Journal Article Review (JAR)
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LEADERSHIP-casestudy.docxLEADERSHIP’S INFLUENCE: A CASE STUDY OF AN ELEMENTARY PRINCIPAL’S INDIRECT IMPACT ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
D r . G oldy B rown HI Auburn University of Montgomery College of Education
This study investigated leadership supports provided by an elementary principal of 15 years in a high performing diverse school. Employing document analysis and interviews, the researcher gathered and analyzed data in an effort to identify those leadership strategies that could be replicated at other school sites. The study identified the following principal provided supports: curriculum being aligned to the standards, data driven instruction efforts, the development of common assessments, professional learning communities, parent teacher organization facilitation, TRIBES Behavior Program, budgeting, and a schedule that allowed for uninterrupted instruction.
Key Words: Leadership, Principal, Student Achievement, Elementary School
Literature Review
Research on the principal position goes back for decades, and there is no shortage of literature that attempts to define the position and how it impacts all aspects of the field of education. More recently, due to increasing demands on school accountability nationwide, how the principal impacts student achievement has come to the forefront as a major interest to researchers on school leadership. The literature reviewed identified five themes regarding successful school principals. These findings include the following: (1) Qualities of effective leadership (2) Principal’s establishing a vision and setting goals (3) Principals positively impacting school culture (4) Principals leading distributed leadership systems (5) and personal traits of the effective principal. The following studies have provided evidence on what makes an effective school leader, Cotton (2003); Gurr, Diysdale, & Mulford (2006); Hallinger &
Heck, (1996); Leithwood, Louis Anderson, & Wahlstron, (2004); Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, (2005); McGough, (2003); Mullen, Gordon, Greenlee, & Anderson, (2002); Spillane, (2006). Other studies show that the principal can impact student performance through influencing the goals of the school, and setting a clear vision Brooks (2007); Capper and Frattura (2007); Copeland, (2003); Dumay, X., Boonen, T., & Van Damme, J. (2013). Peterson and Deal (1999); Leithwood and Jatzi (2008), Taylor and Tashakkori (1994) found that the principal can impact the school through establishing a positive school structure and culture. The research also notes that school leadership may have a greater influence on student achievement when leadership responsibilities are widely distributed, Heck and Hallinger (2009); Penlington, Alison, and Day (2008). Finally, a handful of personal traits explain much of the variation among principals who have impacted student
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achievement, Fullan (2002); Jean-Marie (2008); McEwan (2003); Scheurich and Skrla (2003); Whitaker (2003). Leithwood, Louis, Anderson & Wahlstom (2004) argued that of all the factors that contribute to student achievement, leadership’s effect is second only to classroom instruction. Within this research context, the researcher attempts to uncover more specifically; what support is provided by principal’s who have influenced student achievement? This study adds to the literature by employing a framework specifically focused on student achievement. The reviewed literature offers some important insights into the research question, but by using the Perspective on Learning Environment framework and focusing on one case, this study is able to provide more specific findings about principal provided support that lead to increasing student achievement. Thus, this investigation adds to this body of research by targeting and illuminating the specific supports that this principal provided that had a positive impact on student achievement that could be replicated at other school sites.
Methodology
This study is a qualitative case study. Interviews and document analysis were used to collect data. Three one-hour interviews were conducted with the principal. One-hour interviews were conducted with 6 teachers in the building. One-hour interviews were conducted with two district office administrators, totaling 11 hours of interview data. Documents such as building plans, and parent organization agendas, were evaluated. Recorded findings were triangulated. The research question is what supports did the elementary principal in this high-achieving school implement to increase student achievement?
Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework for this study comes from chapter six of Bransford, Brown, Cocking, Donovan, and Pellegrino’s (2000) book entitled How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. They discuss a Perspective on Learning Environment framework, which identifies four general perspectives of quality learning environments and emphasizes that they need to be conceptualized as a system of inter-connected components that mutually support one another (p. 133). These perspectives on learning are (1) learner centered, (2) knowledge centered, (3) assessment centered, and (4) community centered.
Learner centered
For a learning environment to be learner centered, the educator must pay attention to the “knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs that learners bring to the educational setting” (Bransford et al., 2000). If knowledge is continually delivered without any thought to the learners, it is unlikely that any real learning will occur. According to the model, it is critical that educators keep their learners in mind when planning lessons. Included in this teaching is “diagnostic teaching” (Bell, O’Brien, & Shiu, 1980). Diagnostic teaching attempts to discover what students think in relation to the problems at hand, discusses students’ misconceptions sensitively and gives them situations to continue thinking about, which will enable them to readjust their ideas. Learner-centered teachers also respect the language practices of their students because they provide a basis for further learning. Bransford et al. (2000) say that teachers who are learner centered recognize the importance of building on the conceptual and cultural knowledge that students bring with them to the classroom. If teaching is conceived as constructing a bridge between the subject matter and the students,
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then learner-centered teachers keep a constant eye on both ends of the bridge. The teachers attempt to get a sense of what students know and can do as well as their interests and passions.
Knowledge centered
According to the PLE model of a learning environment, knowledge-centered environments emphasize the importance of students understanding knowledge as opposed to simply memorizing a set of facts. In a knowledge-centered environment, students can transfer knowledge to new learning situations. When teaching students, it is important to take into account the prior knowledge that students bring with them. This approach helps students formulate new knowledge and make sense of what they are learning. The most important part of the knowledge component is that educators ensure that students are truly understanding information and not merely memorizing it (Bransford et al., 2000). Environments that are solely learner-centered would not necessarily help students acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to function effectively in society. Knowledge-centered environments take seriously the need to help students become knowledgeable by helping them learn in ways that lead to understanding and subsequent transfer. Knowledge-centered environments intersect with learner-centered environments when instruction begins with a concern for students’ initial preconceptions about the subject matter. Without carefully considering the knowledge that students bring to the learning situation, it is difficult to predict what they will understand about new information that is presented to them.
Assessment centered
The third component of the PLE model is that the learning environment must be assessment centered. There are two types of assessment: formative assessment, which is
administered and used to improve teaching and learning, and summative assessment, which is used to measure what students have learned at the end of the designated learning period (Bransford et al., 2000). Summative assessments are what most people think of when assessment is mentioned; they can assure accountability and may even help teachers modify their teaching strategies. However, one might argue that formative assessments are more beneficial. Formative assessments allow students to receive feedback in a more informative and timely manner. Furthermore, teachers are better able to adjust their instruction for students who have difficulty understanding the concepts (Bransford et al., 2000). Assessing the achievement of learning goals is critical. Assessments should be “predictive of students’ performance in everyday settings once they leave the classroom” (Bransford et al., 2000, p. 141). Assessments that are designed to measure students’ ability to simply recall memorized information do not necessarily assess knowledge transfer, which is critically important in learning situations. Proper assessments must measure students’ ability to take knowledge that has been acquired in the classroom and, in turn, apply it to a new situation.
Community centered
The final component of the PLE theory is that the learning environment is community centered—that is, it focuses on the social nature of learning, including the norms and modes of operation of any community. Research shows that learning can be increased by social norms that value striving for understanding and making mistakes (Bransford et al., 2000). In a constructivist classroom, for example, students are encouraged to share their ideas with one another to learn from different ways of thinking. Students who feel safe to make a mistake (because the norm is learning from mistakes) are more likely to
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feel comfortable sharing. It is also important to bear in mind that teachers can formulate detrimental norms if they are not careful, for instance, if they have low or different expectations for certain groups of children (Brans- ford et al., 2000). Norms must be consistent. It is important to reiterate that although these components of the PLE framework are discussed separately, the research findings from Bransford et al. (2000) show that the four perspectives are aligned in ways that mutually support one another. For example, data-driven instruction would combine setting up a classroom community, or community-centered techniques, as well as assessment-centered, learner-centered and knowledge-centered techniques. Without this alignment, it is difficult to know what is being learned or what needs to be planned for students. The research also notes that there is no recipe for designing effective learning environments, but it does support the value of asking certain kinds of questions about the design of learning environments through these four perspectives (Bransford et al., 2000, p. 133). The degree to which schools and classrooms are learner centered, knowledge centered, assessment centered, and community centered is an important consideration in designing these environments. The four components of an effective learning environment described in Bransford et al.’s (2000) Haw People Learn provided a conceptual foundation for this study. While collecting and analyzing data, the principal used the PLE components as the guiding framework. The elementary school principal serves as the case study. The researcher asked the principal about the support the principal provided in her respective school to raise the achievement of her students. Interview data collected from the principal as well as data from school documents such as meeting agendas, site plans, and newsletters were analyzed using qualitative methods in accordance
with the PLE model. While the four tenets of the PLE model do not directly align with the characteristics of effective school leadership previously identified in the literature, they do reflect the categories in which a school leader helps provide support to increase student achievement. The tenets of PLE are used to analyze the data to provide a context for my research question. The researcher briefly discuss the support elementary principals provide that is related to the PLE model in the context of support that is provided to increase the achievement of students in their buildings. Table 1 shows how data will fit into the PLE categories and, records the support that the elementary principal provided to increase student achievement. Data found outside of the framework will be recorded as other (See Table 1).
District Context
The Elementary School is in a school district, which serves just over 7,000 students. The town has a population of 40,000. At the time of this case study, it had twelve elementary schools serving students in grades kindergarten through fifth grade, two middle schools serving students in grades sixth through eighth grade, and one comprehensive high school. The Elementary Schools students identified as low-income over the last fifteen years have r anged between 28 to 42%. The African American Student population has increased from 11 to 22%. The number of English Language Learners has steadily increased from 3 to 15%, making the elementary school a very diverse school. State Assessment data has been good. Reading scores have ranged from 82 to 95% increasing or maintaining each year. Over the last five years it has fluctuated between 88 and 92%. Scores in Math have ranged from 60% to 88%. The lowest years were in 2006-2008 when the district implemented a new math program. The highest years have been the last four. The scores were 82 to 88%
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The Principal’s Provided Support
The principal is a true facilitator of communication and collaboration. When asked what advice they would give to any new principal, they stated:
As a principal, I believe the most important thing that you need to do is to establish a common vision with your staff to nurture an environment that everyone can support and believe in, and to establish very healthy working relationships with your staff...make your staff know that they are a vital part of the whole academic process and you look to their expertise and respect their expertise and rely on them to be strong team players.
The principal realizes also that this is a challenge for them and for every principal to reach every person on a level where they all feel valued. The principal added,
We are all different, we all have strengths, we all have differences, we are a very diverse society, and we all bring something to the table that can help benefit other people.
The principal’s warm, calm, genuine demeanor makes every visitor to the school feel more than welcome. While many administrators’ offices have an executive feel, with the desk prominently placed, the principal’s desk faces a wall. The focal point of their office is a small table and chair where the meet with students, families, and teachers. In addition, their office is personally decorated with wallpaper,
Table 1: Tenets of the PLE Framework
Tenets of the Perspectives on Learning Environment Model
Elementary principal support identified from the data
Learner centered
Knowledge centered
Assessment centered
Community centered
Other
Table 2: Principal-Provided Support
Tenets of Perspective on Learning Environment Model
Elementary Principal Support Identified in the Data
Knowledge Centered Led curriculum being aligned to the standards
Learner Centered Led data-driven instruction efforts
Assessment Centered Led the development of common assessments Professional Learning Communities
Community Centered Professional Learning Communities Parent Organization Facilitation TRIBES
Other Budgeting Scheduling
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and the school radiates a warm, homey feeling evident by a handmade quilt hanging in the hallway, noticed by everyone who enters through the main doors. Other decorations are on display throughout the building, giving the school a unique, welcoming charm. As a third grade teacher stated, “All families feel welcome not only by the principals genuine care but by the physical environment they have created, as well.” Reflecting on their experiences prior to becoming a principal, the principal mentioned that the most important thing they learned was that all the resources at their disposal need to be working together comprehensively to do what is best for the children. When the principal was asked about what type of support they provided to raise student achievement, this belief in coordinating resources shined through as something they put into practice. The principal’s biggest strength is utilizing all their resources in a comprehensive way with the ultimate goal of student achievement. The data revealed five types of support that the principal provided to increase student achievement: (1) establishing a positive school community with professional learning communities in mind; (2) creating an efficient schedule with protected math and reading blocks; (3) budgeting with professional development in mind; and (4) making student achievement data drive instructional decision making and interventions.
Establish a positive school community with professional learning communities
In describing the elementary school’s culture, the executive director of student achievement for the school district had this to say about the principal:
I can’t think of anybody I have ever known in this district that could do the political piece as well as the principal.... She is wonderful with parents,
and with her special education training she has the perfect calming demeanor, and she uses a persistent, soft-spoken voice, calmly moving the agenda along and moving the school community forward. She has a natural gift and is a perfect fit for that school and its family demographic.
A third-grade teacher agreed: “Our culture is positive driven by the principal’s positive attitude; every morning the principal makes an announcement and shares a guidance phrase and recognizes student accomplishments.” Another teacher commented, “The principal welcomes family and community members into school...she is able to discuss touchy topics with parents using tact as well.” The principal believes,
We are extremely fortunate to have students of all socioeconomic bases, extremely multiracial in nature, and what makes that so beneficial is that we tend to have appropriate proportions so we are able to group students in a heterogeneous way evenly and maintain high expectations for all students.
The principal has implemented three features at the elementary school that allow for this positive community: a school-wide program called TRIBES, parent involvement, and professional learning communities (PLCs). TRIBES, is a process that allows for a common philosophy of how all teachers teach and promote learning in their classrooms. “I definitely consider our school a TRIBES community over the last 12 years, which truly promotes a positive learning community,” the principal stated. The environment is highly cooperative in nature; it is highly collaborative not only on a professional level but also on a student level, and TRIBES works according to four agreements: mutual respect, no put-downs, attentive listening, and the right to pass. The principal, over her tenure at
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the elementary school, has tried to incorporate these agreements into everything that the staff does and says. The TRIBES agreements serve as a framework for a behavior management plan and school-wide expectations...it’s a great tool that can be used to communicate those expectations to teachers, students, and parents. A kindergarten teacher noted, “We currently teach TRIBES to our students...from kindergarten on, they know these expectations.” A third-grade teacher added:
The principal starts every semester with a K-2 and 3-5 assembly about the TRIBES agreements and the high expectations for creating a learning environment...it is awesome, it should be taped and shown in every school... TRIBES is consistent and constant in every room.
Many schools have programs like this on paper, but a strong implementation of the program is what makes it work, and this was accomplished through the principal’s commitment to the program. The principal stated:
It was important initially to make teachers aware TRIBES is a process, not an activity or isolated circle. It’s something that you integrate and make relevant to what you are teaching, and that’s a stretch for a new teacher to grasp. They look at it many times as a touchy-feely type of program and until you work it and truly understand how you teach, how to connect it to kids, and the way they interact with other kids, how you deliver a lesson plan, introduce activities, and carry those activities out.
The principal lives this process and makes sure their staff is equipped to as well. All teachers go through an intense, two-day training, and the principal feels that it is extremely
important to support TRIBES initiatives and TRIBES professional development training on a routine basis. Even after district budget cuts and a change in the district office moved away from supporting TRIBES district wide, the principal creatively budgets money and plans training sessions to make sure that all staff participate in this training and are able to implement the program. The most notable statistic is the suspension data. The 12 elementary schools in the school district average 17 suspensions per year, but this elementary averages 5 and last year did not have any. A well-behaved student body allows for a positive community where kids feel safe and the focus is on learning rather than discipline and conflict management. In addition, a positive school community at the elementary school is developed through a strategic way of involving parents into the school community. The principal states:
Our site-level team that we have on a district scale promotes that parents be actively serving on the team.... PTO [parent-teacher organization] becomes a very important part of that site-level team component, and what we’ve done is that we make sure we align our goals within site level with the same goals we’re working within our PTO so we are talking the same language.
There are many ways in which parents can be and are actively involved with their children’s educational experience. As one specialist teacher noted, The principal encourages parents to lead after-school extracurricular activities where they can share their expertise. In addition, she promotes school-wide activities—fall, winter, spring festivals, talent shows, and all school sings. In addition, parents are educated on proficiency levels, and information about how student growth and achievement are measured is
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provided through evening workshops at the elementary school. Reading specialists conduct reading workshops throughout the year, and once a month the school hosts a parent event, usually a festival-type night, to build a sense of community. The principal stated, “Overall we get a wonderful turn out for our events, but we keep it within the school plan, so everyone knows how these things fit into the overall education of their child.” While TRIBES drives the school atmosphere to operate with a positive school culture in regard to behavior expectations, professional learning community procedures drive the way teachers interact in regard to student achievement. A professional learning community is made up of team members who regularly collaborate toward continued improvement in meeting learner needs through a shared curricular-focused vision. Facilitating this effort are (1) supportive leadership and structural conditions; (2) collective challenging, questioning, and reflecting on team-designed lessons; and (3) instructional practices/experiences and team decisions on essential learning outcomes and intervention/ enrichment activities based on results of common formative student assessments (Bohlam, McMahon, Stoll, Thomas, & Wallace, 2005). A fifth-grade teacher noted:
Our school has done PLCs or worked year to year to implement the procedure for quite some time. Collaboration between teachers, specialists, and aides is vital.... Using assessment data in meetings to come up with a way to raise student achievement has always been a focus here.
The two most notable actions that the principal implements in regard to professional learning communities at the elementary school are time and monitoring. The principal stated:
It is extremely important that we know what their [the teachers’] agenda is...what instruction is driving through student data, and the time that we meet is so precious and critical that it has to be a real structured focus. Teachers do look at the data at that time; they are gathering expertise from other teachers on what best practice strategies can be addressed and what appropriate interventions of teaching techniques can be done to support these children with needs.
The principal makes every effort to attend these weekly grade-level meetings, or they make sure they are a part of the conversations about these meetings with their staff to ensure that the weekly PLC meetings are meaningful and productive. As one kindergarten teacher noted:
She constantly checks in with us regarding our PLC meetings and helps make them meaningful to our teaching practice; she reviews our meeting goals and gives helpful feedback.... Data drives our instruction, which we focus on through a student-centered environment.
The principal is known to be a facilitator of collaboration. They have built a positive school culture through TRIBES, parent involvement, and professional learning communities. These three components comprise a systematically developed management plan that the principal can maintain and then move into an instructional leader role. Student data show that the elementary school has very few suspensions. Though it is not conclusive that the low suspension rate is a direct result of the TRIBES program, the infrequency of negative behavior does positively affect the school community by limiting the amount of time teachers and administrators have to spend handling negative student behavior. In addition,
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parent involvement is seen as an open, positive relationship between parents and the school. Parental involvement is not viewed as a separate entity; it is viewed as part of the school process. This collaborative environment creates a positive rapport with parents and gives them a positive feeling about their child’s school. The implementation of professional learning communities puts teachers and administrators on the same page about how to look at student achievement data and develop plans to raise student achievement. Teachers, through these meetings, all speak the same language and all report student achievement data the same way.
Scheduling
“If I gave you ten great ideas regarding things you could do tomorrow but it took you 30 hours to do them, some things wouldn’t get done. Not that they are bad ideas, but it’s impossible to do them all in a day.” A superintendent stated when asked about scheduling. Good administrators need to know how to establish a schedule that identifies and prioritizes the necessary tasks and activities and puts people in a position to execute them to increase student achievement. When scheduling at an elementary school, the specialist schedule is the key component in establishing core curriculum blocks. Many districts do this differently; some work through the district office for scheduling, and some rely on the principals. The more specialist teachers (music, gym, and art) who can be hired the easier it is to schedule. In the school district, a lower-in- come district with limited financial resources available, scheduling can be a challenge, and, at times, specialist teachers are split between three buildings. Principals are challenged to establish a schedule that aligns with curricular goals and stays within the contractual regulations, which means making sure specialist sections are within the contractual limit. Teachers have common planning time at each
grade level, and instructional times in math and reading are equal at each grade level. The principal has been able to meet these scheduling challenges. In fact, many other principals in the district call on the principal for their scheduling expertise. The principal is able to establish common core subject blocks of uninterrupted time by grade level, hold progress-monitoring meetings every five weeks, and have weekly grade-level meetings within the PLC framework. As a fourth grade teacher stated when asked what support the principal provided to increase student achievement:
Time, time, time...she has established a schedule that gives us time for collaboration, data analysis, professional learning communities, and grade-level meetings.... she is extremely cognizant of establishing an efficient schedule for us, and somehow she is able to do this year after year.
Teachers at the elementary school expressed that there are so many initiatives that are given from the district that a proper schedule is necessary from their principal to implement the district directives. A kindergarten teacher noted, “the principal creates time blocks for guided reading and math instruction at every grade level so that students get instruction uninterrupted in those core areas.” This is important for interventions such as working with a literacy specialist or resource teachers. All of the courses must be aligned to create a comprehensive literacy plan. Elementary teachers have many interruptions during the day, as described by this fifth grade teacher: Daily, we have a specialist [art, music, gym, or library], we have resource teachers coming in to meet IEP [individualized educational programming] minutes periodically, possibly our school psychologist, for testing, or character education etc....assemblies and
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many other distractions throughout the school year. In between time, we teach our core subjects. The principal is excellent at putting all of those things together so that we can meet these things efficiently and effectively. The principal’s scheduling ability has allowed her staff to buy in to her vision for the school, because it demonstrates her commitment to devoting the necessary time and resources to implement and execute these initiatives. Not only is there time to do these things, but the schedule shows that the principal is attempting to do everything in her power to make it work and to put the teachers in situations where they can be successful. As the principal stated:
Scheduling is something I have worked on over the years to perfect...it goes a long way towards establishing a school vision and making your staff feel that your district expectations are doable.... In addition, it puts together a comprehensive framework for a building plan as it relates how student achievement will be increased.
Teachers admire, respect, and appreciate the way the principal schedules. A fifth grade teacher noted:
Regular weekly grade-level meetings, common prep times, literacy meetings, progress monitoring meetings, and protected math and reading blocks are something we can look forward to start each year.... This gives us confidence that a schedule is in place to support our efforts to meet the high expectations our building has.
The schedule at the elementary school really is the framework for the principal’s vision and has been a huge selling tool for then- expectations to their staff about the school’s priorities. The principal’s ability to prioritize and focus on what is considered important
throughout the school day is something that the teachers appreciate. The schedule lets the teachers know that classroom time, meeting time, and professional development time are valued and that they are a high priority of the principal. Teachers feel that the expectations and demands from the principal and the district can be met because there is a schedule in place that supports their efforts.
Budgeting and professional development
Elementary schools tend to receive a small building budget compared to other district operations. Some districts strictly run the budget from the district office. In the principal’s district, buildings are given a budget annually of between $25,000 and $30,000. More than half of that money goes to copy costs, paper, and supervision expenses. The rest is used for other supplies. This is because the other schools in the district have higher needs or have more low-income students. The average family income of students at the elementary school is higher than it is at other elementary schools in the district. With a limited budget, the principal has had to come up with creative ways to fund programs. For raising student achievement, the most important initiative they fund is professional development for the teachers and staff. The principal stated:
Budgetary restraints sometimes hinder how much professional development we can do outside the school.... It is my job to find creative ways to do so. In order to free money up, I negotiated with my staff to pick up recess duty, which gives us $8,000 more per year since I don’t have to pay someone $8 an hour for recess duty. In exchange for their service they get to use flex time, and then we use that money for professional development, so teachers are either steered by me or can actively pursue and request these professional
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development opportunities that fit within the school’s vision.
This was a creative way for the school to fund its professional development needs. The principal’s creativity and willingness to sell the idea to teachers made it possible. However, part of the agreement was then- willingness to help out with supervision at specific places and times as well. This can be challenging to an administrator with then- schedule, because unpredictable events tend to happen during the school day. However, the principal stated:
It’s for the good of the order. They bought into the idea, so I feel I need to hold up to my end of the bargain, and I feel we have the best professional situation possible because of it.... Granted, it could always be better based on money and all of our continued learning, but we are doing the best with what we got.
Teachers support the principals handling of the school budget. A fourth grade teacher noted,
The principal advocates for teachers’ needs, professional development, resources, and time.... We rest assured that the principal has our best interest at heart as long as our interest is student achievement.
The principal budgets money for substitute teachers to come in so that teachers can attend monthly collaborative progress monitoring meetings, where assessment data are reviewed and intervention strategies for students who are behind are discussed. The principal has been able to make sure teachers have the time for these important meetings by being creative with the budget. A third grade teacher noted:
Monthly collaborative progress monitoring meetings have been very
effective. The principal supplies subs for this valuable time out of our building budget.... Meeting with all instructors and discussing data and strategies every five weeks has been very helpful in establishing specific interventions.
In the principals first year, when the principal was moving forward with new initiatives, the principal always tried to incorporate professional development as a key forum to support collaborative efforts. The principal believes that:
The key is that professional development continually be emphasized and integrated into everything that we do.... It’s really the key to drive achievement forward. That is why I put such an emphasis on making sure money is readily available.... It’s also important to engage teachers in the process, to empower teachers, to actively involve them in a customized professional development plan, to get them to buy in, and actually take leadership roles. Getting that buy-in, empowering them, engaging them, respecting their expertise, and actively bringing them forward in leadership roles, recognizing leadership qualities in each and every person on your team is critical.
The principal is a collaborator at heart, and applies this talent to all aspects of their building, including professional development. Getting to know their staff, their strengths and weaknesses, and building on the strengths and allowing teachers who are strong in one area to help those who are weak, is the way the principal approaches professional development.
We have a lot of expertise in the building to tap into; I don’t go outside of the building for training if I don’t have
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to... teachers respect people in the building who are doing things with the same demographic of students that they are teaching.... In other words, if it works across the hall, it can work in my room.
To accomplish these professional development initiatives at the elementary school, a site improvement plan team meets on the first Wednesday of each month to customize the school’s goals in alignment with the district’s strategic goals. The team specifically addresses the topics of increased professional development for all staff. The third Wednesday of each month is used for professional development purposes. “Our plan is to actually conduct professional development for our building that is specific to our building needs,” the principal stated. Common prep times are scheduled and used to speak about curriculum strategies once a week. The principal’s ability to budget creatively makes it possible to achieve the large-scale vision of the school. Their management skills are evident in their ability to creatively budget for their school’s professional development needs on a limited building budget and pay for other resources, copies, and supplies. Utilizing these management skills to make managing the building efficient and to free up time to be an instructional leader is a key to their success as a principal.
Student Achievement Data Drives Instructional Decision Making and Interventions
The school district developed a balanced literacy program and a Math Investigations Program. These, district-wide initiatives were established by the executive director of student achievement and the superintendent. When asked how much the program contributed to student achievement increases at the elementary and how much the student
achievement was attributable to the principal’s instructional leadership, the executive director of student achievement stated, “It was about 50-50.” She went on to add:
The superintendent and I would go from building to building to meet with every building principal, to see where they were as far as a big picture was concerned. It was interesting as all twelve elementary schools had a different way of implementing based on principal expertise. The principal’s strength was taking the district curriculum initiatives and tailoring it to her demographic of students and their needs. She had an exceptional way of identifying the strengths of her staff and empowering them to be teacher leaders. In addition, looking at data and coming up with intervention strategies was a big part of her school’s success, and she really did well with that over time.
As in most districts, the curriculum framework at the Elementary comes from the district office. However, using data curriculum tools was a key to the principal’ success in leading the elementary school toward positive student achievement results. Two teams look at the data at the elementary school: a site improvement team and a progress monitoring team. The site improvement team meets on the first Wednesday of every month to customize goals from the district’s strategic goals. The team looks at the data and determines the professional development needs for all staff. Professional development for the entire staff is presented on the second and third Wednesday of every month. The principal stated, “The number one goal of these meetings is to look at the data and to plan quality professional development experiences for our building, specific to our building needs.” One example
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taken from an agenda for these meetings is that a unit on money was identified at a site-level meeting as an area where students were struggling at a grade level based on the previous assessment. At the next two Wednesday meetings, a plan was established on how to move forward with the curriculum pace, but teachers at the specific grade level were to plan to review this concept periodically. Teachers with a high number of students who met the proficient or advanced level shared strategies they used in teaching that specific unit. These successful strategies were compared with the strategies used by teachers whose students performed at a lower level on the unit assessment. Future lessons were developed to improve student performance. The progress monitoring team meets every five weeks, and the focus is specifically on reading, writing, and math progress data for all students. Each teacher brings common assessment data outcomes to these meetings. The principal has provided each teacher with a common assessment grid that allows the teachers to report data uniformly. Before the meetings, teachers have already identified the skill-based needs for each student. The principal pointed out, “this saves time, so when the teachers come to the meetings we use the data to drive the appropriate necessary intervention for each child and draw on the expertise from within the group.” She added:
This process has really had a huge impact as we have fine-tuned it over the last three years. We went from everyone bringing in raw data and arguing over what is proficient to establishing those common assessments and pacing guides. This has allowed us to cut through the philosophical debates among adults that initially took up so much meeting time and to focus on the needs of the student.
From these meetings, teachers come up with interventions or differentiated instruction strategies to meet the needs of students performing below the benchmark standards. Some of these interventions include more guided reading group time with a literacy specialist, an extra-guided math group, and math computer interventions. The principal has developed this system of identification in her building within the district framework. Data-driven instruction and a systematic structure that gives teachers the opportunity to make data-driven decisions about their students has been key to the Elementary schools success. Being data-driven as a leader was how the principal was able to implement this process within her building, and this idea has trickled through to her staff. In looking at documents from meetings and talking to teachers and the principal, it is clear that data is the focus of everything from parent involvement to student achievement. Decisions are not made in any category, especially as it relates to instruction, if they are not based on data.
Case Summary and Implications
Principal-provided support was recorded through a process of data triangulation—that is, the provided support was recorded only if it was mentioned by three of the following: principal, teachers, district personnel, or in document analysis. See Table 2 for supports provided by the principal.
What Supports Did the Elementary Principal in This High-achieving School Implement That Increased Student Achievement?
The principal believes that instruction should be driven by data. This is evident through the professional learning communities, where student achievement data are examined and ways to proceed instructionally are identified. Data and the appropriate use
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of data were at the core of many teachers’ answers to questions about instruction. At the elementary school, data drives teachers’ grouping of students for reading and math. Another practice is engaging a strong parent organization into the school culture. The elementary school has a strong parent organization that host monthly meetings and activities. For example, at the elementary school, most of the events are student performances (songs, recitals, ice cream social, etc.). The principal implemented a schoolwide behavior expectation plan that creates similar language between students and staff called the TRIBES program. Budgeting and scheduling are also practices that the principal is involved in. The principals’ ability to budget building funds and schedule a comprehensive day while protecting the classroom learning time was a big factor in winning over teachers and showing them that a schedule and money will support them in meeting district initiatives regarding instruction. This was evident in the interview responses teachers gave
in regard to identifying practices that the principal had taken to raise student achievement. Most teachers commented that having a schedule and getting money for materials so they could meet district requirements in regard to curriculum was a key to their being able to meet the needs of their students and raise student achievement.
Limitations
In this study, the researcher makes no attempt to generalize beyond the school under investigation. As such, findings are limited to the context examined here, although it is my belief that the findings can be useful to schools with similar demographics and resources. In addition, this study looked at the supports provided by the principal. Based on previous research, this may or may not affect student achievement directly. There is enough reported data in this study to assume that the provided supports by the principal may have indirectly affected student achievement in their building, but to what level these supports affected student achievement is inconclusive.
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References
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