School District Officials Research Articles

An Examination of Content-Specific Leadership: District-Level Mathematics Specialists’ Sense-Making and Enactment of Their Leadership Role

ABSTRACT In the United States, calls for improved K-12 learning opportunities in mathematics have shifted focus in school district offices from bureaucratic pursuits to instructional improvement efforts. Yet, district leaders often receive little guidance on how to achieve these goals. Further, although widely recognized that content-specificity matters in instructional improvement efforts, mathematics-based district leadership has received relatively limited attention in the literature. In this qualitative study, we drew on district leaders’ narratives of their work to examine: 1) How do district-level mathematics specialists engage in and make sense of their practice? and 2) What influences the ways they make sense of their practice? Results indicate that the ways in which participants made sense of their leadership practices through their agency, agenda, and positioning was strongly influenced by both personal and systemic factors. Personal factors included the leaders’ personal and professional backgrounds and experiences. Systemic factors included the degree of coherence leaders perceived in the district’s vision of instructional improvement, the clarity of the district leader’s role, and management of staffing resources for improving mathematics instruction. The study concludes with implications for further research and practice.

Schools and Wastewater Surveillance: Practical Implications for an Emerging Technology to Impact Child Health.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater surveillance has emerged as a public health tool that supplements traditional surveillance methods used to detect the prevalence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in communities. In May 2020, the Houston Health Department (HHD) partnered with a coalition of municipal and academic partners to develop a wastewater monitoring and reporting system for the city of Houston, Texas. The HHD subsequently launched a program to conduct targeted wastewater sampling at 52 school sites located in a large, urban school district in Houston. Data generated by this program are shared with school district officials and nurses from participating schools. Although initial feedback from these stakeholders indicated that they considered the wastewater data valuable, the emergency nature of the pandemic prevented a systematic evaluation of the program. To address this gap in knowledge, the HHD and Rice University conducted a study to determine how wastewater data are used to make decisions about COVID-19 prevention and mitigation practices in schools. Our findings indicate that maximizing the utility of wastewater data in the school context will require the development of communication strategies and education efforts tailored to the needs of specific audiences and improving collaboration between local health departments, school districts, and school nurses.

A culturally sustaining and valid Alaska Native Language (Yugtun) assessment for school children

Assessment tool development which includes the learning of Alaska Native languages by school children in Alaska is limited. A situation shared with First Nations internationally. Even rarer is the development of such tools which include the wishes and aspirations of the children’s communities. The Yupiit Piciryaraitnek Qaneryaranek-llu Cuqyun (aka, Yup’ik Culture and Language Measurement) is being developed by expert Yup’ik native language teachers for kindergarten to Grade 6 students in the Lower Kuskokwim School District, Alaska. The assessment is administered in the Yugtun language. After previous attempts at developing assessment tools had excluded key Yup’ik cultural and Yugtun language features, school district officials and a group of Yup’ik expert native language teachers – the Yup’ik Expert Group (YEG) – decided that they needed to develop their own Yugtun language assessment infused with Yup’ik culture. The district officials then sought the assistance of language assessment researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to ensure that the assessment would be regarded as high quality, valued not only by Yup’ik community members, and also met U.S. and State governments’ requirements for funding. Community-based, participatory and collaborative research principles and practices are being used to support co-designed development of a linguistically and culturally sustaining assessment. This paper provides a project overview and focusses on the Yup’ik Cultural Awareness subtest, a foundational component of the assessment. The assessment project is the first of its kind in Alaska and significant for including community aspirations in a recognized, high quality assessment tool, thereby supporting teachers’ efforts and the achievements of school children learning their community language.

“Sorry It Took a Pandemic and Multiple Murders to Get Here”: The Impact of Twin Pandemics on EDI in a Predominantly White School District

This study examined the impact of the racial justice movement that emerged in the United States after the murder of George Floyd and during the first year of the covid-19 pandemic on the discussion around equity and diversity initiatives in a predominantly White school district. We conducted thematic analyses of public communications of school district officials and community members and applied an epistemologies of ignorance framework that explains White denials of structural racism. Floyd’s murder and the pandemic appeared to shift the discussion toward greater acknowledgment of structural racism, yet White ignorance and denial persisted. We conclude that equity and diversity initiatives should include critical focus on White people’s experiences and stronger emphasis on the historical antecedents of present-day racial inequity.

The School Psychologist’s Role in Manifestation Determination Reviews: Recommendations for Practice

Manifestation determination reviews (MDRs) are a federally mandated practice that prevents schools from suspending students with disabilities for more than 10 days before determining if the student’s disability is significantly and directly related to the problem behavior. The process is a controversial one, and prior research has shown that the process is often interpreted loosely and implemented haphazardly. Although the practice lacks defined theoretical parameters and empirical testing, the results of the team’s assessment will have significant consequences for the student. Similarly, in the intervening years since the 1997 federal regulations, schools have witnessed a rise in MDR associated litigation from aggrieved families. Consequently, MDRs can be described as a high-stakes assessment for both students and schools that relies on unsound empirical and theoretical support. Current MDR approaches may be improved by systematically reviewing and updating to contemporary practices. This paper examines the current research on MDR practices and provides recommendations that may be employed by school psychologists and district officials. Implementation recommendations and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Race-Conscious Ethics in School Leadership: From Impersonal Caring to Critical Responsibility

Background/Context This research is informed by leadership theory and care ethics and how these theories intersect with race-consciousness. This study contributes to the emerging literature on race-conscious leadership ethics that supports building capacity for equity leadership. Purpose The authors explore the intersection of race-consciousness and leadership ethics, studying how leaders explain their practices for increasing equity, their leadership ethics, and their sense of responsibility and personal capacity to address racial achievement disparities. Participants The participants are 22 school leaders: 20 principals and two school district officials from 14 urban and suburban school districts in a metropolitan region in one northeastern state. Research Design This article draws from a semistructured interview study, based on Seidman's three-component interview design but combined in a single interview: history, focus, and reflection. The authors follow a constructivist, exploratory design to develop interpretations and a three-part conceptual framework. Data Collection and Analysis Semistructured interviews allowed the researchers to engage participants in deeper explanations and captured the leaders’ lived experiences through their subjective points of view. Analysis proceeded through a collaborative coding and memo-writing process among the three authors, each contributing distinct historical and racial identities and professional backgrounds. Findings Finding a broad range of perspectives about race and its significance for the experiences of children in school settings, the authors identify variations in moral perspectives that play out in differential views of caring and responsibility, especially when leaders talked about the racial and socioeconomic diversity among their students and how they address inequities in opportunities and outcomes. The authors explore four themes: (a) community-based caring, (b) tough-love/tough-luck caring, (c) color-evasive caring in “fortunate communities,” and (d) caring with minimal responsiveness. Many principals, especially White principals in schools with a small percentage of students of color, maintain a color-evasive perspective and demonstrate “impersonal caring,” with abstract and technical concern for student performance. Race-conscious principals demonstrate caring that takes on different forms, denoted by more marked elaboration of “critical responsibility” for children of color. Between these two perspectives are varied attitudes and perspectives. Conclusions/Recommendations Greater attention is needed for continuing ethical cultivation of school leaders. Across themes, there are multiple routes to developing capacity for race-conscious leadership ethics, through engaging in deeper reflection about personal history, expanding one's understanding of what it means to care across difference, critiquing one's color evasiveness, and learning from colleagues who demonstrate collective responsibility.

Does decentralised governance of primary education improve performance of pupils in Eastern Uganda? Perspectives of education managers

This study seeks to establish the role decentralised governance has played in the performance of primary schools in eastern Uganda. Exploratory and descriptive data drawn from 104 school managers and district officials participating in the study indicate that decentralised governance has strengthened management of the payroll, increased regularity of monitoring and supervision and introduced school management committees. Despite these improvements in governance, there is however evidence that the quality of primary education continues to be low. Only a small and declining percentage of pupils complete primary education, and with increasingly poor grades. This is because, for a number of reasons, both the supply and demand side of governance are still weak. Despite this, overall the author finds that decentralised governance of primary education is a positive development, as it has enhanced the supply side of governance. There is, however, a need to control negative practices in the supply side of governance, and to systematically develop the demand side of governance, if the performance of Ugandan pupils is to improve.

Organizational empowerment: A framework examining historical and systemic domains in school settings.

Organizational empowerment (OE) is a key construct in community psychology. We build on current understandings of OE by exploring history and systemic relationships as important aspects of OE. We conducted interviews with 20 school leaders from 16 schools that went through a district-wide transition of students with disabilities into general education schools and asked these leaders about their preparation and service provision during this transition. We utilized a grounded theory approach to analyze the data, and two domains of OE emerged: historical and systemic, each with multiple dimensions. The historical domain refers to schools' functioning before the transition, and the systemic domain reflects interactions between schools and the School District Office for Students with Disabilities during the transition. We provide a nuanced understanding of these domains of organizational empowerment and their interaction, as well as implications for empowerment theory and practice.

Attitudinal Divergence and Convergence Concerning Collaboration: A Descriptive Case of Public Education in Georgia

Collaboration researchers have identified participant attitudes as a key antecedent of effective collaboration. While different individuals with different backgrounds representing different organizations are likely to form different attitudes regarding collaborative arrangements, successful collaboration is predicated upon at least a minimum level of attitudinal convergence. Unfortunately, little theory exists to predict where and to what extent collaborative participants will experience diverging and converging attitudes. By exploring participant attitudes in a specific policy area—public education—we extend the extant evidence that participant attitudes toward collaboration can vary widely. We employed a mixed-methods survey (N = 435) of local government and school district officials representing 182 local governments and 96 school districts, respectively, in the state of Georgia. Based on these data, we provide a descriptive study of the extent to which likely collaborators experience a convergence (or divergence) of attitudes across several dimensions: the felt pressures to collaborate, the perceived importance of collaboration, the most needed areas of collaboration, the easiest areas of collaboration, and the perceived barriers to collaboration. Based on the descriptive study, we raise several practical and scholarly implications, including the theoretical potential of proximity as a way to understand attitudinal convergence and divergence across potential collaborators.

Change-Makers: A Grassroots Approach to Culturally Responsive Leadership and Teaching

While achievement and opportunity gaps and systemic racism exist in the majority of school districts across the United States, not every school district authentically acknowledges and addresses these issues. In this case study, researchers examine a PreK–12 school district situated in a racially and economically diverse mid-Atlantic city in which race- and class-based discrimination have been well documented and recent episodes of extreme racial violence have affected the community. The school district, which employs 1,300 teachers and serves over 14,000 students, developed and implemented a grassroots approach by forming a district-wide culturally responsive leadership team. Through interviews with 10 culturally responsive leadership team members, including school district officials, school-level administrators, and teachers, researchers explicate collaborative relationships that promote district-wide change practices. Findings detailing the creation and enactment of this culturally responsive program include (a) culturally responsive school leadership; (b) engaging in culturally responsive district-wide practices, and (c) encouraging program participants to engage in critical self-reflection.

LEADING FROM THE MIDDLE FOR IMPROVING TEACHING AND LEARNING OUTCOMES: PERSPECTIVES FROM TWO EDUCATION DISTRICTS IN SOUTH AFRICA

Ponte Academic JournalDec 2020, Volume 76, Issue 12 LEADING FROM THE MIDDLE FOR IMPROVING TEACHING AND LEARNING OUTCOMES: PERSPECTIVES FROM TWO EDUCATION DISTRICTS IN SOUTH AFRICAAuthor(s): Pinkie Euginia Mthembu ,Thamsanqa bhengu, Vitallis ChikokoJ. Ponte - Dec 2020 - Volume 76 - Issue 12 doi: 10.21506/j.ponte.2020.12.6 Abstract:District officials’ leadership is crucial in scaling up improvement for teaching and learning as it provides immediate support to schools. In this paper, we explore leadership practices as discussed by district officials in two district offices in Gauteng, South Africa. The paper explores instructional leadership practices of district officials aimed at improving teaching and learning in schools. It also tries to address the gap created by the tendency for studies to focus more on school leadership, rather than foregrounding district leadership’s essential role in the enhancement of teaching and learning in schools. A case study methodology we adopted, used in-depth interviews with purposively selected six (6) executive management district officials. The findings revealed that district officials’ leadership practices entailed developing a philosophy of shared vision between the districts and schools, providing clear directions for schools to follow, role modelling and close curriculum supervision, as well as, promoting district-community collaboration. The paper recommends a need for school district officials to engage proactively in all aspects influencing the enhancement of teaching and learning in these contexts. Download full text:Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution Username Password

The Counternarrative of Teacher Evaluation: The Kangaroo Court, the Salem Witch Trials, and the Scarlett Letter

The purpose of this sequential transformative study was to elucidate the negative experiences of teachers with performance evaluations and to juxtapose the intended use of current popular teacher evaluation reform movements to the evident implementation. One may quickly assume that negative experiences with evaluation are a result of unsatisfactory teaching practices. However, this may not accurately explain the negative experiences. This study focused on the negative experience of teacher evaluation to provide a broader understanding of the impact of new evaluation policy reform on student achievement and teacher quality. With a paucity of previous research focused on the negative impacts of teacher evaluation, this study addressed the following questions: (1) How does the Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) teacher evaluation process negatively impact teachers? (2) What, if any, parallel traits exist among those teachers who had negative experiences with the PAR evaluation system? and, (3) How does the intended use of the PAR teacher evaluation process compare to the evident use of PAR? Data revealed dissonance among intent and evident use of the evaluation policy. A disproportionate number of African Americans, women over the age of 55, and teachers higher on the pay scale were referred to PAR. Vague policy language was suggested as the impetus for misuse, abuse, and biased implementation at the local level. This study suggests that policymakers and school district officials take heed of multiple perspectives and consider the negative impacts of teacher evaluation reform. Evaluation systems that prioritize teacher learning over accountability are integral to successfully improving student achievement.

All against all competition: the incorporation of the International Baccalaureate in public high schools in Canada

ABSTRACT Since the 1980s, education in Canada has been through a process that led to school choice, targeting the improvement of students’ performance through school competition. These policies fostering an education quasi-market became an ideal framework for the expansion of IB schools. Since the Diploma Programme of the International Baccalaureate (IBDP) offers a differentiated international curriculum and is perceived as a program that contributes to students’ achievements, it has been increasingly adopted in school districts and schools. This paper explores the marketing strategies developed in schools and districts in response to school competition by tracing the incorporation of the IBDP in high schools in different districts in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. Based on interviews with school staff, district officials and IB local association representatives, this study analyzes schools’ marketing decisions from a consumer and producer orientation taking into account the macro environment (federal government) and micro-environment (provincial government and districts). Rather than fostering efficiency and improving students’ achievement as intended, marketization policies resulted in an increased focus on the recruitment of high achieving students, which led to a competition between schools, between districts and between other programs in the districts or in other words –an ‘all against all’ competition.

How Do We Get Them on the Farm? Efforts to Improve Rural Teacher Recruitment and Retention in Arkansas

Rural schools, particularly high poverty rural schools, often have difficulty hiring and retaining qualified teachers. Here, we discuss three programs the Arkansas Department of Education has used to attract teachers to teacher Geographic Shortage Districts (GSDs) through material incentives. Unfortunately, none of the programs have had much success, perhaps in part since the funding offered was inadequate to attract new teachers to isolated communities. Additionally, we analyze the use of materialistic and non-materialistic incentives on the websites of all school districts designated as GSDs by the Arkansas Department of Education. Few GSDs display non-materialistic appeals that might entice individuals to seek out employment in the district, with the notable exception of KIPP Delta, the only charter school on the list, which has much more success recruiting teachers. We end with suggestions for policymakers and school district officials seeking to attract teachers to geographic shortage areas.

Addressing Intellectual Freedom and Privacy in Education

In her feature article, “Indoctrination and Common Sense Interpretation of Texts: The Tucson Unified School District Book Banning,” Emily Knox, an assistant professor at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, attempts to make sense of the controversy surrounding legislation passed in Arizona to remove Mexican American Studies (MAS) courses from public school curriculum. Her analysis focuses on the unique actions taken by Tucson Unified School District officials, who walked into MAS classrooms and proceeded to confiscate numerous books related to the program. Through a discourse analysis of arguments made by those opposing MAS programs, Knox reveals an ironic role of “indoctrination” within the controversy: those who opposed MAS feared students were being indoctrinated to feel there was something wrong with the United States, yet their own act of banning certain books was itself an act of indoctrination by purposefully shaping the information students would be exposed to.

School district leadership styles and school improvement: evidence from selected school principals in the Eastern Cape Province

The purpose of this study was to investigate how leadership styles in the Eastern Cape school districts support school improvement. Mixed methods research was employed and data was collected through the use of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with school principals in various districts. The study was guided by the following questions: (1) what are the most common leadership styles among the school district officials in the province; and (2) how do the prevailing leadership style/s appear to support or hinder change and school improvement in the district? The quantitative data was analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for statistical analysis, while qualitative data analysis followed the iterative approach as suggested by Miles and Huberman (1994). Findings revealed prevalence of more authoritarian top-down leadership styles, which tend to have negative effects on school improvement. The paper ends with recommendations for more empirical work that would uncover district leadership approaches that influence the success of the districts and support school improvement.

Leadership development: A lever for system-wide educational change

The continuous poor performance of South Africa’s learners is detrimental to its developing economy. The need for education change prompted two universities to initiate a system-wide change strategy in a poorly performing school district. The leverage for change was leadership development, involving school principals and district officials. The global impetus for driving leadership development is based on the positive association between high-quality leadership and effective schools. The change strategy was a three year leadership development intervention programme. An evaluative case study was used to investigate the experiences of the participants during the implementation of the programme. Research methods included individual interviews, observation, and a survey by means of a questionnaire. Using systems theory as a theoretical framework, various disconnections were identified in the school district. These disconnections concern the interrelationships between the educational leaders which hinder organisational learning. Changing the culture of the school district through system-wide collaboration could be the key to systemic improvements. Strategies such as collective capacity building, joint problem-solving, networking and system leadership, might provide the essential ‘glue’ for strengthening the interconnections within the school district. Keywords: collective capacity building; district officials; education change; educational leadership; leadership development; principals; school district; system leadership; system-wide change

Differential Access to High School Counseling, Postsecondary Destinations, and STEM Careers

Background/Context Policy makers, school district officials, teachers and parents have embraced science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects as a way to promote a stronger pipeline to college and career STEM. In so doing, these varied groups seek to raise job prospects for next-generation workers, increase opportunities for low-income and minority students, and enhance U.S. competitiveness in a global economy. Purpose/Objective In this article we explore the ways in which the work of counseling departments in two different school environments shape students’ STEM participation in high school, with important potential consequences for college and career STEM. High school counselors operate at a critical access point to high-level science and math coursework in high school and STEM postsecondary majors and programs after high school. A fuller understanding of the role that school counselors play in improving math and science outcomes and strengthening pathways to STEM is increasingly important, particularly given the push for STEM careers in new global economic context. Research Design In this article we delve deeply into the day-to-day workings of the high school counseling office in two schools that serve markedly different populations of students. Utilizing data gathered through full ethnographic investigation over a 1-year period, we focus on the ways in which the work of counselors collectively constrain and /or enhance short and long-term STEM-linked outcomes for varying populations. We address two interrelated research questions: (1) In what ways and to what extent does the work of counseling departments in two different school environments shape students’ STEM participation in high school? (2) In what ways and to what extent does the work of the counseling departments differ in schools that serve markedly different populations of students in terms of race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status? Conclusions/Recommendations Our data reveal stark differences between students’ high school STEM participation at the two schools. Evidence also points to differences in the work and role of school counselors in aiding students to access STEM in college and career. However, in spite of the fact that one school offers a far more robust pipeline to STEM than does the other, in neither case do the schools take concrete steps to maximize access to STEM in college or career for their top math and science students who express strong inclination in this direction. Although it is arguably the case that a number of factors contribute to STEM college and career outcomes, data highlight the differential yet simultaneously central role of high school counselors in the pipeline to STEM.

Bullying and Harassment of Students With Disabilities in Schools

Bullying is a common occurrence in U.S.’s schools and is currently at the forefront of national attention. Unfortunately, students with disabilities are frequently the targets of peer-on-peer bullying. The purpose of this article is to examine the legal ramifications when students with disabilities are bullied in school settings. We address court cases, state educational agency decisions, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) guidance, and Office of Civil Rights (OCR) rulings that have held that bullying may violate Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. School personnel must address the bullying of students with disabilities in a quick and efficient manner. In fact, these decisions show that when bullying is not stopped, school district officials and personnel may be subjecting their school districts to legal risks. We end by proposing how school district officials can develop legally sound policies for identifying, investigating, and responding to incidences of bullying of students with disabilities.

Francisco Maestas et al. v. George H. Shone et al.: Mexican American Resistance to School Segregation in the Hispano Homeland, 1912–1914

ABSTRACTThe authors in this article argue that the Francisco Maestas et al vs. George H. Shone et al (1914) case is one of the earliest Mexican American challenges to school segregation in the United States. Unidentified for over a century, the lawsuit took place in southern Colorado, a region of the nation where Mexican Americans have deep historical roots. This case was unique because the racial background and linguistic needs of Mexican American children were contested. First, plaintiffs (Mexican Americans) argued their children were racially distinct as Mexicans and used the Colorado Constitution to challenge segregation because the state prohibited public schools from classifying and distinguishing children based on color and race. Defendants (school board members and the superintendent) countered that Mexican American children were Caucasian and claimed they were no different from other White children in the school district. Second, school district officials maintained that non-English speaking Mexican American children were placed in a separate school in order to serve their linguistic needs. The district court judge discovered that school officials had created a policy that sent all Mexican American children to the separate school. To the extent that many Mexican American children were English speaking, the district court judge ruled in favor of Francisco Maestas on the grounds that school officials could not prevent English-speaking Mexican American children from attending schools of their choice in general and schools that were closer to their homes in particular.