaders’ engagement in distributed leadership practices builds the capacity to empower expert teachers so that they can provide their colleagues with instructional and pedagogical support and thus advance teacher practice.  More specifically, the aim was to examine relationships between teachers’ perceptions of school leaders’ use of distributed leadership, which may then influence the mediating variable of collective teacher efficacy and, finally, the dependent variable, which is the level of implementation of professional learning communities in New York City public elementary schools. Online surveys were distributed to teachers in districts that serve minority students at schools with high poverty identification.

The responses were exported from the survey to SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) for data analysis. The results showed that scores on distributed leadership practices range from 1.33 to 6.00, with an average score of 4.48 (SD = 1.01) (1=Strongly Disagree and 6= Strongly Agree). Collective teacher efficacy correlated significantly and positively with distributed leadership practices (r = .45, p < .001); the professional learning community correlated significantly and positively with distributed leadership practices (r = .62, p < .001); and collective teacher efficacy correlated significantly and positively with professional learning community (r = .24, p = .001). A mediation analysis was conducted using multiple linear regression. The results showed that, although the first two conditions for full mediation were met, the third condition for full mediation was not. Additionally, a partial mediation analysis revealed that no significant partial mediation effect existed. The implication is that collective teacher efficacy did not have a significant mediating effect on the relationship between distributed leadership practices and the professional learning community.

Distributed leadership provides an organizational structure for reciprocal accountability and professional learning communities that affords teachers a forum for collegial discourse and capacity building. The variability within teachers’ perceptions of group members’ ability to provide quality instruction is not a predictor of collective action. Therefore, the relationship between distributed leadership and professional learning communities is not mediated by collective teacher efficacy. The level of implementation of professional learning communities is not contingent on collective teacher efficacy. Distributed leadership practices provide an essential framework for “stretching” leadership across many individuals in order to build capacity.

Keywords: distributed leadership, collective teacher efficacy, professional learning communities, reciprocal accountability, capacity building

Increased demands, retirement rates, and attrition rates have caused a growing instability in the quantity and quality of education leaders, thereby mandating leadership capacity-building efforts. While women are nearly 75% of the teaching force, they are markedly absent from the education leadership picture, especially at the secondary principal and superintendent level. Few studies related to women in education leadership have assessed specific practices that have been attempted to increase the numbers of women education leaders. The purpose of this study is to examine how a district in southern California works to build the next generation of women school and district leaders. Specifically, it investigates the strategies employed by the district, explores perceptions of district stakeholders, especially women, regarding the influence of the leadership capacity-building strategies, and identifies factors that facilitate and inhibit these strategies. Transformational leadership and social role theory serve as the theoretical framework for the study. A combination of interviews, observations, and document analysis are utilized in the qualitative case study methodology.