Joseph Claudet

An Interpretive Analysis of Educator Change Processes in Response to a Program Innovation: Implications for Personnel Evaluation

This study employs interpretive analysis methods as a means of probing and elucidating the social and cultural mechanisms that influence the processes of educator change and organizational learning in the context of systemic innovation in personnel performance evaluation. Specifically, the study explores interactive roles and behaviors of educator participants within an initial pilot implementation of one innovative, statewide teacher assessment program. Using interpretive techniques, a descriptive matrix of interactive role metaphors was generated, leading to the formulation of a theory-based typology of educator change process behaviors. Implications of study findings for facilitating teacher change and enhancing organizational learning in schools within a general climate of systemic program innovation and reform are discussed.

School learning environment, organizational structures and effectiveness: A synthesis of research in 443 schools

Abstract This chapter is a synthesis of findings from five research studies linking school learning environment and organizational characteristics to multiple indices of school effectiveness. Descriptions of a variety of new measures of school level environment characteristics are included and implications of the findings for research and theory development in the future study of school learning environments, schools as organizations and school effectiveness are discussed.

Conceptualizing Organizational Dimensions of Instructional Supervisory Practice: Implications for Professional Learning Environments in Schools

This study explored the organizational nature of the professional learning environments of teachers, administrators, and other peer professionals in schools. A conceptual model of the organizational structure and effects of instructional supervisory practices was developed to guide the empirical investigation. The model is based on an organizational conception of instructional supervision in which the variety of supervisory behaviors, interactions, and decision making engaged in by school personnel contributes to a unique organizational/supervisory (O/S) climate infusing a schools professional learning environment. Six meaningful dimensions of O/S climate were empirically derived. Climate variable linkages to various indices of school effectiveness were posited and explored using quantitative and qualitative methods. The studys qualitative findings revealed additional school-level, organizational context factors which further explicated the O/S climate and professional learning environment constructs and quantitative supervisory climate/effectiveness linkages identified in the studys original conceptual model.

Can State-Mandated Teacher Evaluation Fulfill the Promise of School Improvement? Events in the Life of One School.

A detailed checklist and timeline for ensuring due process is provided in adverse personnel actions. The need to supplement this with expert, same-jurisdiction, legal advice is stressed. The approach here emphasizes the importance of treating due process as an ethical as well as a legal requirement and provides some ethical justification for what may otherwise seem to be an unnecessarily legalistic procedure.

Investigating Organizational Dimensions of Middle School Curricular Leadership: Linkages to School Effectiveness

Abstract This study explores the organizational nature of curricular leadership in middle schools. A conceptual model of the organizational structure and effects of curricular leadership in middle schools is presented. The Organizational Curricular Leadership (OCL) model suggests that the relationship between organizational inputs and effectiveness in middle schools is mediated by a variety of organizational curricular leadership (OCL) variables. Five meaningful dimensions of OCL are empirically derived. The OCL model posits multiple, reciprocal relationships occurring among school inputs, OCL variable dimensions, and school outcomes. OCL variable linkages to various indices of school effectiveness are posited and explored using quantitative methods. The model is operationally defined through the development of a new quantitative measure of overall OCL leadership in middle schools—the Organizational Curricular Leadership Inventory (OCLI). A variety of implications are derived from study findings for: (1) recasting and extending notions of conceptual-based research on middle school organizations; (2) informing curricular leadership in middle schools; and (3) guiding further middle school organizational curricular leadership and effectiveness studies.

Integrating School Leadership Knowledge and Practice Using Multimedia Technology: Linking National Standards, Assessment, and Professional Development

This article presents an overview perspective on the potential benefits of applying multimedia technology to redesign and invigorate the career-long performance assessment and professional learning of school leaders. Funded design and development efforts of one multimedia project—the Administrator Case Simulation (ACS) Multimedia Library—focusing on the professional assessment and development of school principals involved in collaborative school leadership are highlighted. Project research teams at the ACS Multimedia Lab have focused in the past seven years on using available multimedia technologies to develop school leadership assessment and organizational learning case simulation resources for school principals and other school leaders. This article provides an overview of the multimedia case simulation concept, describes collaborative R&D project efforts involving regional and state school leaders, highlights multimedia case design features, and discusses implications of technology-integrated case designs for informing personnel assessment and evaluation programs and for enhancing the reflective thinking, decision making, and professional learning of school leaders. Finally, recommendations are offered for engaging in further research and development efforts using the integrated systems professional learning approach presented, and for creatively expanding technology-integrated case simulation designs to develop similar professional assessment and learning resources for all school leaders.

Developing a CD‐ROM Case Simulation Library for School Leaders

SUMMARY More and more school leaders around the world are becoming enthusiastic about the potential of creatively applying technology in order to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in elementary and secondary schools. This article therefore reports on the activities of one funded school‐university collaborative project in the United States that has been involved in developing and using CD‐ROM multimedia resources to transform the career‐long, professional supervision and learning opportunities of school leaders (principals, teachers, curriculum specialists, resource personnel, school board and other school community leaders) ‐‐ and, in so doing, improve the overall quality of teaching and learning in twenty‐first century schools for both educators and students.

Issues and Directions in Technology-Integrated Personnel Assessment and Professional Development.

Program design possibilities for educational personnel assessment and professional learning have considerably expanded in recent years as a result of the continued development and refinement of computer, video, and web-based digital technologies. As a result, preK-12 teachers, administrators, and other educators increasingly have access to newer kinds of technology-based professional assessment and career learning tools that enable personnel to approach assessment, evaluation, and professional learning activities in more integrative and effective ways. These technology-based tools engender new sets of issues and raise prospects for new directions and possibilities for personnel assessment and development in the field of education.

Using Multimedia Cases to Invigorate School Leaders’ Organizational Learning

ABSTRACT Creating meaningful learning opportunities for school leaders (principals, teachers, peer professionals, and community members) is a central goal of educational staff developers. Involving principals and school community leaders in the systematic study of their own context‐specific leadership challenges using digital multimedia and a perspectivist learning approach may offer potential as one technology‐integrated means for facilitating positive school community vision building and decision making. This article describes results of one prototype collaborative effort to design and use multimedia cases to invigorate school leaders’ organizational thinking and learning

Equal Access: Community Values and Student Rights

This case addresses the issue of equal access rights of students in schools. The case portrays the organizational leadership challenges that emerge in response to a request by a student to the principal of a senior high school for permission to initiate a gay and lesbian student organization on campus. The student request becomes a catalyst for controversial reactions by parents and the local press, and places both short and long term school leadership demands on the principal.