An empirical study of high school principals\u27 data -driven decision-making practices and their relationships to contextual variables

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which Nebraska high school principals practiced data-driven decision-making and to determine the relationships between principals\u27 data-driven decision-making and the contextual factors. The following leadership dimensions were surveyed: school vision, school instruction, school organization, collaborative partnerships, moral perspective, and larger-context politics. Three categories of contextual variables were included for study: principal characteristics as people factors, leadership dimensions as problem factors, and school setting as organization factors

Integrated Teaching Strategies Used by ESL Teachers: How are Strategies of Arts, Mathematics, and Sciences Correlated?

The emerging popularity of interdisciplinary teaching stems from research-based student gains in learning. Using the interdisciplinary and integrated framework of STEAM, this study aims to understand ESL teachers’ integrated teaching strategies of arts, mathematics, and sciences, and examine the correlation among the domains of linguistic, artistic, musical, mathematical and logical, and science-related teaching strategies. Data collected from 67 ESL teachers in a Midwestern state was analyzed using the Pearson correlations. Results indicated that ESL teachers not only emphasize the traditional linguistic teaching strategies, but also integrate artistic, musical and mathematical, and sciences-related strategies in their classroom teaching. ESL teachers’ classroom teaching strategies of arts, mathematics, and sciences were both moderately and highly correlated. Interpretations of the findings related to the integrated perspective of interdisciplinary teaching and implications for both teacher educators and school administrators were discussed

Factors influencing matriculation of new undergraduate students: Do student type and gender matter?

Full text article unavailabl

Development of a Standard-Based Instrument for Assessing Principal Leadership

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate a scale of instrument, the Principal Leadership Index (PLI), to assess principal leadership practices within the framework of ELCC (2011) standards adopted by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation. Items of the PLI were initially developed by the researcher followed by expert reviews in the field of school leadership and a pilot test. The instrument was used to collect the empirical data from 73 principals, which were investigated with exploratory factor analyses, reliability tests, and multilevel analyses. Results reveal four unique constructs for the leadership dimensions, showing robust psychometric properties with high levels of reliability and validity. The proposed scale can be used for both assessment and professional development to promote principal standard-based leadership behaviors

Student Response Rate and Its Impact on Quantitative Evaluation of Faculty Teaching

Student evaluations of teaching (SET) generate essential information for university administrators and faculty in assessing instruction quality. Lower response rates in student surveys have remained an important technical issue hurting the credibility of SET. This study examined the student response rate and its impact on the results of student quantitative evaluations of faculty teaching in a college of education. It analyzed the quantitative data of course evaluations collected by using the IDEA (Individual Development and Educational Assessment, 2016) survey at a teaching-orientated Midwest state university. Results indicate that 1) the average student response rate of all these courses is 63.6%, 2) there is no significant relationship between the enrollment size of the classes and response rate of SET for these classes, and 3) response rates to the course evaluation survey significantly associates with the overall mean scores of students’ ratings, showing that classes evaluated by students with lower response rates tend to have lower evaluation mean scores. Implications for instruction evaluation policy and faculty practices for valid use of SET and increasing response rate are discussed

Stragegies for Attracting and Retaining Teachers

Attracting and retaining high quality teachers is a challenge for many school districts. This is especially true in a time of increased accountability and limited resources. This report details best practice in the training, hiring, improvement, and retention of high quality teaching staff. The authors explain how school leaders can attract quality teaching staff, provide effective new teacher induction programs, and establish procedures that will assist in retaining the best of the best teaching staff

Differences in Principals\u27 Data Use for Decision Making: An Administrative Probelm-Solving Perspective

As school leaders, principals must seek, use, and make sense of data and information. This study presents the findings of a survey study of 182 high school principals’ data use and examines the differences in the extent of principals’ data use for decision making in solving various dimensions of administrative problems. Results show principals used data frequently for decision-making in instructional leadership, organization operational leadership and school vision leadership, among which data use in instructional leadership was most frequent. Principals’ use of data was significantly less frequent in the leadership dimension of collaborative partnerships and larger-context politics. This article ends with implications with regard to improving school leadership programs in meeting the emergent need of preparing data driven decision makers and suggestions for research relevant to the central topic of data-driven decision making

Chinese Principal Perceptions on the American School Leadership Standards: The Disparity among Leadership Dimensions

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of Chinese school principals on the importance of American Educational Leadership Program Standards. Seventy three principals from a county in Guangdong, China completed the Principal Leadership Standards Questionnaire. The results of the study revealed that the Chinese principals perceived the majority of American leadership standards to be either important or very important in school administration. Perception differences among the leadership dimensions were significant. The principal leadership standards in the management of school organization and school instruction were perceived to be significantly more important than the leadership dimensions of school vision and collaborative partnership. The results of the study contribute to the development of school leadership training programs in China. Recommendations were made in using the framework of American leadership standards in China for the development and re-development of university programs and professional trainings in school leadership

The long-term outcomes of graduates’ satisfaction: Do public and private college education make a difference?

The comparison of quality between public and private college education is a topic of intense interest, and one that continues to generate ongoing research. This study utilized the General Social Survey 2012 Merged Data to determine if significant difference exists in graduates’ long- term outcomes between public and private college bachelor’s degree holders in the United States. A sample of 132 bachelor’s degree holders of public and private institutions from 1980 to 2010 was selected from the cross-section cases interviewed in 2012 for the MANCOVA analyses using health situation as a covariate. Results indicated that bachelor’s degree holders from private colleges are significantly more satisfied with their careers and overall quality of life than those from public colleges. However, no significant difference was found in financial satisfaction between these two groups, even when the effect of their health situation was controlled in analysis. Implications were discussed regarding weighing the cost and value when students make decisions to attend either public or private institutions