School Leadership in North Carolina Through the Eyes of Distinguished Leaders
School Leadership in North Carolina Through the Eyes of Distinguished Leaders

Author: Yvette A. Stewart

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13:

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"The purpose of this study was to interview and observe the principals selected to participate in the inaugural cohort of the North Carolina Distinguished Leadership in Practice (NCDLP) program to understand what leadership practices they applied within their schools that positively impacted teaching and learning. The major research question for this study was, "How does a principal's leadership support high quality teaching and learning?" From this major research question, five guiding questions emerged to serve as integral components of this study: 1. What do distinguished principals perceive to be the relationship between the principal leadership and student achievement in North Carolina? 2. What are the leadership perspectives and outlooks of NC DLP principals that support high quality teaching and learning in their schools? 3. What are NC DLP principals doing to develop "leadership capacity" that support high quality teaching and learning in their schools? 4. What competencies within the School Executive Standards do distinguished principals perceive to be the most important in their leadership? 5. What School Executive Standards do distinguished principals perceive to be the most important to improve student achievement? Qualitative data were collected from semi-structured interviews, leadership surveys, and site visit observations with six principals. Member-checking, document analysis, and field observations of principals during regular and staff development days were conducted to collect data on the principals' leadership practice. The focus of both the interviews and site visits centered on descriptive questions which revealed information about the "hows" and "whys" of changes in principal leadership behavior following participation in the NC DLP program as well as the impact of the leader's practice on teaching and learning and organizational structures. Key findings revealed that principals are expected to play an active role in leadership, consider the processes, activities, and relationships within their school and use those factors to positively affect teaching and learning (Bottoms & Schmidt-Davis, 2010). Overall, the findings from this study suggest that principals who center their attention on developing the culture of the school and creating synergy of individual skills of teachers, learning relationships among teachers, a relentless focus on instruction, and ongoing mobilization of resources will make significant contributions to teaching and learning in a school."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.

Leading Beautifully
Leading Beautifully

Author: Fenwick W. English

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-01-08

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 131770293X

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Leading Beautifully provides a new dimension to understanding effective leadership. Drawing from lessons in the arts and the humanities, English and Ehrich explore how educational decision-making in schools can be informed by identity, personal competence, and an understanding of the field’s intellectual foundations. Based on in-depth interviews of artists and educational leaders, this book provides insight into the inner world of successful leaders who have developed competencies and understandings that extend beyond the standard leadership tool box. This exciting new book explores the theory and practice of leadership connoisseurship as a human-centered endeavor and as an antidote to mechanistic, business-oriented practices. The authors’ well-grounded reconsideration of educational leadership will enliven and enhance any educational leader’s practice.

The Social Construction of Educational Leadership
The Social Construction of Educational Leadership

Author: Anna Hicks McFadden

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 9780820468129

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Most historical and theoretical work on school administration choice has focused on the importance of race and class, with increased attention to gender during the past two decades. Rarely has geography been a consideration and, when it appears at all, it is used only to distinguish the unique conditions of urban school settings. The Social Construction of Educational Leadership: Southern Appalachian Ceilings addresses decisions about who is chosen to lead public schools, and how they do it. Using their research on senior-level public school leaders in the southern mountains of North Carolina as a representative case study, the authors construct an argument for a reconsideration of the role of place - both in decisions about who becomes a school leader, and in how those leaders behave professionally. The authors describe the changes in a leadership system grounded in race, class, geographic, and gender preferences that dating back to colonial systems of deference, describing the pattern of those changes, and exploring their implications for school leadership, and the preparation of prospective leaders in the region and elsewhere.

Characteristics and Career Paths of North Carolina School Leaders. REL 2017-230
Characteristics and Career Paths of North Carolina School Leaders. REL 2017-230

Author: La'Tara Osborne-Lampkin

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 47

ISBN-13:

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Researchers have linked positive student outcomes, including student achievement, to high-quality school leadership. Due in part to this research, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the North Carolina Principals and Assistant Principals' Association are interested in increasing the number of high-quality principals in North Carolina's educator workforce, particularly those leading rural schools. To support these efforts, the two groups and Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Southeast collaborated on this study of North Carolina assistant principals and principals (referred to here as "school leaders"). North Carolina stakeholders requested information on the state's school leader workforce, including a description of the backgrounds and experiences of leaders in nonrural and rural schools. Attracting and retaining educators in rural areas--where school districts receive fewer applicants and have higher staff turnover rates--have become pervasive issues, both nationally and in the REL Southeast Region. This report describes the demographics, educational attainment, licenses, and career paths of North Carolina school leaders from 2001/02 through 2012/13. The career path analysis focuses on retention and recruitment, two areas of particular interest to North Carolina stakeholders. The retention analysis describes the top-10 paths that assistant principals and principals took, beginning with their initial appointment as a school leader and over the next 10 years. The recruitment analysis describes the top-10 paths for assistant principals and principals during the 10 years before they took on their leadership roles. The analysis of demographics, educational attainment, and licenses of North Carolina school leaders from 2001/02 through 2012/13 showed that: (1) Women constituted a majority of school leaders, rising from 52-58 percent in 2001/02 to 58-63 percent in 2012/13; (2) The racial/ethnic makeup of school principals remained steady, with about 75 percent of them White; (3) Master's degree was the most common highest level of educational attainment, rising from 80 percent in 2001/02 to 87 percent in 2012/13 for assistant principals and from 64 percent to 78 percent for principals; (4) As many as 29 percent of principals held a superintendent license, but the rate declined over the study period; and (5) Leaders in rural schools were generally similar to leaders in nonrural schools in demographics, educational attainment, and licenses. The analysis of the career paths of school leaders found that: (1) A majority of individuals who were school leaders at the beginning of the time-frame were not school leaders at the end, generally having moved into other positions or having left the system; (2) A majority of assistant principals and principals spent time as a classroom teacher before becoming a school leader; and (3) There were no notable differences in the retention and recruitment paths of nonrural and rural school leaders before and after their leadership positions. North Carolina stakeholders might consider findings from this study as they engage in discussions around enhancing the principal pool and the quality of school leaders. The following are appended: (1) Key terms; (2) Data and methods; and (3) Findings comparing school leaders in nonrural and rural schools.

Preparing Principals for a Changing World
Preparing Principals for a Changing World

Author: Linda Darling-Hammond

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2009-11-04

Total Pages: 426

ISBN-13: 0470579951

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Preparing Principals for a Changing World provides a hands-on resource for creating and implementing effective policies and programs for developing expert school leaders. Written by acclaimed author and educator Linda Darling-Hammond and experts Debra Meyerson, Michelle LaPointe, and Margaret Terry Orr, this important book examines the characteristics of successful educational leadership programs and offers concrete recommendations to improve programs nationwide. In a study funded by the Wallace Foundation, Darling-Hammond and the team examined eight exemplary principal development programs, as well as state policies and principals' experiences across the country. Using the data from the study, they reveal how successful programs are structured, the skills and knowledge participants gain, and what they are able to do in practice as school leaders as a result. What do these exemplary programs have in common? Aggressive recruitment; close ties with schools in the community; on-the-ground training under the wing of expert principals, and a strong emphasis on the cutting-edge theories of instructional and transformational leadership. In addition to highlighting the programs' similarities, the study also explains the differences among the programs and sheds light on the effectiveness of approaches and models from different states and contexts?East, West, North, and South; urban and rural; pre-service and in-service. The authors analyze program outcomes for principals and their schools, including illustrative case studies and educators' voices on the influence of programs' strategies for recruitment, internships, mentoring, and coursework. The ideas and suggestions outlined in Preparing Principals for a Changing World are presented with the goal of increasing the number of highly qualified, thoughtful, and innovative educational leaders.

Invisible to Visible, Unheard to Heard
Invisible to Visible, Unheard to Heard

Author: Reginald DeVan Wilkerson

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13:

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"The topic of turning around a struggling or high priority school is currently a heavily contested space with involvement from federal, state, local and private entities all jockeying to influence the school turnaround agenda. While there are many voices affecting the school turnaround movement, one voice is alarmingly muted in the discussion: the voices of those charged with transforming these schools. Research shows that high priority schools are likely to be led by African Americans. This qualitative study examines the experiences, perceptions, and thoughts of four African American males who lead high priority schools in North Carolina. It investigates the type and quality of support they received from their communities and interrogates the effect leading a high priority school has upon them. Concurrently, utilizing a Critical Race Theory (CRT) conceptual framework, the school leaders' thoughts surrounding the role race plays in their being assigned to a high priority school and the role working in a turnaround school may play in their career progression (or regression) are examined. The intent of the study is to extend the research base in educational leadership relating to this marginalized group while at the same time capitalizing on the counter-narrative aspect of Critical Race Theory to give voice to this segment of educational leaders. The findings of this study illuminate the close kinship these leaders feel towards their school and their students, while also showing the depths, despair, and solitary existence leading a high priority school can elicit. Leaders of high priority schools are vulnerable to high levels of career derailment most often aligned to the negative stature of the schools they lead. As such, the leaders of these schools are in dire need of support to help them elevate their schools to higher levels of academic success. The research that emerges from this study holds the potential to help add a human element to the school turnaround puzzle by recognizing the school leader as a human and not a super principal. This understanding could help lead to policies and procedures more fully grounded in supporting educational leaders, allowing them to better serve their school and its student population."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.

National Summit on School Leadership
National Summit on School Leadership

Author: Connie L. Fulmer

Publisher: R & L Education

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13:

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National Summit on School Leadership contains articles on educational leadership submitted for publication in the 2005 NCPEA Yearbook. Included, is an invited article section followed by three more sections with the following titles: (a) Crediting the Past, (b) Challenging the Present, and (c) Changing the Future. This publication features the current thinking on the knowledge base of educational leadership, innovations in the preparation of school leaders, and issues relevant to the field. This yearbook will be of interest to all scholars interested in the field of educational leadership.

Culturally Responsive School Leadership
Culturally Responsive School Leadership

Author: Muhammad Khalifa

Publisher: Harvard Education Press

Published: 2020-07-27

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 1682532097

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Culturally Responsive School Leadership focuses on how school leaders can effectively serve minoritized students—those who have been historically marginalized in school and society. The book demonstrates how leaders can engage students, parents, teachers, and communities in ways that positively impact learning by honoring indigenous heritages and local cultural practices. Muhammad Khalifa explores three basic premises. First, that a full-fledged and nuanced understanding of “cultural responsiveness” is essential to successful school leadership. Second, that cultural responsiveness will not flourish and succeed in schools without sustained efforts by school leaders to define and promote it. Finally, that culturally responsive school leadership comprises a number of crucial leadership behaviors, which include critical self-reflection; the development of culturally responsive teachers; the promotion of inclusive, anti-oppressive school environments; and engagement with students’ indigenous community contexts. Based on an ethnography of a school principal who exemplifies the practices and behaviors of culturally responsive school leadership, the book provides educators with pedagogy and strategies for immediate implementation.

From Cotton Fields to University Leadership
From Cotton Fields to University Leadership

Author: Charlie Nelms

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2019-03-29

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 0253040191

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The renowned leader in higher education provides “a testament to the power of aspiration, character and education to overcome poverty and adversity” (Michael L. Lomax, President & CEO, United Negro College Fund). Charlie Nelms had audaciously big dreams. Growing up black in the Deep South in the 1950s and 1960s, working in cotton fields, and living in poverty, Nelms dared to dream that he could do more with his life than work for white plantation owners sun-up to sun-down. Inspired by his parents, who first dared to dream that they could own their own land and have the right to vote, Nelms chose education as his weapon of choice for fighting racism and inequality. With hard work, determination, and the critical assistance of mentors who counseled him along the way, he found his way from the cotton fields of Arkansas to university leadership roles. Becoming the youngest and the first African American chancellor of a predominately white institution in Indiana, he faced tectonic changes in higher education during those ensuing decades of globalization, growing economic disparity, and political divisiveness. From Cotton Fields to University Leadership is an uplifting story about the power of education, the impact of community and mentorship, and the importance of dreaming big. “In his memoir, the realities of his life take on the qualities of a good docudrama, providing the back story to the development of a remarkable educational leader. His is ‘the examined life,’ filled with honesty, humor, and humility. While this is uniquely Charlie’s story, it is a story that will lift the hearts of many and inspire future generations of leaders.” —Betty J. Overton, Director, National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good