School principals require highly effective professional learning opportunities because they must be proficient in instructional and organizational leadership to affect growth in the schools they lead. This qualitative descriptive phenomenological study aimed to examine school principals' shared experiences of a district-level school principal…

In today's educational system, there is a great emphasis on principals' leadership and impact on all students, particularly students with disabilities. Due to increased accountability, legal mandates, and the effects of the pandemic on student performance, strong elementary principals must lead the charge to improve the educational trajectory of…

This study sought to determine whether there was a statistically significant correlation between school board behaviors and characteristics, and a superintendent's use of a transformational leadership model. The study was grounded in four research questions: Is there a statistically significant correlation between board behaviors and…

As a form of teacher professional development, districts and schools are turning to an instructional coaching model for teacher learning, growth, and support. To date, however, few have sought to identify the specific characteristics and conditions that contribute to the success of the instructional coach, particularly in terms of the principal…

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of the professional development training provided by the National Institute for School Leadership (NISL) on leadership behavior in schools. In order to achieve this overall objective, the following research questions framed this mixed methods study: 1. To what degree did the National Institute…

Federal policy around supervision and evaluation has prompted state action to develop new evaluation systems to increase student achievement. Systems, such as the Framework for Educator Effectiveness implemented in Wisconsin, are tied to teacher performance as well as student achievement. This type of performance-based evaluation system relies on…

Researchers estimate that 5-15% of American teachers do not produce the desired student performance. Nevertheless, 99% of U.S. teachers receive satisfactory evaluations annually. Guided by literature on obstacles to effective evaluation, this qualitative case study sought to understand the reasons why principals hesitate to confront substandard…

The quality of school leadership is linked to student academic achievement (Leithwood et al., 2004; Thompson & Barnes, 2007; Glatthorn & Jailall, 1997; Lezotte, 1991; Edmonds, 1979; Hallinger & Heck, 1996; Crum & Sherman, 2008). The purpose of this study was to examine the instructional leadership (IL) of high school principals and…

This qualitative comparative study examined three core components of RtI[superscript 2] implementation at two purposefully selected elementary schools in one county in Southern California. The researcher interviewed principals, teachers, and support staff regarding leadership attributes, skills and behaviors perceived as critical, professional…

Because of increasing student enrollment, a new school was formed in a small low-income Southern California school district. Teachers could choose to transfer to the new school or remain at the existing school. Over five years, quantitative analyses of demographic data showed little differences between the two schools across the years except for a…