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An Overview
What is the purpose of the study?
The purpose of this project is to develop and study an intervention that provides regular, ongoing feedback to principals from teachers about their instructional and transformational leadership and coaching to assist principals in changing their leadership practices and behaviors in response to the feedback. Practitioners, researchers and policy makers agree that principal leadership is critically important for providing high quality Pk-12 education. Finding practical ways to thoughtfully and appropriately assess and develop leaders can have an important impact on the quality of leadership, and through that, on the quality of education in our schools. As such, our primary interest is in determining if and how systematic feedback from teachers on principal leadership, and coaching, influence the quality of principal leadership.
Where is the study being conducted?
The study is being implemented in the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. This system is the 49th largest urban school district in the nation. The study participants consist of 60 elementary school principals and approximately1200 teachers.
Who is working on the study?
We have organized a team of researchers who have the complementary skills and experience needed to successfully implement this complex field experiment. This multi-disciplinary group includes researchers trained in psychology, organizational behavior, statistics and education. Their collective expertise in field research methods, feedback, educational leadership, coaching and statistics are a perfect match for this project.
Leonard Bickman is the Principal Investigator for the project and is responsible for the overall project management and quality of the project. He has over 30 years experience in developing and conducting award winning large scale field experiments. This research is a natural extension of his work on feedback theory and practice.
Ellen Goldring is an investigator on the project. Her primary role is to provide input on all substantive decisions and assist in the management of the project. In particular she is responsible for instrument development and qualitative analysis. She is widely recognized for expertise and research on educational leadership.
Mark Cannon leads in the development of the coaching intervention and also trains the coaches. He has extensive experience in developing coaching programs and workshops in both the education and business environment. He has won several awards for his work in coaching and leadership development.
Tom Ward, a former principal of Hume Fogg High School, is responsible for the day to day operation of the project and contacts with schools. Pat Abelson organizes and trains the data collectors.
Pat Abelson and Lisa Demoret organize and train the data collectors.
How is the study implemented?
The study consists of 4 phases spanning 4-years with development activities running throughout.
In Phase I we select, develop and refine the measures that are used to collect data from teachers to provide feedback to the school leaders (the feedback intervention).
In Phase II we implement the feedback experiment in 60 elementary schools in the Metropolitan Nashville Public School District where schools will be randomly assigned to the experimental or control condition. During Phase II, the experimental group principals receive a feedback report every two months based on the teacher ratings of their principal's instructional and transformational leadership. In the control group, the data is collected the same way but the principals receive no feedback.
In Phase III principal coaching is added to the model. The experimental group continues to receive bi-monthly feedback and coaching specific to the feedback report. The control group, which did not get feedback in the previous year, begins to receive bi-monthly feedback but without coaching. This design allows us to compare within groups as well as between groups.
Phase IV is devoted to analysis and dissemination. The key measures of outcome are changes in principal leadership and student achievement.
Copyright Education World. Used with permission.