Jennifer K. Clayton

Understanding Mentoring In Leadership Development Perspectives of District Administrators and Aspiring Leaders

According to Daresh, collaboration between veteran and new or aspiring leaders can promote an environment that is conducive to high levels of student achievement. This study sought to understand the mentoring relationship between veteran school leaders and aspiring leaders within a district that is in Year 2 of a School Leadership Program grant. Results focused on two main themes: (a) accountability time pressures and (b) development and sustainability of the mentor/mentee relationship. Implications for school district leadership and university leadership preparation programs are discussed.

Building Bridges between Knowledge and Practice: A University-School District Leadership Preparation Program Partnership.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a Year 1 account of a partnership between a university and rural school district focusing specifically on how the project has helped to bridge the theory to practice divide and strengthen university‐district ties.Design/methodology/approach – A design‐based research paradigm was utilized to investigate how creating more authentic and contextually relevant university‐school partnerships and embedding leadership preparation in the context of practice may help build stronger bridges between theory and practice.Findings – The findings highlight that holistic approaches to leadership preparation, developing relationships, coordinating meaningful professional development, realism in design and experiences, and introspection are all ways that cohort members, as well as other district personnel, have been able to build stronger bridges between theory and practice.Practical implications – The findings can assist universities and districts in developing and supporti...

Changing Diversity in U.S. Schools: The Impact on Elementary Student Performance and Achievement

Schools in the United States have experienced changes in their demographic profile during the last half century. During this changing time, schools have experienced court-involved desegregation and have experienced fluctuations in their populations with regard to both race and socioeconomic status. Existing studies on segregation have focused primarily on Black and White students, neglecting the increasing Hispanic population of U.S. schools. This study provides more data to the expanding research on the impact of diversity on student performance. The study examines whether diversity and teacher quality of a school can predict academic performance on state-mandated tests, while controlling for school level poverty. In this quantitative study, the researcher also analyzes whether a difference exists between the predictability of pass rates and advanced pass rates for African American, Hispanic, and White students in Virginia’s elementary schools. The data reveal that the impact of poverty is difficult to disentangle from the issues of diversity and teacher quality but that differences exist among student racial groups in their academic performance response based on school-level poverty, diversity, and teacher quality.

Perspectives of school leaders on the administrative internship

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to identify how current K-12 district and school leaders who are alumni of an educational administration program describe how they acquired the essential skills and experiences needed to be effective in the leadership positions. Design/methodology/approach – For this qualitative study, the authors interviewed program alumni of one university leadership preparation program regarding the experiences and training they identified as having prepared them with the necessary skills, knowledge, and attitudes to be successful in their positions, as well as which components of their administrative internship experiences, if any, they identified as having most prepared them for their positions. Findings – School and district administrators indicated they acquired the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to become successful leaders through specific preparation experiences and opportunities. Key experiences cited by alumni included gaining some leadership responsibilities...

If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It: A New Principal Is in Town.

This case uncovers the balance between school culture and academic success that school leaders must consider while leading their schools. New school leaders as well as experienced leaders transitioning into new buildings find that each school has its own distinctive culture. The existing culture and ethos of a school must be considered as leaders gauge the need for short-term and long-term improvements. This must be balanced with the experiences and expectations brought by the leader that have the ability to create positive change. This transition process should not be taken lightly, and administrators should carefully observe what traditions their new school communities value when considering what change needs to be incorporated. This case uncovers the need for new building principals to reflect and analyze background data, both qualitative and quantitative, prior to mandating change in their building. In that sense, it gives aspiring leaders an opportunity to reflect on leadership style and whether there is an opportunity to contextualize that style.

Content and Context of the Administrative Internship: How Mentoring and Sustained Activities Impact Preparation

As universities prepare educational leaders for twenty-first century schools, the quality and authenticity of the internship experience require both the strengths of university faculty and the expertise of practitioners to create authentic experiences that seek to bridge the theory-to-practice divide. One mechanism to achieve this is through quality mentorship by school- and central-office-based personnel during the internship experience. A central aspect of this professional relationship is the ability for the mentor to provide access to quality activities that will prepare the aspiring leader for his/her first administrative position. This exploratory study examined language utilized by interns in their time logs as well as information gleaned from preliminary surveys of both interns and mentors upon completion of their experience. Findings revealed the complexity of language analysis and revealed a need for understanding activities of interns and interactions with mentors in a contextual fashion.

Aspiring educational leaders and the internship: voices from the field

This study examined the experiences of administrative interns at the completion of their experience, using a phenomenological framework, document analysis, semi-structured interviews and a survey. Findings indicate a disparity between theory espoused in programmes and actual practice of sitting administrators, ideological dissonance between traditional theories of leadership and the more contemporary theories taught in preparation programmes, a level of frustration regarding inconsistent implementation across school districts and time pressures to complete hours.

Voices of Educational Administration Internship Mentors.

Abstract Within the field of leadership preparation, there is agreement by both scholars and practitioners of the need to engage aspiring leaders in authentic field-based learning experiences that tightly align to coursework (Perez, Uline, Johnson, James-Ward, & Basom, 2011). An integrated approach including mentoring is critical to the success of the internship activities and therefore the overall experience. Using data gathered from interns, as well as issues emerging in existent literature, the researchers developed and administered a survey to mentors to assess the activities, level of engagement, and general feedback on the internship experience for those they supervised, as well as their own development during the interaction. We subsequently conducted interviews of five mentors who had responded to the survey to allow for further exploration of the emergent themes.

Teacher with a Learning Disability: Legal Issues and District Approach.

This case study focuses on a teacher who discloses a learning disability to her Principal. Given the teacher’s challenges in retention of her content material, the district is faced with how to handle the personnel situation of an employee with a disability. This case raises questions of how to balance the needs and interests of students with the employee’s rights under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Profiles of the Administrative Internship: The Mentor/Intern Partnership in Facilitating Leadership Experiences

This study sought to understand how aspiring administrators and supervising mentors contribute to the intern’s opportunity to lead authentic administrative tasks during the administrative internship. Using case study methodology, we gathered data from six intern/mentor pairs through in-depth interviews, observations, journals, and logs. Several themes contributed to the development of the intern/mentor relationship in three phases: (a) establishing the partnership, (b) cultivating the mentoring relationship, and (c) learning through the leadership experience. Our results informed the development of the Educational Leadership Mentoring Framework, a new conceptual framework that has the potential to enhance the quality of administrative internship experiences.