School Improvement Initiatives Research Articles

Co-designing a Children’s Cabinet: a school district–university partnership for youth well-being post-pandemic

PurposeThis paper presents a case study of a school district–university partnership to co-design a Children’s Cabinet, a cross-sector initiative bringing together institutional and community leaders to address youth well-being in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a vibrant, immigrant-serving community in the Northeast United States, the partnership was initiated by district leaders in Spring 2021 after pandemic disruptions led to a youth mental health crisis.Design/methodology/approachOur descriptive, qualitative case study focuses on the structure and emerging design principles of the research–practice partnership, which established a Children’s Cabinet comprised of educational, government and community leaders along with researchers. From Spring 2021 through Spring 2024, we collected and analyzed member and youth interviews, ethnographic observations and artifacts from all meetings and process interviews with key partners.FindingsWe describe the structure of the partnership, including how researchers and district leaders collaborated on meeting facilitation and how researchers conducted and shared applied research. We then discuss three design principles that guided the work, including centering relationships, sustaining focus on key goals and embedding applied research.Originality/valueAs embedded research partners, our team is uniquely situated to narrate the nature and structure of the partnership and reflect on the design of our cross-sector initiative. Increasingly, universities are partnering directly with districts on school improvement initiatives. Our work shows how engaging in RPPs to bring together school, community and research partners can facilitate local leadership and collaboration to address complex, cross-sector goals such as increasing youth well-being.

Charting the evolving landscape of digital leadership in education: A systematic literature review

The increasing domains of digital technology in educational settings urgently require digital leadership (DL) to ensure the sustainability of school improvement initiatives in the digital era and to facilitate the digital transformation of educational institutions. DL emerges as an urgent and evolving topic of significant public interest. However, there is a notable lack of consensus persists regarding its definition and constructs within educational settings, hindering the advancement of DL theory. To address this gap, a systematic literature review was conceived, employing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology. The primary aim was to enhance comprehension of the geographical and temporal distribution of relevant publications, as well as to elucidate prevalent definitions and constructs of digital leadership in educational contexts. This article endeavors to synthesize the extant scientific literature on DL, focusing on studies published between 2019 and 2024. Inclusion criteria encompassed scientific research publications sourced from Scopus and the Web of Science (WoS) databases, available in English, and centered on educational settings. Initial database queries yielded 578 papers, subsequently refined to 35 studies through meticulous screening for duplicity and adherence to inclusion criteria. Notably, the reviewed publications predominantly characterize DL as a multifaceted process, amalgamation, or integration, with a predominant emphasis on functional aspects of leadership. Noteworthy constructs frequently encountered include digital age learning culture, visionary leadership, excellence in professional practice, systemic improvement, and digital citizenship. This review contributes to the enrichment of theoretical conceptualizations surrounding DL. It underscores the imperative for future research to explore into the measurement of DL, thereby presenting promising avenues for evaluating principal DL within educational institutions.

Analysis of Teacher Inclusion in Decision-Making Processes in Public Basic Schools in the Ho West District

This study sought to analyze teacher inclusion in decision-making processes in public basic schools in the Ho West District of the Volta Region. Drawing on Charles et al.'s (1997) shared decision-making theory, the research employed a quantitative approach and utilized the descriptive survey design. The sample included 450 public school teachers selected through stratified random sampling. Data were collected using questionnaires with a Cronbach's Alpha coefficient of 0.85 and analyzed using mean, standard deviation, and independent samples t-test. Results indicated that teachers were actively involved in providing input on resources and participating in professional development, but their engagement was less prominent in areas such as staff hiring and decision- making related to school improvement initiatives. Factors influencing teacher inclusion included the school administration's recognition of teacher input, clarity in communication, time constraints, and leadership support. Based on these findings, recommendations were suggested to enhance communication channels, ensure transparency, and establish structured mechanisms for teacher involvement in decision-making.

Exploring the link between principal instructional leadership and differentiated instruction in an understudied context: the role of teacher collaboration and self-efficacy

PurposeResearch has provided powerful evidence that what teachers do in the classroom matters most for the learning of students. Evidence also suggests that school leaders can make a significant difference to student learning via their influence on teachers' attitudes, beliefs and classroom practices. The purpose of this study was to examine if/how principal instructional leadership practices affect differentiated instruction in Omani schools, and understand the role that teacher collaboration and self-efficacy play in this dynamic.Design/methodology/approachThe study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze data collected from a sample of 496 teachers working in public schools in Muscat, Oman.FindingsThe findings revealed no direct association between principal instructional leadership and differentiated instruction. Instead, the effects of principal instructional leadership on differentiated instruction were achieved indirectly through the mediation of teacher collaboration and teacher self-efficacy. Collaboration was also found to have a positive influence on the teachers' self-efficacy beliefs.Originality/valueThe significance of this study stems from its relevance to the educational developments unfolding not only in Oman, but in the Gulf region at large. Recent reviews of educational administration and leadership research in the Gulf states indicate the scarcity of empirical research investigating the relationship between principal leadership and teacher practices. This is problematic as it creates a gap in our knowledge of the factors that can support ongoing school improvement initiatives in the region. More specifically, we expect our findings to guide current educational reforms aimed at raising education quality via promoting effective teaching and learning in Omani schools.

The Impact of School Leaders on Teachers’ Engagement in School Improvement Through an Intergenerational Diversity Lens

The aim of the research study is to analyse how the leadership of school leaders could encourage teachers to participate more effectively in school improvement, taking into account the different generations of teachers and the specificities of those generations. The scientific literature suggests that a specific focus on intergenerational diversity is necessary to better understand differences in teacher engagement in school improvement. A qualitative methodology was chosen to provide a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the participants’ real-world experiences and their subjective interpretations of those experiences. Fifteen school leaders from general education schools in Lithuania participated in the focus group discussion, and provided insights on how school leaders’ leadership may impact teachers’ engagement in school improvement initiatives, with the focus on addressing generational diversity. The proposed study does not aim to promote intergenerational stereotypes, but rather to focus on unique intergenerational values, behaviours and skills. The findings would be useful in developing research-based recommendations for school leaders’ practices (e.g. recruitment and retention, job satisfaction, career development, motivation and empowerment, teacher role and performance, leadership, etc) for encouraging groups of teachers of different generations to become more engaged in school improvement.

Use of Data-Driven Decision Making in Principal Leadership and School Improvement Initiatives in Delta State Mission Schools

This study examined use of data-driven decision making in principal leadership and school improvement initiatives in Delta State mission schools. Three research questions gave the study a direction. The study was a descriptive survey with an ex-post facto design. The population consists of 102 principals and vice-principals, in Delta State Mission schools and purposive sampling technique was adopted since the population was a manageable size, thus there was no sample. The instrument was a questionnaire titled (DDDMPLSIIQ) Data-Driven Decision Making in Principal Leadership and School Improvement Initiatives Questionnaire. The questionnaire was analysed with mean, SD and ranking. Finding shows that the current practices employed by principals in Delta State Mission schools in utilizing data-driven decision making for school improvement initiatives include; use data to monitor progress towards the school improvement goals, address achievement disparities by using data among others. The study also revealed that challenges faced by principals in implementing data-driven decision making in their leadership practices within the Delta State Mission school comprise; integrating data-driven decision making into existing systems and practices, limited capacity to use data to identify and address specific student needs and interventions. As such, it was recommended that principals should be provided with adequate training and professional development opportunities to enhance their data literacy skills. This will empower them to effectively collect, analyze, and interpret data and identify specific student needs for targeted interventions.

Promises and pitfalls: principals using short-cycle school improvement plans to optimize organizational change

PurposeSchool improvement planning has been a central part of school improvement initiatives for decades. Evidence suggests, however, that traditional planning processes are regularly superficial. In the USA, some principals have begun developing short-cycle planning designed to encourage school leadership teams and staff to develop, monitor and adjust plans throughout the academic year.Design/methodology/approachIn this study of eight schools in one urban district, the authors analyzed multiple rounds of short-cycle improvement plans and principal interview data to assess the progress schools made implementing plans over the course of a semester, the ways in which plans were monitored and adjusted and the extent to which principals embraced short-cycle planning.FindingsThe authors found that many tasks from first semester plans were completed, which informed the development of plans for the second semester. Observational data were primarily used to monitor plan completion, although principals engaged in monitoring but relied on their leadership team to do so. Principals reported regular engagement with plans throughout semester, but plans were seldom adjusted within a semester.Originality/valueThe findings suggest that short-cycle planning is potentially a viable alternative to traditional annual planning as principals communicated being more engaged and adaptive. Still, the evidence also indicated that old habits might be hard to break as school leaders did not monitor and adjust plans frequently enough to guide improvement efforts in relative “real time.”

Sustaining school improvement initiatives: advice from educational leaders

ABSTRACT There are reports about school improvement initiatives that have been successfully implemented and evaluated within relatively brief time scales. However, many initiatives do not survive over longer terms. Our purpose in this study was to identify successful strategies for achieving long-term school improvement. We interviewed 12 leaders at four educational sites. We adopted complex adaptive systems perspectives to analyse the interview transcripts, provide rich descriptions of contexts, illustrate examples of practices, and synthesise participants’ accounts to highlight key areas for attention and action. Participants described purposeful programme selection with clear goals, strategic staff leadership and continuous professional education, accountable professional networks, data sharing and feedback, time and resource management, distributed multilevel leadership, and a supportive school culture. We recommend adopting a complex adaptive systems perspective to communicate and facilitate processes of change, including planning, enacting, and evaluating school improvement as a continuous long-term process rather than as an end product of any singular initiative.

How can principal leadership practices promote teacher collaboration and organizational change? A longitudinal multiple case study of three school improvement initiatives

How can principal leadership practices promote teacher collaboration and organizational change? A longitudinal multiple case study of three school improvement initiatives

Anti-racism is not an initiative: How professional learning communities may advance equity and social-emotional learning in schools

ABSTRACT There is a sense of urgency among P-12 educators to dismantle systemic school-based racism and radically transform conditions for teaching and learning in ways that advance equity, social justice, and social-emotional learning (SEL). This transformation cannot be achieved through typical top-down, short-term approaches to school improvement or professional development. In this article we explain how, in an urban school district working to bring Digital Literacy and Computer Science (DLCS) to all students, robust professional learning communities (PLCs) have been leveraged to redress racism and led to changes in teacher mind-sets, more equitable classroom practices, and positive social-emotional learning outcomes. We explain how routine school improvement initiatives, such as stand-alone professional development events, fail to address racist beliefs and behaviors, and are inadequate to the task of advancing SEL. We describe the attributes and outcomes of effective PLCs, including the effects that PLC participation may have on teacher capacity to make anti-racist changes to curriculum and instruction, and advance the social, emotional, and academic learning of all students.

A Study of The Achievement of Training Objectives of Provincial Training Institutions for Heads of Secondary Schools in Pakistan

The study was sought to assess the achievement of training objectives of provincial training institutions for heads of secondary schools in Pakistan. Study was descriptive in nature.430 trained secondary school heads constituted the population of the study. Out of the total population 400 respondents were randomly selected. Data was collected through questionnaire and analyzed by t-test. Findings of the study revealed that the training has enhanced their understanding about the concept of leadership and management, development planning skills, knowledge of office management, human resource management, teaching learning process, parents, and community participation in school improvement initiatives. However, the training has not enhanced their understanding about the concept of financial management in both provinces. It was recommended that financial management aspect of training programs should be improved in both the provinces. In addition, the heads should be trained in information technology.

Performative identity and the researcher as drag: an autoethnographic account of positionality in educational research

ABSTRACT The following article comprises an autoethnographic discussion of researcher identity in school-based educational research. The research centred on a professional learning programme in which arts/education practitioners delivered workshops for teachers that used creative, arts practice with a focus on mindful techniques to support teachers’ wellbeing during school improvement initiatives. I developed a reflexive, participatory methodology that comprised interviews with the arts/education practitioners, and observations of the workshops in order to generate data that explored how creativity was articulated through the programme. My discussion focuses on the appropriateness of the research design and qualitative, reflexive methodology to addressing the research aims, and on my values and positionality throughout the data generation activity and subsequent analysis. Finally, I discuss my shifting identity/ies in what I define as a queer/ed research space, and conceptualize my performative researcher identity as a form of drag.

The United States National Library Power Program: Research, Evaluation and Implications for Professional Development and Library Education

The Library Power Program is a school improvement initiative of the DeWitt-Wallace Reader's Digest Fund that began in 1988. With a total investment exceeding US$45 million, Library Power is the largest nongovernmental funding for school library media programs in over 30 years. It operated in approximately 700 schools and served more than one million students. Library Power sought to create a national vision of public elementary and middle school library media programs through the instructional leadership of the library media specialist, and through partnerships within the district and with the community. An evaluation of the Library Power Program found that the Library Power initiative advanced the notion of a student-centered library media program in a learning community. It showed that given the right conditions, school library media programs can promote positive opportunities for excellence in teaching and learning.

Fostering Collective Efficacy?: What School Leaders Should Know

Statements claiming that efforts of policy makers, system and school leaders, and staff developments toward education reforms might be better served by strategically and intentionally considering how to foster collective efficacy throughout the conceptualization, design, delivery, and assessment of change initiatives (Donohoo, 2018, p. 340) have led schools and districts to attempt to do just that. However, such conclusions may not be justified. The present review examines available research using a framework inspired by Willingham (2012) which is meant to guide leaders in evaluating the trustworthiness and value of research. Willingham (2012) notes that leaders should be able to recognize the change when it happens, know how large the change should be, and estimate the length of time the change will take. This framework is applied to CTE literature to gauge whether the research base surrounding collective teacher efficacy is useful to school and district leaders when making decisions regarding school improvement and organizational change initiatives. The article concludes with suggestions for future research.

Coherent school improvement: Integrating outcomes-based assessment and trauma-informed practice

This literature review tests a framework for coherent implementation of school improvement initiatives. Often in education, initiatives are introduced as disparate, isolated approaches towards improved student learning. As a result, teachers, school-based administration and school districts frequently change their focus, contributing to fragmentation, stagnation and initiative fatigue. Robinson et al. offer ‘five domains of organizational activity’ as key areas of focus for coherent school improvement. We investigate application of Robinson et al.’s five domains to two seemingly disparate school improvement initiatives: outcomes-based assessment (OBA) and trauma-informed practice (TIP) as both represent significant areas of focus in our context. We construct our literature review around the central question: Can two divergent aspects of school improvement: outcomes-based assessment and trauma-informed practice, be aligned through Robinson et al.’s five domains, to coherently support their integration in schools? We found that Robinson et al.’s five domains were a useful tool for alignment of these diverse initiatives and were able to extrapolate beyond application to OBA and TIP, to other school improvement initiatives. Coherence benefits administration, teachers, and most importantly, promotes student achievement. When all elements of school improvement are part of a cohesive whole, all members the school community are better able to understand their role in driving student achievement.

Seeing anew: the role of student leadership in professional learning

ABSTRACT The growing interest in the role of student agency within schools, as well as the need for effective professional learning, supports further investigation into initiatives aiming to develop meaningful and sustainable student involvement in school improvement approaches. This article explores the role of student leadership in professional learning approaches that aim to improve learning through collaborative reflection on teaching practice. It provides a review of literature that investigates student involvement in professional learning, specifically through the development of student voice and the inclusion of students as co-researchers in school improvement initiatives. Following this, the article draws on the findings from a case study that examined the role of a Student Learning Community (SLC) in professional learning and presents an overview of current practice where students are involved in a research approach to professional learning called a Best Practice review. The insights drawn from the case study and practice example, both situated in a secondary school in England, offer considerations for educators wishing to explore and/or introduce student leadership approaches to professional learning, as well as recommendations for further study into the role of students as agents in school improvement initiatives.

Enhancing the sustainability of school improvement initiatives

ABSTRACT Schools address students’ educational needs by delivering a range of traditional and innovative programs. Selecting, implementing, and sustaining a new program is a school improvement initiative. Despite investments of (often) substantial resources, many such programs have relatively short school lives. Effective educational initiatives need to survive in order to continue to deliver personal, social, and economic benefits. However, practical guidance for sustainable implementation of new initiatives in school settings is relatively lacking. Drawing from literature and interviews with 70 school leaders and teachers, we created and delivered to 10 educational sites a self-assessment site improvement tool. Principal components analysis identified 20 components, and feedback from sites indicated the practical usefulness of the tool. Adopting a systems perspective with explicit attention to interactions between goals, processes, and emerging outcomes has the potential to generate more thorough consideration of the range of components that influence sustained program implementation leading to site improvement.

Essential Tensions in Facilitating Design Thinking: Collective Reflections

As design thinking expands into educational contexts, teams engaged in the process increasingly encounter situations that involve facilitating collaborative problem-solving. In design-focused workshops and other collaborative design activities, facilitators play a key role in supporting small group interactions in order to generate ideas, structure discussions, and guide the process. Yet despite this increased focus on collaborative design thinking, there is little research to inform either facilitator roles or facilitator practices in this process. We address this gap by presenting a qualitative study that thematically examines our experiences as university-based facilitators who supported a community-wide educational design event. Specifically, we served as facilitators in a collaborative, multi-stakeholder, educational design thinking workshop that sought innovations for a local high school improvement initiative. This research is a qualitative study of our own facilitation processes based on data generated through open-ended self-reflection questionnaires and facilitator planning and debriefing discussions. Our results demonstrate that design facilitation resonates with Thomas Kuhn’s (1977) notion of “essential tension.” Essential tension exists within multiple aspects of design thinking roles and practices—including processes, products, discussion flow, and group dynamics. We reflect on these findings and propose implications for design thinking facilitation in future research and practice.

Negotiating Authority in the Ritual of the Public School Board Meeting

Purpose: To investigate how and in what way local governance of education is consequential to the work of changing public schools. The focus is on the board of education meeting as a ritual performance where authority is socially negotiated to manage the emotional and symbolic interactions that shape the district organization. Research Design: Data are drawn from 30 months of organizational fieldwork in New Haven Public Schools. Analysis is conducted on meeting transcripts, participant observer field notes, and stakeholder interviews. Findings: Observed as a ritual chain, four aspects of board of education meetings can be manipulated by those attempting to assert their authority within the organization. Organizational members used copresence, shared understandings of the ritual, emotions and symbols, and feelings of solidarity to set boundaries around the organization and maintain stability. Conclusions: Performances of organizational routines such as board meetings are consequential to the micro-level work of leading and changing education. School improvement and reform initiatives must account for the midlevel of school governance at the district and board level to make meaningful and sustainable change.

How high school academic departments impact school reform efforts

ABSTRACTHigh school academic departments remain under-examined yet powerful entities in American high schools. High status department leaders create and sustain narratives around teaching and learning, disciplinary-specific best practices, and the overall efficacy and effectiveness of any number of school improvement policies and initiatives promoted by school leaders. This study presents two cases of academic departments in a single, public, comprehensive high school in the United States to explore how and why each department approached the school’s shift to problem-based learning (PBL) differently. This longitudinal, comparative case study employed mixed methods. We draw from data collected between 2010 and 2015 including yearly teacher survey data, teacher interviews, and video recorded department meetings to describe ways each department responded to the school’s PBL initiative and to explore the culture and norms that existed within each department during the time of the study. Quantitative data suggest the Social Studies department adopted PBL, while the English department did not. Qualitative data suggest a relationship between the extent to which each department adopted PBL and the extent to which the underlying principles of PBL aligned with each department’s teaching culture, professional norms, and the deep narratives department leaders established and sustained around teaching and learning.