Principals' Student Achievement

Alverna Champion, Principal Investigator

achampion2@email.phoenix.edu (337) 981-8005

Uma Deoras

Carole Lormand

Steven LaBry

Leonard Peyronnin

University of Phoenix School of Advanced Studies

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify how principals make decisions that lead

to improved student achievement. The researchers wanted to know how do principals apply

important direct knowledge of school law, policies, instruction, curriculum and pedagogy to daily

and moment-to-moment problem solving. This qualitative narrative study of five principals from south central

Louisiana whose School Performance Grade (SPG) as issued from the State Department of

Education grew from C, D or F to A or B. Conceptual framework for leadership is based on

McLaughlin's model of the decision-making process of expert principals. While the principal

has a direct impact on teacher quality, school conditions, and community contexts, it is the

indirect impact on student achievement as measured by the SPG score that was of interest. The

researchers interviewed the principals using semi-structured, open-ended questions to collect

data as seen through their lived experiences.  Overall, their emphases were on data collection and analysis

and their deep concern for the whole child.  They view parents as a critical and welcome resource. 

Problem Statement

Low student achievement is one of the most intractable problems facing public education in the State of Louisiana. Consider the days of the "oil boom" of the 1970s. It was the best of times for the state coffers but the worst of times for public education. High paying, low skilled jobs served as a ‘pied piper' luring students away from school to the oil patches without a high school diploma in hand. Similarly, policy makers had little interest in investing in education or in paying living wages to teachers, according to a proposal submitted to the National Science Foundation (LaSip, 1990). Louisiana has the highest number of private and parochial schools in the nation. These schools siphon off the state's most affluent students. Furthermore, many of the administrators who make decisions about public education do not send their children to these bare-bones schools (Lawton, 1997). But in the context of communities and the school districts that serve them, there are factors in any school's condition that must harmonize in order for student achievement to have a chance: they are Principal Practice, Teacher Quality, and Instructional Quality.

We learn from Lawton's article (1998) that “from 1990 to 1996, the percentage of eighth-graders scoring at or above the basic level on the NAEP math test increased six points, however; Louisiana students still rank next to last when compared to those in other states” (p. 163). Low achievement scores can be characterized as stubbornly persistent. The Shreveport Times published in its "'Leaders and Laggards' report the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ranks Louisiana as the second-worst laggard at the bottom of all 50 states but ahead of the District of Columbia. Louisiana has grades of F in 5 of 11 categories." In that same article, we read that the state gets a D- for truth in advertising more currently known as “fake news.” The picture of student achievement in the State of Louisiana is unacceptable. Recently, the state has recognized the need to increase student achievement. The plan is to enlist principals as essential players in the struggle (McFesh, 2014). This guidebook and accompanying grant opportunities are designed to provide tools and training for principals as they work with teachers, parents and the students and the students to raise School Performance Scores (SPS). The goal is to increase student achievement as a consequence of the successful implementation of recommended practices. The Department of Education website, LouisianaBelieves, presents "the guidebook as an outline of the state's academic toolbox and a how-to-manual for principals in their work with students and teachers" (n.d.). Unfortunately, as shown in Figure 1 we have found the link between principal and student achievement is not an obvious direct connection. The educational leader impacts directly district and community contexts and school conditions which affect teacher quality and instructional quality. Ultimately, these affect student achievement. Principal's best practices influence student achievement and school performance through the "ripple effect" (Clifford, Behrstock-Sherratt & Fetters, 2012). See Figure 1 below.

Figure 1 Principals’ Influence (Clifford, Behrstock-Sherratt & Fetters 2012).

Clifford, et al. (2012) provide a strong statement about the relationship between the influences of a principal on the achievement performance of students. Figure 1 illustrates the principals' direct actions and how those actions filter down to the indirect yet unmistakable influence on student achievement. The Guide does not contain and could never contain insights into how expert principals make tough decisions that apply important direct knowledge of laws and policies, to daily and moment-to-moment problem solving. Decision making is the missing link. The problem to be addressed by this study is the incomplete understanding into the insights as to how skilled principals make tough decisions that apply important direct knowledge of laws and policies, to daily and moment-to-moment problem solving that ultimately leads to improved student achievement. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive case study is to understand how improved student achievement was possible through the decision-making practices of skilled school principals.

The University of Phoenix (2014) applies the Boyer model for scholarship. This model embraces four domains: discovery, application, integration, and teaching and learning. This project has the potential to fulfill all four. First, this research project addresses the domain of discovery. One projected outcome of this study is to advance the body of scholarly knowledge. Dissemination of information at conferences and through publications will encourage a healthy exchange of ideas with the possibility of leading to future discovery. The domain of application, as well as the domain of teaching and learning, are addressed in this project. This research project will give educational leaders an enhanced sense of required functions in two opposite avenues of interaction. There is a need for educational management skills which can enable leaders to have a better understanding of leadership practices. On the opposite avenue, the leader expects to gain a greater awareness of skills, practices, and knowledge needed for facilitating

student learning. In both these avenues, leaders expect to learn new practices that will affect immediate and noticeable improvement in the results of the performance of their schools. The fourth domain that is addressed is that of integration. Integration can be positively affected by this study: it goes beyond the ranks of students and administrators to leaders in the community. The communities that the University of Phoenix students and faculty touch would be more clearly seen and communicated with in ways that can benefit the university, the community, and its public schools. The university, in a real sense, inherits these students and enhances their connections to society.

Conceptual Framework

The principle objective of a qualitative descriptive case study, according to Christensen, Johnson, and Turner (2010), is to explicate the meaning (ontology), structure (methodology), and essence (epistemology) of the lived-experiences of a person around a specific phenomenon. The population of the study will be the skilled principals in South Central Louisiana. The researcher wants to explore the case through skilled principals' decision practices. It's the meaning that the participant attributes to improved student achievement that is of interest. Most commonly, as in this case, the researcher will use semi-structured interviews as the means of collecting data. There is inseparable link between principal decision making and student achievement (DeLeon, P. A. (2014).  The researcher remains detached. This study will employ McLaughlin’s (2015) paradigm of how expert principals make difficult decisions. The participants will be interviewed regarding their problem-solving processes, leadership core values, school culture and their visualized solutions.

Brief Literature Review

Dempster and Berry (2003) studied the matter of principals and the minefield of decision making. Here is a lengthy but important statement of their conclusions.

Principals being placed [sic] under intense and increasing pressure. Some of this pressure results from their having to make and justify decisions that are complex and fraught with ethical difficulty. Unfortunately, many feel ill-equipped to deal with these challenging decisions. A recent survey of principals' experience in relation to such decisions suggests that many lack the skills necessary to confidently discharge their duties. If we accept that there is a dearth of professional development in ethical decision-making, we must accept that there is an obligation to provide appropriate preparation and support, both on employing authorities such as departments of education and on external agencies such as universities. However, it is essential that such professional preparation appropriately balances system needs against the needs of individual principals in the community contexts in which they work.

Tuttleton researched 61 public schools in seven Louisiana parishes. She was able to conclude that there is a statistically significant relationship between School Performance Scores and the behavior of principals. She used a stepwise regression on as many as 12 variables to get 42% variation. She did not use decision-making as a variable. Printy (2010) has researched principals' influence on instructional quality: insights from US schools using quantitative and case study, however, there is no evidence of research using descriptive case with logic linking

the data to the propositions of the school principals. Surely, more work needs to be done. This project is an attempt to fill that gap.

Research Question

This background leads directly to our research question. How does decision-making practices of skilled school principals impact student achievement?

Description of Research Method

The research paradigm is qualitative and naturalistic. The method qualitative descriptive case study is attributed to Yin, Robert, K. (2012). This method answers why and how about the best practices of the participants. The researchers rely on interpretations and descriptions of the participants. The researchers want to identify the essence of the shared experiences of five expert principals of high achieving schools located in southern Louisiana in the parishes of Acadia, Iberia, and Lafayette. We explore whether the common experiences of these principals will converge on a universal nature of decision making among education experts. Principals make tough decisions on a daily basis. This conscious process forms the foundation of this study of the lived experiences of experts.

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive case study study is to “connect the empirical data to research questions and ultimately, to its conclusions” (Yin, 2012, p. 28) of improved student achievement through the decision-making practices of skilled school principals. School leaders must utilize their direct knowledge of laws and policies to solve problems that ultimately lead to student achievement. This study addresses how the school leader impacts directly school conditions and district and community contexts that influence teach and instructional quality which indirectly affects student achievement. The researchers seek a homogenous sample, to the extent possible so that purposive sampling will be used. The population is made up of principals from the southern Louisiana parishes of Lafayette, Iberia, and Acadia. Their schools must have earned a grade of at least a B. The grades must have increased from C, D or F over the last two years. The same principal had to preside over the same school for both years. In 2013, the system of grading schools changed. See Table 1 below. We will look at the most current school grades from the years of 2013 and 2014. A sample of five schools will be selected from this population.

"School Performance Scores (SPS) are based on student achievement, academic indicators and measures of career and college readiness, such Carnegie credits earned through 9th grade, graduation rates, and earning Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and Dual Enrollment (LouisianaBelieves). The three adjacent districts are similar in their district grades and scores.

   2014 Results  2013 Results District and 2014 Annual 2014 Annual 2013 Annual 2013 Annual District

number of improving Schools 

DPS Letter Grade 

District Performance

Score  

DPS Letter Grade  Performance Score  

Acadia Parish 2 out of 25  B  89.7  B  87.3 Iberia Parish  

6 out of 26  B  88.9  B  86.9 Lafayette Parish  

4 out of 40  B  90.0  B  90.5          

Table 1 SPS Results for 2013-14

The data collection was by way of one-on-one interviews. The interview questions were based on the instrument presented by Mclaughlin, (2015, p. 175). Permission has been granted from the publisher to use this instrument. Each conversation was audiotaped with the data transcribed. The researchers made anecdotal notes during the session, followed by reflections.

The American Institutes for Research (2014) provides a strong statement about the relationship between the influences of a principal on the achievement of students. Figure 1 illustrates the principals' direct actions and how those actions filter down in a direct way to the indirect influence on student achievement. Using this structure the independent variables were on principals’ decisions that impact district and community contexts, teacher selection and quality, instructional quality, and school conditions with the dependent variable being aggregate student achievement. R-Studio Software was used in an iterative and creative manner. Because we were not interested, necessarily in the views of any one principal but those views that typically converge below we have used several graphical displays to help us draw reasonable conclusions Table 2 Word Frequencies, Figure 2 Cluster Dendrogram, Figure 3 Word Cloud, Figure 4 Bar Graph, and Figure 5 Sentiments

Word Frequencystudents 70school 50teachers 69decision 56data 23

parents 23principal 19children 36leadership 17

team 13culture 13

curriculum 11difficult 11time 11people 11well 11right 11best 11staff 10

community 8

Table 2 Word Frequency

Figure 2 Cluster Dendrogram

Figure 3 Word Cloud

Figure 4 Bar Graph

Figure 5 Sentiments

0

1

2

3

4

5

6 Principle Problem Solving Processes

Figure 6 Principle Problem Solving Processes

Conclusion

Based on the above graphic displays principals keep students’ needs and well-being in mind when making decisions. Students are uppermost in the minds of principals when they are making decisions.

The community contexts play major roles for good and for bad. All five principals viewed this as a particularly prickly area. One principal related an egregious error.

An incident occurred where a student reported his money was missing. This particular principal went to the classroom and handled the situation with a strip search. In this their were colliding values. Educational leader wanted the money back--Community demanded respect for all students—central office administrators were concerned with legal repercussions. Lesson learned discipline can not be meted out in a haphazard fashion. Another principal shared how when she took over a failing school the community came to gether with suggestions, with community—school events, parents as support.

One principal worked with the whole staff in creating the list of guiding principles which were displayed throughout the school and shared with the community. There should be no situations like the one at another school with the missing money.

Teacher quality was concerning to all principals. Which prospective teacher would be a good fit for the school? How can a teacher be removed? How to do a thorough background check? How to have versatile staff where teachers complement each other While one principal finds the hiring problematic she relies almost entirely on first impressions.

All principals were eager to assert that data drives their decisions. They state unequivocable that data facilitates monitoring students’ strengths and weaknesses.

A problematic matter, which greatly affects instructional quality involves moving students or moving teachers to ensure the best instructional quality for the school. Issues of racial segregation and court orders come into play with some of these decisions. Mandated student teacher ratios must be followed.

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