Julia Ballenger

Aspiring Principal Perceptions: Are Mentor Principals Modeling Standards-Based Leadership?.

The purpose of this study was to explore how often 159 practicing teachers enrolled in a university Masters degree principal preparation program observed their mentor principals model the four mandated Texas standards‐based instructional leadership competencies for the principalship. The competencies focus on leadership through curriculum and planning, nurturing and sustaining the instructional program, implementing a staff evaluation plan and applying decision‐making skills. Findings on the four competencies ranged from a high of 59.1% to a low of only 44.7% of the participants who indicated that they observed their mentor principals modeling these four competencies at least ‘usually.’

Principals' perspectives of social justice in public schools

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on social justice issues identified by American principals. A research question that guided this qualitative study was: do educational leaders relate to the concept of leadership for social justice?Design/methodology/approach – The standardized protocol for focus group discussions was based on Krueger and Caseys work on how to conduct effective focus group interviews. Each focus group carefully followed the protocol, which was designed to give voice to the informants and not to be led by the moderator in preconceived directions. This procedure provided a framework to maintain consistency in eliciting and collecting information but not leading participants to discuss social justice issues just to please the researchers.Findings – This paper both confirmed that principals are concerned with social justice and identified that some principals do not explicitly discuss issues that relate to social justice. Principals who raised social justice issues felt that le...

Voices from the field: What have we learned about instructional leadership?

Abstract This article documents perceptions of superintendents and principals when working under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2004–06. It uses data collected through the Voices 3 Project to consider three factors associated with instructional leadership as applied under NCLB, defining the schools mission, managing the instructional program, and promoting a positive school learning climate. Findings include that the narrowness of the curriculum objectives, the top-down hierarchical nature of decision making in the system, and the pervasively negative and punitive environment impact on the work of instructional leaders. The article argues that new approaches and leadership models are needed.

Quandaries of Assessment and Accountability

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss quandaries that educational administrators may face relative to accountability and assessment in pre-Kindergarten (pK-12) schools as leaders of learning for instructional improvement and capacity building for a culture of assessment and accountability. From the Voices 3 interview data, transcriptions of focus groups that were held with principals throughout the nation were analyzed to discern the challenges in implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) as a lens for considering challenges that may be faced today with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requirements. The primary challenges were identified as fitting three themes: consideration of “What’s Best for Students,” facilitating instructional improvement and balancing the press for time with development of a positive culture.