Implementing state initiatives in a PK-1 primary school: a case study exploring instructional leadership

The purpose of this mixed methods case study is to explore the practices that a principal has used to address the individual needs of students through instructional and cultural changes, which resulted in increased student achievement. Using Lambert’s (1998) Leadership Capacity Survey, the espoused beliefs of the principal are correlated to the teachers’ ratings of the principal’s performance. The findings indicate an overall emergent theme that the principal uses broad-based leadership and skillful participation to establish reciprocal trust among the staff by creating teacher leaders. An additional theme of the community’s principal illuminates the work the principal’s efforts to establish broad-based parental and faculty participation in the change work established to create a child-centered environment aimed at high student achievement. Principals in the field can learn how this was accomplished through the examination of reflective practice, establishing a culture where innovation is the norm, and an inquiry-based use of information