Leading for Excellence

Purpose: The purpose of this explanatory mixed-methods study was to determine the degree of importance for the 12-step principles proposed by Harvey, Drolet, and Devore (2014) to create a K-12 school environment that fosters high student achievement as perceived by public high school principals. A secondary purpose was to explore and describe the leadership strategies for implementing the 12-step principles proposed by Harvey et al. to create a K-12 school environment that fosters high student achievement as perceived by public high school principals. Methodology: The researcher used sequential explanatory mixed methods for this study. The researcher worked with a thematic group of 7 peer researchers to develop the survey and interview protocol used for data collection. Purposeful sampling was used to identify participants who met the sample criteria for this study. Findings: Based on quantitative research findings, the 12-step principles perceived to be the most critical by public high school principals are as follows: flexibility and resilience, strong leadership, vision and values, and high expectations. Based on the qualitative findings, the researcher found that codes related to the following principles were reported by leaders at the highest percentage: academic achievement for the 21st century (13%), love and passion (11%), communication (10%), and high expectations (9%). Conclusions: Conclusions reached through research include a strong interconnectedness of the 12-step leadership principles proposed by Harvey et al. (2014), the notion that strong leadership encompasses many different variables, recognizing that developing vision and values shape the school environment, understanding that communication to all stakeholders is key, ensuring student achievement is a central focus of all site leaders, recognizing that data drives all decision-making, and finally, recognizing that building relationships matter. Recommendations: Recommendations for future research could include completing a replication study, a longitudinal study, and further explanatory mixed-methods study