District Level Leadership: Core Leadership Practices for Sustainable Change

Abstract

This report describes the findings of a doctoral team project regarding core leadership practices that support sustainable academic change. The project team reviewed literature related to sustainable change, reform models, and leadership. The empirical research regarding the relationship between district level leadership practices that contribute to sustainable change resulting in increased student performance was limited. The project team was guided by the following questions: What are the district level core leadership practices that contribute to sustainable change and what are the definitions of these practices? What do district level leaders think and do to apply the identified leadership practices for sustainable change? To what degree do current district level leaders in Missouri value and apply the identified core leadership practices? What recommendations should be made to district level leaders to support sustainable change? The project team identified and defined five core leadership practices: Moral Purpose, Capacity Building, Knowledge Creation and Sharing, Relationship Building, and Fidelity Monitoring. The core leadership practices and definitions were sent to an expert panel for validation and feedback. Based on the literature and feedback from the expert panel, the team developed a survey to collect information from Missouri superintendents regarding their perceived value and application of these core leadership practices. The findings from this survey and the literature were used to make recommendations for school district leaders to use which may contribute to sustainable change. Based on the information gathered, the project team noted that the five core practices cannot support sustainable change if used in isolation. It is the coexistence of these leadership practices that strengthen the movement toward sustainable change and will support increased student performance. The team studied promising reform models of the past and present and found that these reform models failure to bring about change that closed the achievement gap was because at least one of the core leadership practices were missing. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone [phone]. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]