The leadership gap: preparing leaders for urban schools

UnrestrictedThe purpose of this mixed-methods, purposive case study was to investigate the impact of participation in the Metropolitan ISD Principal Coaching Initiative (MPCI) on leadership practice. The MPCI is a district-wide executive leadership capacity building strategy, which combines the District’s standards-based leadership curriculum with a leadership coaching support structure for both novice and experienced principals to support their implementation of district-wide improvement initiatives. Principal leadership practices were studied in two K-5, urban elementary schools.; The study was designed to address the following research questions: 1) How does participation in the Metropolitan ISD Principal Coaching Initiative (MPCI) prepare principals to become effective instructional leaders? 2) How does the MPCI influence the knowledge, beliefs and leadership practices of urban school principals? 3) How does an urban school principal create and sustain organizational structures and processes that promote effective teacher practice and improve student outcomes? 4) What leadership support structures enable leader practice? 5) How can the VAL-ED Instrument serve as a coaching tool to assist principals to become effective instructional leaders?; Pre- and post-intervention survey data were collected from the online administration of the Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education (VAL-ED). The results provided a summary of the principals’ and the teachers’ perceptions of leader effectiveness on learning-centered leadership behaviors that have been found to correlate with student achievement (Porter, Goldring, Murphy, Elliott, & Cravens, 2006). Additionally, qualitative data were collected from pre/post principal and teacher interviews, observation of leadership practice, and review and analysis of existing documents.; Key findings revealed that although the principals had participated in the leadership coaching initiative for a short time (i.e., five months), both principals demonstrated behaviors and practices aligned with the learning-centered leadership framework. This finding, that leadership practice can be influenced by participation in the MPCI suggests that effective leadership practice can be learned (Northouse, 2007). There was some evidence that these practices had a positive influence on the teachers’ practice in the areas of implementation of high standards for learning, rigorous curriculum, and quality instruction focused on a culture of learning (Murphy, 2006). However, the extent to which these practices were implemented could not be determined.; Finally, the findings from this study suggest that the VAL-ED survey can be used as a coaching tool to 1) move principals across performance levels; 2) identify strengths and weaknesses; and 3) to identify areas of focus for developing performance plans or for individual principals