Best school Look

Scratch the surface of a great school and you are bound to find a great principal. Look into a failing school and you will see poor leadership Williams 2006. Effective school leaders Driver school Cambridge are necessary for quality education Zipadelli 1996. School leadership ranks second to classroom instruction as a factor in pupil learning and serves as a catalyst without which other positive things don’t occur Leith wood Harris & Hopkins 2008. Since school leadership counts a successful school leader can make a difference in the students’ teachers’ and school’s overall success as a whole Lambert 2006. Principals who possess leadership abilities and the willingness to get involved actively in the classroom generate improved schools Leith wood Harris & Hopkins 2008.

Empirically it has been established that Cambridge school near me  building level Brazilians can affect the areas of students’ achievement faculty and staff accountability and school climate and culture in part by being visibly present in classrooms during passing times and while communicating with students and parents in informal settings Leith wood Harris & Hopkins 2008 Marks & Print 2003. Therefore Hellinger and Murphy 1987 describe an effective principal as one who assesses instruction tracks progress Chowk Azam selects and engages in professional development activities and remains high visible.

Best School Practices

Principals who exhibit the habits of an active learner and who view their own learning School as a valuable aspect of their professional development are demonstrating the beliefs and practices they profess to others in schools Cunningham Cambridge school fees & Cordeiro 2006. What specifically are these school leaders doing that brings about a positive impact on the schools they are leading of effective leaders have evolved considerably as has the amount of attention devoted to which principals are and are not achieving them. As Davis Darling Hammond LaPointe and Meyerson 2005 observe the principal’s role has ballooned to encompass a mind boggling range of professional duties and skills.

Successful school leaders must be educational visionaries instructional and curriculum leaders assessment experts disciplinarians community Cambridge school near me, chowk Azam, Cambridge school in Layyah, Cambridge school in Children, School, Best School Cambridge,  builders public relations specialists budget analysts and facility managers. School leaders are also tasked with providing the generally competing needs and interests of numerous stakeholders such as students parents teachers district office members and state and federal agencies.

Purpose of the Study

Leadership skills have been studied by researchers from differing viewpoints. Early research distinguished between leader and follower traits Barnard 1938 Fayol 1949 McGregor 1957 Burns 1978. Discovering that no one trait or cluster Cambridge School 2000 Student of traits captured the totality of leaders abilities researchers subsequently set out to investigate what effect leaders skills had upon various situations. Later research tried to make a difference between effective and non effective leaders Williams 2006.

The aim of this research was to identify the common actions taken by principals who lead successful high schools. Much of the research on school leadership has centered on understanding the esoteric school leadership styles traits characteristics Online classes and leadership strategies utilized by principals in successful and effective schools Bolman & Deal 1994 Davis Darling Hammond LaPointe & Meyerson 2005 Hollinger 1992 Hellinger & Heck 1998 Lambert 2006 Leith wood & Duke 1999 Leith wood Harris & Hopkins 2008 Leith wood & Riehl 2005 Marks & Prints 2003 Robinson Lloyd & Rowe 2008 Sergio Anni 1984 Selin’s & Mulford 2002.

The intent of this study was to not only clarify the school leadership styles traits characteristics and leadership strategies typical of successful and effective school leadership but to determine what these successful high school principals actually do to enact these strategies in their school leadership practices and how school leadership styles traits and characteristics are evidenced in what successful high school principals actually do on a daily basis as they operate their schools.

Methodology

This research employs qualitative methodology to ascertain whether there is a commonality in what successful and effective school leaders do in practice and how this impacts the academic performance of the school, and for its students. A multiple case study model was employed. The research targets four successful high schools. The schools are suburban rural urban large medium and small headed by males and females from various racial and ethnic groups.

Participant Selection For this research interviews and observations were done with four high school principals one suburban high school in south central Texas one 3A rural high school in south central Texas one Class AA high school in a big city in Montana and one small town Class B high school in north central Montana that are identified as successful high schools based on multiple measures standardized test scores accountability ratings graduation rates attendance rates SAT scores teacher turnover rates and college readiness indicators.

The schools are regarded as successful in a wide range of areas such as State accountability scores and ratings academics school attendance rates graduation rates and teacher turnover rates. The four participating schools were one rural Texas 3A high school one rural Montana Class B high school one Texas suburban 4A high school and one large city Class AA high school in Montana.

The three male and one female principals are all Hispanic male one principal and all have served their respective schools for a period of not less than five years.

Data Collection

Three types of data collection techniques interviews document reviews and direct observation were employed in the current study. Based on Burton 2000, triangulation is also described as the employment of two or more data collection School, Collage, University, Primary school, middle school, methods in investigating some facet of human conduct.

The incorporation of different sources of data in one study contributes to research findings’ validity Hesse Baber & Leavy 2006. The three data collection approaches included in this study allow the researcher to choose the participants triangulate the data and help to ensure the trustworthiness and utility of this study.

Interviews

Following Merriam and Simpson 2000 interviews can be most useful where the issue under investigation is complex and emotionally charged 152. Most often there exist three forms of interviews structured open ended and targeted Yin 2009. In seeking to fully capture the actions of these principals which are the key to school success and academic performance by students a series of open ended questions were utilized to interview the four principals of high schools.

Interviews are suitable for this research because of the kind and size of the research. Document review The second data collection instrument employed in this research is document review. Document review captures written or visual records and scrutinizes them for data gathering purposes. Documentation may be in various forms such as letters memoranda travel logs calendars communiqués progress reports internal documents personal journals and meeting agendas Yin 2009. The messages and objects human groups create are saturated with big ideas those groups hold that are shared or debated Hesse Bibber & Leavy 2006 286. A variety of documents were examined in this research most notably the Texas Academic Excellence Indicator System AEIS reports.

Definition of Terms

Accountability Accountability refers to the delegation of responsibility for performing activities in a particular manner or generating certain outcomes. One of the foremost reasons for having more accountability measures is to figure out how to better. To have an effective system of accountability there need to be a goal compliance with legal requirements better performance means of measuring progress toward the goal indicators of compliance with legal requirements indicators of performance criteria for judging whether the measures demonstrate that the goal has or has not been achieved and consequences for.

All of these components of an accountability system can differ in a variety of ways Goldschmidt Rostowski Choi Autry Hobbler Blank & Williams 2005. AEIS Academic Excellence Indicator System. The Texas Education Agency TEA database created to report on educational information standardized test scores graduation rates attendance rates demographic information etc. for every school and school district within the State of Texas for further details on the AEIS.

Conclusion

This chapter provides an overview of a study which identifies examines and analyzes what successful high school leaders do to practice their leadership behaviors. This opening chapter contains the statement of the problem purpose of the study research questions research methodology significance of the study limitations and delimitations and assumptions of the study. This research now moves to the literature from the academy in school leadership and how these school principals influence successful school functioning and student accomplishment.

The literature review also reviews concepts of school leadership the characteristics styles tendencies and approaches of effective school leaders and provides the context for the research about what exactly effective high school principals do to contribute positively to school success and student academic accomplishment. This chapter gives an overview of a study that determines examines and analyzes.