Browsing by Subject "Educational Leadership"
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Item Assessing intercultural competence for educational leaders: an empirical investigation.(2012-05) El Ganzoury, Hala A.The growing diversity of multi-cultural student populations in public schools coupled with the persistent challenge of narrowing the racial achievement gap raises questions about the preparedness of educational leaders to meet the needs of their diverse student population. Educational leaders are facing the challenge of responding to the needs of their diverse student population without systemic strategies, knowledge, and skills necessary to succeed in multi-cultural schools. This study was designed to investigate the level of intercultural sensitivity of a group of educational leaders in a Northern Minnesota school district as measured by the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). In this study, the placement of educational leaders in the Minimization stage means that they were in a transitional stage from ethnocentrism to ethnorelativism. However, the results of this study indicated that a well planned training can significantly develop the intercultural competence of educational leaders. Findings from this study also demonstrated a significant disparity between the actual Developmental level and the Perceived level of intercultural competence of the participants. This could mean an overestimated and unrealistic view about the participants’ ability to effectively handle the increasing diversity of student population. Overall, demographic and background variables were not found to be significantly related to the level of intercultural competence. However, some significant relations were reported between these variables and some of the IDI subscale scores.Item The Conspicuous, Inconspicuous, Irrelevant, and Unknown Influence of Leadership, Performance Information, and Organizational Learning: Student Literacy Achievement in Middle School Grade Levels(2018-12) Uhler, AndrewThis study was designed to understand to what extent, if at all, performance information and organizational learning used within public schools serving middle school grade levels, or grades sixth, seventh, and eighth, influenced student achievement in literacy. A total of 26 interviews were conducted within six schools in the Minneapolis Public School system, three schools that had the highest reading scores, as measured by MCAs, and three schools that showed the most improvement in reading scores. A minimum of three teachers of literacy, language arts or social studies teachers, and one principal from each school were interviewed. Four themes arose from the interviews. First, principals and teachers in the schools that moved the most students to proficient levels in literacy used structural learning mechanisms to improve student achievement in literacy. Second, effective cultural learning mechanisms that created shared values and beliefs among staff members were used in the schools that moved the most students to proficiency. Third, accurate student performance information was used more systematically and more frequently when the principal set expectations through cultural and structural learning mechanisms. Fourth, the principal created the expectations and environment in which increasing student achievement in literacy was the primary role of the teacher. An implication of this study is that researchers may learn more about leading effective literacy teaching in middle school grade levels by exploring processes used at schools that are moving the most students into proficient levels of literacy.Item Evaluation Capacity Building Towards Developing a Special Education System in a Large Midwestern School District(2016-06) Sterner Sampers, CamilleAbstract This study researched the continued practice of evaluation capacity building (ECB) in an educational context, specifically the special education department of a large Midwestern school district. This descriptive and exploratory study studied the activities, processes, and outcomes of ECB that followed King’s case study (2002) fifteen years later. The Two-County School District was very large (e.g., geography, number of schools, student enrollment) and, as a result, had extensive resources for ECB, which included access to evaluation experts and data tools for sophisticated data use. The breadth and depth of the resources in this large school district put them in a positive place, where the Director of Special Education and other special education evaluation champions did the work of ECB, using the expanded and modified program evaluation model and process that Campbell initiated in 1999 to 2001. Galles, the district’s evaluation leader since 2007, contributed to ECB as the district’s highly skilled evaluation leader. Her evaluation leadership and expertise as well as the technical assistance from the Department of Research, Evaluation, and Assessment positively supported the special education department’s ECB projects. Taylor, the Director of Special Education (2009 – 2013), and several special education evaluation champions demonstrated a strong ECB vision and commitment to achieve change and improve the quality of special education programs. An evaluation leader, committed evaluation champions at multiple levels, dedicated resources, and clear communication are critical to lead and sustain ECB efforts.Item Mindset Over Method: Exploring the Compatibility of Dialogic OD and Culture-based Leadership(2022-05) Zack, ShaneSignificant education reform has remained elusive for the better part of the past 50 years in the United States. While this resistance to change has been explored from various perspectives, there is little research exploring educational change leadership through the lens of planned change and organization development. This paper aims to explore education change leadership through the lens of organization development and its potential for supporting culture-based approaches to school leadership. Two comparative analyses are offered, one comparing Quantz et al.’s (2017) theory of Culture-based leadership to the construct of Dialogic Organization Development (OD) and a similar analysis comparing Culture-based Leadership to a popular Dialogic OD model, Appreciative Inquiry (AI). The analyses are made along four points of comparison: Ontology, Theory of Change, Focus of Change, and Change Agency. Findings indicate a moderate-to-strong congruence between Culture-based Leadership and Dialogic OD, but only low-to-moderate congruence when comparing Culture-based Leadership to AI. A discussion of the implications of these findings and future areas of study is offered.Item A Qualitative Study of Data Utilization in Special Education(2020-09) Giebink, ErinFor the last two decades, schools have increasingly been required to administer and report standardized accountability data to prove they are successfully educating students. Previous research has found that educational leaders report using this standardized data more often than any other type of data. This is problematic for students who require special education services to access their education as they have needs that may not be met during a standardized testing administration and can impact their ability to demonstrate their learning. Leaders responsible for making decisions for students with disabilities need to know how to use data from a variety of sources in order to obtain a complete understanding of student progress. The purpose of this study is to learn more about how leaders use data to support students receiving special education services. Nineteen principals and other administrators identified as making decisions for students in special education from five traditional public and five charter schools in the Twin Cities area were interviewed in order to gain an understanding of how leaders use data to support students in special education. In addition to semi-structured interviews, annual reports from each participating school were analyzed. Four themes emerged from the resulting data: (1) leaders use big-picture or detail-oriented data depending on their role; (2) educational setting matters; (3) leaders have similar expectations for all students; and (4) data use is collaborative. Results support previous findings that leaders use academic data as the most common type of data used by leaders. Findings also suggest that school setting may play a role in the likelihood that leaders use different types of data to support students in special education and that leaders often use data in collaboration with others when making decisions about programming for students.Item Self-evaluation or self-reporting? – a self-study in Russia‟s higher education accreditation.(2011-04) Maximova, Anastasia VictorovnaQuality assurance is at the forefront of higher education policy in Russia. This thesis examines the role of self-study in the state accreditation process. The question driving this research is whether self- study is a critical self-evaluation tool aimed at the improvement of the education process, or a formal self-reporting practice to account for the education process to the external agency. Document content analysis was utilized to explore the policy level of the quality assurance system. The relationship between policy and other macro-level agendas and institutional practices was investigated using a case study analysis approach. Keywords: self-study, accreditation, Russian higher education system, force-field analysis