Learning to lead school improvement: An analysis of rural school leadership development
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Learning to lead school improvement: An analysis of rural school leadership development Parker M. Andreoli1 · Hans W. Klar2 · Kristin Shawn Huggins3 · Frederick C. Buskey4
© Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract The purpose of this paper is to present findings from a study of a 3-year leadership development initiative designed to enhance the leadership capacities of 10 school leaders from a consortium of rural, high-poverty school districts. The initiative provided cross-district, job-embedded, and personalized leadership development through leadership coaching in a professional community. The findings highlight what the leaders learned about involving and interacting differently with others for shared effort and ownership; enabling distributed leadership for increased capacity; using a systematic process for school improvement; and approaching school improvement with a new mindset. We conclude the article with implications for further research and practice. Keywords Continuous school improvement · Leadership development · Professional learning · Rural school leaders · School improvement · Social constructivist learning
* Parker M. Andreoli [email protected] Hans W. Klar [email protected] Kristin Shawn Huggins [email protected] Frederick C. Buskey [email protected] 1
College of Education, Clemson University, Room 308A, 101 Gantt Circle, Clemson, SC 29634, USA
2
College of Education, Clemson University, Room 201, 101 Gantt Circle, Clemson, SC 29634, USA
3
College of Education, Washington State University, 14204 N.E. Salmon Creek Avenue, VUB 321, Vancouver, WA 98686, USA
4
Strategic Leadership Consulting, LLC, P.O. Box 1293, Cullowhee, NC 28723, USA
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Journal of Educational Change
Introduction Across the United States, there is an urgent demand for school leaders able to effectively lead school improvement efforts that meet continuously-evolving accountability requirements. As part of an education reform movement dominated by neoliberal discourse and one-size-fits-all approaches to school improvement (Butler 2014), these accountability requirements shine a critical light on the quality of schools and their leaders. The role of school leaders, while already widely recognized in the literature for having a significant, albeit indirect, influence on student achievement (Hallinger and Heck 1996; Heck and Hallinger 2014; Louis et al. 2010), now comes with even greater responsibility for leading school improvement efforts. Fulfilling these responsibilities is especially challenging in high-needs schools, particularly those situated in rural and high-poverty communities, which face increasing rates of poverty (Showalter et al. 2017) and are frequently staffed by inexperienced school leaders (Browne-Ferrigno and Allen 2006). These factors can lead to, and be further exacerbated by, lower levels of teacher retention and student achievement (Béteille et al. 2012). Compounding this situation are the limited professional learning opportunities for rural school leaders (Johnson et a
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