Author: Khalid Almasnaah

Publisher:

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 149

ISBN-13:

This qualitative study explored possible connections between school principals' leadership styles and behaviors and closing the student achievement gap at three schools serving high poverty student populations. Two of the three schools were high schools designated as Priority Schools in 2012 as a result of student achievement that ranked in the bottom 5% of all Michigan schools. The two schools managed to exit the Priority designation in 2017 after implementing school culture and instruction reforms that improved student achievement. The third school was a K-8, which was not designated as a Priority School. It had the same student demographics as the Priority Schools, and it is located in the same district as one of them. It was added to the study to reinforce the data. The researcher conducted 17 interviews. A bottom-up inductive coding approach was adopted for the qualitative data analysis. The researcher assigned emerging themes specific and meaningful codes relevant to the topic and purpose of the study. Based on the data from the three schools, a possible connection between school leadership and closing the student achievement gap was found. The three principals adopted practices and behaviors relevant to multiple leadership styles. They did not limit themselves to only one leadership style or a set of behaviors. The two Priority School principals had to undo the negative impact of the former toxic culture. The three principals instituted a positive school culture based on trust, respect, collaboration, and accountability. They indirectly impacted student achievement by improving the schools' culture and climate and enhancing the curriculum, instruction, assessment, and data-driven interventions. They worked with all the stakeholders to align and streamline all the efforts and programs into well-coordinated plans and established common language and practices regarding teaching and learning. They involved all the teachers in the decision making about teaching and learning.