Browsing by Author "Poff, Joni Clayman"

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    The Development and Implementation of an Intelligent Hierarchy Leadership Process in an Elementary School
    Nickels, Travis Marion (Virginia Tech, 2014-04-11)
    Leadership in modern-day schools is changing. School leaders are expected to oversee the physical plant and school finances, as well as to be the instructional leader, personnel officer, public relations specialist, and point person for the accountability efforts at all governmental levels. Principals cannot be experts in every area of school administration; thus, they are more dependent on other members of the educational team. The purpose of this study was to develop and implement a form of shared leadership in an elementary school known as an intelligent hierarchy, to test whether such a model affects the distribution of decision-making, climate, and morale within the school (Leithwood & Mascall, 2008). This was a mixed-methods, action-research project in which the principal of the school served as a participant observer. A leadership team was formed consisting of the principal, teachers, support staff, and parents to aid in the decision-making process. Qualitative data were collected in the form of minutes of leadership team meetings, journal entries by the principal, and minutes of meetings with individual teachers. A modified version of the constant comparative method (Maykut & Morehouse,1994) was used to analyze the qualitative data. Quantitative data were collected with questionnaires administered three times each throughout the course of the study. Data were collected on shared leadership, the distribution of decisions, school climate, and teacher morale. The implementation of the hybrid model of shared leadership led to improvement in the areas of shared leadership, shared decision-making, and employee morale. Improvement was evident in some areas of school climate. The result is a model administrators could implement, either in whole or in part, to track the implementation of shared leadership in their schools.
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    Operationalizing the Construct of Shared Leadership: a Delphi Study
    Poff, Joni Clayman (Virginia Tech, 2008-03-17)
    The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the accountability movement that has engulfed education in the last 20 years have put leadership at the heart of school improvement. Student achievement is affected by multiple factors that must be addressed with unique leadership skills and specialized knowledge. No one person can be responsible for orchestrating the success of each student within a school building. When members of a school community share responsibility for the many activities that contribute to student learning, the work of educational leaders becomes a manageable task. The purpose of this study was to create an operational definition of shared leadership by identifying key descriptors that define the characteristics and behaviors of shared leadership and the aspects of school cultures in which it can be effective. The procedure used to construct a rich description of shared leadership was a three-round Delphi study. A panel of experts was assembled from writers or researchers in the field of leadership and superintendents, principals, and teachers who have practiced shared leadership in the school environment. The first-round Delphi instrument consisted of four open-end questions that asked for key words or phrases that describe the characteristics and behaviors of shared leadership, key words or phrases that describe aspects of school cultures in which shared leadership can be effective, and key words or phrases that describe barriers to shared leadership. In the second round, panelists were asked to rate the compiled responses from round one on a four-point scale. In the third round, panelists received statistical information based on second-round responses. They were allowed to revise opinions once more using a four-point scale. Using the Delphi technique, the panel of experts reached consensus on 84 critical elements of effective shared leadership. An inventory that can be used by schools as a guide for planning, implementing, and evaluating shared leadership in school settings was created from the data.