In this qualitative study, the researcher investigated and described the specific leadership practices employed by elementary principals in Texas to initiate school improvement in campuses designated as needing targeted support, additional targeted support, or comprehensive support and improvement by the Texas Education Agency (2023a). The…

There is a growing understanding that, after engaging teaching, educational leadership is the second most important factor accounting for student success. Despite this fundamental declaration, educational leadership has fallen through the cracks. Little interest has developed concerning in-depth studies of this important position in education.…

The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between principal self-efficacy, principal experience, and pandemic rebound rates to better understand the attributes of school principals who are leading schools at different rates of rebounding following the global pandemic in Oregon. In the 2022-2023 school year ODE used the calculation of…

This research draws upon a qualitative intrinsic case study methodology to gather perceptions of 15 school leaders in the province of Alberta, Canada, around social and emotional competencies in relation to their own leadership, school culture, and student learning. The premise behind this study is that school leaders who are socially and…

Anecdotal evidence points to the importance of school principals, but the limited existing research has neither provided consistent results nor indicated any set of essential characteristics of effective principals. This paper exploits extensive student-level panel data across six states to investigate both variations in principal performance and…

In this phenomenological study, seven K-8 school principals who have made measurable advances in achievement gap scores were interviewed to understand the lived experiences that informed their successful leadership practices. Annually, the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) releases Ohio School Report Cards (n.d.), a statewide report that contains…

Principals are the second-largest school-based contributor to student achievement. Interventions focused early in the "pipeline" for identifying and developing effective principals might be a promising strategy for promoting principal effectiveness, yet no prior research has examined measures of principal performance during preservice…

Using the fuzzy Delphi method, this study aims to obtain expert agreement on the elements of school leaders' practices that influence student learning and teacher effectiveness in strengthening STEM instructions. An instrument on STEM leadership was presented to a total of 26 experts in STEM-related fields. The results of this study show that the…

Principals play an essential role in ensuring student success and achievement. This is achieved through an effective principal's vital role in optimizing teacher impact over an entire campus because quality teachers significantly impact student achievement. This study aimed to gain insights that can contribute to a generalized knowledge of how…

Most student achievement research focuses on four areas: principal tenure, experience, leadership style and school culture. One area needing further research is how the effect of a principal's educational level affects student achievement. Haller (1997) states administrators with a B.A. degree have higher effectiveness scores than principals with…

Little is known about the relations between principals' effectiveness in specific leadership tasks and student achievement. The purpose of this study is to explore principal task effectiveness, as perceived by principals themselves and their senior management teams (SMTs), and to explore the associations between perceived principal task…

Purpose: Schools in resource challenged communities require principal approaches that break patterns of low expectations and low student achievement. This study identifies Alabama's "outlier" schools that have been consistently successful in attaining higher student outcomes than their neighboring schools despite their similar community…

SEL instruction is critical in schools because communities and educational leaders are starting to understand the interconnected nature of social-emotional learning and academic skills such as goal setting, managing emotions, maintaining positive relationships, showing empathy, and making responsible decisions (Data Quality Campaign, 2018). The…

One of the categories of failing public schools is turnaround schools, which requires effective school leadership and teachers to improve student achievement scores. However, the impact of principals' self-efficacy beliefs in successfully turning around failing schools is unknown. The purpose of this research was to investigate principal…

This dissertation consists of two chapters at the intersection of labor and the economics of education. In Chapter 1, I examine the role of management in the public sector, focusing on school principals and how they impact student outcomes. I find that a one standard-deviation increase in principal quality raises average student achievement by…