District-level Leadership Research Articles

Scared leadership: an explanatory theory for the maintenance of the status quo

ABSTRACTIn this article, I present the construct of scared leadership as a theoretical explanation for the gradual decrease in courageous behavior as educators move from the classroom to campus and district level leadership. Scared leadership is a construct that can be used in future work to better understand and articulate the relationship between fear and leadership.I examine various explanations in the existing literature for the prevalence and perpetuation of systematized fear and compliance. I then put forward my own theoretical construct of scared leadership to better understand and articulate the relationship between fear and leadership in public education. I examine how emotional data, specifically fear, influences behavior at a systems level, and how that influence impacts institutional cultures and organizational practices in education. I look at ways fear presents itself in educational leadership, and delve into various external factors that produce conditions of fear. I began this work in order to deepen my own understanding of the relationship between fear and leadership, in an effort to understand how and why we systematize fear in educational leadership. As I studied, I found that this relationship was underdeveloped and underrepresented in the existing literature, and so I present the construct of scared leadership to representing the specific phenomenon this paper sets out to propose and define. Key scared leadership, educational leadership, critical love, systems theory, critical theory.

Impact of a recognition package as an incentive to strengthen the motivation, performance, and retention of village health teams in Uganda: a study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial

IntroductionUganda’s community health worker (CHW), or village health team (VHT), program faces significant challenges with poor retention and insufficient financial and program investment. Adequate compensation comprising financial and non-financial components is critical to retaining any workforce, including CHWs. This study evaluates the impact of a recognition-based non-financial incentives package on the motivation, performance, and retention of VHTs, as well as on the utilization of health services by the community. The incentive package and intervention were developed in collaboration with the district-level leadership and award VHTs who have met predetermined performance thresholds with a certificate and a government-branded jacket in a public ceremony.MethodsA two-armed cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT), conducted at the parish level in Uganda’s Masindi District, will evaluate the effects of the 12-month intervention. The cluster-RCT will use a mixed-methods approach, which includes a baseline/endline VHT survey to assess the impact of the intervention on key outcomes, with an expected sample of 240 VHTs per study arm; our primary outcome is the total number of household visits per VHT and our multiple secondary outcomes include other performance indicators, motivation, and retention; VHT performance and retention data will be validated using monthly phone surveys tracking key performance indicators and through abstraction of VHT-submitted health facility reports; and focus group discussions will be conducted with VHTs and community members to understand how the intervention was received. Data collection activities will be administered in local languages. To assess the impact of the intervention, the study will conduct a regression analysis using Generalized Estimating Equations adjusting for cluster effect. Further, a difference-in-differences analysis will be conducted.DiscussionThis study utilized a cluster-RCT design to assess the impact of a recognition-based incentives intervention on the motivation, performance, and retention of VHTs in Uganda’s Masindi District. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the study will provide insights on the effectiveness and limitations of the intervention, VHT perspectives on perceived value, and critical insights on how non-financial incentives might support the strengthening of the community health workforce.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT05176106. Retrospectively registered on 4 January 2022.

Examining policy intentions and actual implementation practices: How organizational factors influence health management information systems in Uttar Pradesh, India

This study investigates the implementation of a recent health management information systems (HMIS) policy reform in Uttar Pradesh, India, which aims to improve the quality and use of HMIS data in decision-making. Through in-depth interviews, meeting observations and a policy document review, this study sought to capture the experiences of district-level staff (street-level bureaucrats) who were responsible for HMIS policy implementation. Findings revealed that issues of weak HMIS implementation were partly due to human resources shortages both in number and technical skill. Delays in recruitment and the presence of inactive staff overburdened existing staff and weakened the implementation of HMIS activities at the block- and district-levels. District staff also explained how inadequate computer literacy and limited technical understanding further contributed to low HMIS data quality. The organizational culture was even more constraining: working within a very rigid and hierarchical organization was challenging for district data staff, who were expected to manage day-to-day HMIS activities, but lacked the discretion and authority to do so effectively. Consequently, they had to escalate minor issues to district leadership for action and were expected to follow their supervisors' directives– even if they contradicted HMIS policy guidelines. High performance pressures associated with achieving top district rankings deviated focus away from HMIS data quality issues. Many district-level respondents described their superiors’ “fixation” with becoming a top-ranking district often resulted in disregard for the quality of data informing district rankings. Furthermore, the review of district rankings only partially encouraged district-level leadership to investigate reasons for low-performing indicators. Instead, low district rankings often resulted in punitive action. The study recommends the importance of incorporating the perspectives of district staff, and recognizing their discretion, and authority when designing policy implementation processes, and finally concludes with potential strategies for strengthening the current HMIS policy reform.

Creating Cultures of Equity and High Expectations in a Low-Performing School

The literature on successful schools has revealed that a school culture of high expectations is beneficial for student achievement and that leaders may exercise significant influence on their school’s success trajectory. However, less information is known about how leaders at different levels interact to build such cultures in local schools or how standards of professional work and new demands interact to support teachers’ com-mitment to quality education for a diverse student population. This study aimed to examine the interplay between district and school leadership in creating cultures of equity and high expectations for all students in a Norwegian low-performing school. Methods included interviews with the principal and the superin-tendent, focus group interviews with deputies, teachers and students, and a survey among all students in grade 10 at the selected school. The study demonstrated how leading teachers’ effort to raise academic and social standards among students was a complex endeavour and how a productive interplay between district level leadership and school-level leadership became one of the key enabling factors. A main argument is that promoting quality education for all begins with the question of purpose and requires understanding how principals’ and teachers’ work is embedded in broader social structures of power.

Cultivating a Community of Effective Special Education Teachers

Evidence of the powerful impact teachers have on student achievement has led to an intensive focus on cultivating effective teachers, including special education teachers (SETs). Local special education administrators (LSEAs) share responsibility for cultivating effective SETs throughout their districts. However, the roles LSEAs play in this process have not been clearly defined through research. This qualitative investigation used grounded theory methods to examine how LSEAs in the Victoria School District, a high-performing, inclusive district, described their roles cultivating a district-wide community of effective SETs. The findings have implications for districts’ efforts to cultivate effective SETs systemically and for future research on effective district-level leadership for special education.

De-adoption of an evidence-based trauma intervention in schools: A retrospective report from an urban school district.

The de-adoption of evidence-based practices (EBPs) is a largely understudied topic. The present study examined factors related to the de-adoption of an EBP for students exposed to traumatic events in a large urban school district. Qualitative interviews conducted with school clinicians and district administrators two years after the district embarked on a large-scale roll-out of the EBP distinguished between factors that impacted partial de-adoption after one year (phase 1) and complete de-adoption by the district after two years (phase 2). Phase 1 factors included organizational consistency, workforce stability, prior success, positive student outcomes, school- and district- level supports, innovation-setting fit, and innovation-related issues. Phase 2 factors included district-level leadership changes, financial and workforce instability, and shifting priorities. Study results suggest that sustainment-enhancing strategies should be included in the early stages of program implementation to most effectively adapt to school- and system- level changes.

Conceptualizing Alberta District Leadership Practices: A Cross-Case Analysis

We interviewed 45 district-level staff, principals, and trustees in two high-performing and one rapidly improving Alberta school districts. We asked interviewees to detail the what and the how of key leadership practices to promote and sustain student achievement and how they had changed over the last five to ten years. The cross-case findings are clustered around four practices that respondents described and strongly endorsed: (1) collaboration between school- and district-level leadership in setting the direction in leadership for learning; (2) development of a shared expertise in the uses of evidence about student learning; (3) provision of professional development that is job-embedded and based on school needs; and (4) alignment of an array of practices and structures to support student learning.

Somewhere between a Possibility and a Pipe Dream: District-level Leadership that Promotes Family Inclusion and Engagement in Education

This paper looks at strengthening parent engagement in education, focusing on leadership strategies for reaching and supporting parents. The qualitative case study of a district’s multiple approaches for enhancing parent engagement involved 8 individual and focus group interviews, observations, and document analyses. The superintendent and principals shared leadership with school councils for developing initiatives. They collaborated with community organizations to provide parenting support, social services and resources to enable participation. Despite some success, the leaders were challenged to establish engagement programs widely across the district due to a managed, hierarchical, organizational structure and limited parent input on educational goals. The research contributes to a discussion of enhancing relations among families and schools to promote all students’ academic achievement and wellbeing.

Developing the Capacity to Implement Tier 2 and Tier 3 Supports: How Do We Support Our Faculty and Staff in Preparing for Sustainability?

School-site and district-level leadership teams rely on the existing knowledge base to select, implement, and evaluate evidence-based practices meeting students’ multiple needs within the context of multitiered systems of support. The authors focus on the stages of implementation science as applied to Tier 2 and Tier 3 supports; the importance of school-site expertise to select, implement, and monitor the use of evidence-based Tier 2 and Tier 3 practices to address the academic, behavioral, and social needs of students; and evidence-based guidelines for professional development. Together these practices ensure school-site leadership teams focus available resources for addressing data-based needs and achieving desired student outcomes.

Early Arrival or Trespassing? Leadership, School Security, and the Right to the School

School leaders are under constant pressure to ensure that schools are safe and to demonstrate that student safety and discipline are priorities. In many districts, schools rely on local law enforcement, school police, or security personnel to assist with promoting and maintaining safe schools. To encourage school leaders to think critically about the role of law enforcement and security personnel in schools, we present a school-level case where a principal is arrested for intervening to stop the arrest of a student. The case is appropriate for school- and district-level leadership courses that examine social, political, and cultural contexts that shape decision making.

Using Technology to Promote In-service Teacher Education and Enhance Professional Capital

Collaboration has been identified as a vital component to enhancing the educational context and is a key component to professional capital (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2013). With that being said, technology offers a viable and productive venue for such collaboration to take place. The dilemma for districts is determining how to provide in-service education opportunities that promote the use of technology for the purposes of enhancing collaboration. This article explores how in-service opportunities that utilize technology for collaboration can enhance professional capital within the educational context. Recommendations for both district-level leadership and the individual practitioner are outlined.

Strong agents and weak systems: University support for school level improvement

This study examined individual and school level factors that advance and suppress the traits of high performing schools. Based on action plans and reflective journals of 28 school level practitioners in 14 schools across 10 school districts, researchers tracked the progress of each practitioner from participation in a university-based school improvement institute through the initial 5 months of action plan implementation at the school site. This study also presents a conceptual model for a strong system, based on an extensive literature review. Findings are as follows: (1) Internal, school-level change agents who are knowledgeable and skillful with the traits of strong systems were able to make significant inroads within weak systems. (2) School and district level leadership knowledgeable and skillful with the traits of strong systems were crucial to the sustainability of improvement efforts. (3) The effectiveness of change agents in initiating improvement did not necessarily align with positional power, confirming prior complexity research findings that posit non-linearity of change. (4) Effective change agents focused in their work with colleagues on the cultivation of intellectual dispositions and complex skills. Such activity stands in contrast to much contemporary Professional Learning Community (PLC) work (so called) that focuses on “training” teachers in scripted procedures and suggests that much contemporary PLC work needs to be redirected from the learning of procedural skills to the cultivation of intellectual dispositions and complex skills. University colleges of education, whose signature traditions include inquiry, analysis, and reflection, are well-positioned to support such work.

Drivers of Success: One District's Process for Closing Achievement Gaps in a Post-No Child Left behind Context

In this original qualitative study, we examined the processes employed by a school district that had made progress in closing achievement gaps in a post-No Child Left Behind context. The district served more than 26,000 students in an economically and ethnically diverse community. Secondary analysis of the findings uncovered a primary driver—effective, sustained district-level leadership—which drove two secondary drivers: district-developed and deployed systems and a culture of shared accountability. Results of this study suggest that these three drivers caused reported changes at the campus and classroom levels, which in turn contributed to the progress that the district made in closing achievement gaps.

School Board Member and Superintendent Turnover and the Influence on Student Achievement: An Application of the Dissatisfaction Theory

District-level leadership often has been perceived as irrelevant to educational reform. This study compared district political and apolitical board and superintendent turnover to student performance change on the state criterion-referenced test. Results included student test score decline as board turnover increased, particularly in smaller districts and when delineating politically motivated board turnover. Also, student test scores declined in small, rural districts where there was no superintendent change over the course of the eight-year study. Conclusions included support for the dissatisfaction theory, which predicts that politically motivated board and superintendent turnover may influence student performance.

LOCAL FARM BUREAU LEADERSHIP NEEDS ASSESSMENT: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine the leadership expectations, needs, and interests of local Farm Bureau board members. Nine county boards were included in the study, with the chairperson and one other member being interviewed from each board. The focus of the interviews was identification of common leadership-related challenges and perceived development needs of the local Farm Bureau board. Four significant theme areas emerged: organizational appreciation, grassroots involvement, board member training, and board member succession. Within these areas, twelve consistent sub-themes surfaced and are discussed in this paper. Based on these results, the researchers recommended that Florida Farm Bureau: (1) maintain quality field staff as liaisons between the local and state levels; (2) encourage and support district-level leadership programs; (3) develop and facilitate “short courses” on Farm Bureau board governance; (4) design and coordinate new board member orientation programs; (5) expand recognition programs for local board involvement; and (6) continue research efforts that guide local leadership development. Other groups that desire improved local board leadership should consider research efforts similar to this study and the related research with Florida Farm Bureau.

School- and District-Level Leadership for Teacher Workforce Development: Enhancing Teacher Learning and Capacity

School- and District-Level Leadership for Teacher Workforce Development: Enhancing Teacher Learning and Capacity

School‐ and District‐Level Leadership for Teacher Workforce Development: Enhancing Teacher Learning and Capacity

Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of EducationVolume 103, Issue 1 p. 303-325 School- and District-Level Leadership for Teacher Workforce Development: Enhancing Teacher Learning and Capacity M. BRUCE KING, M. BRUCE KING M. Bruce King is a Research Scientist at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.Search for more papers by this author M. BRUCE KING, M. BRUCE KING M. Bruce King is a Research Scientist at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.Search for more papers by this author First published: 04 April 2005 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7984.2004.tb00038.xCitations: 10AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume103, Issue1April 2004Pages 303-325 RelatedInformation