Closing The Achievement Gap Through Administration

Achieving a school district’s mission and vision requires the commitment of its stakeholders. In order to involve them in the process, it is necessary for educational leaders to “motivate staff, parents, students, board and community members” (Educational Leadership Constituencies Council, 2002, p. 4). The transformational leadership theory emphasizes the importance of educational leaders acting as role-models in order to motivate and inspire the school community. This approach has the potential to involve all stakeholders, leading to increased student success (Bush, 2007). The Assistant Director of Special Education in Northwest ISD directly supervised the school district’s assessment staff. Her education, experience, and passion set an example for her subordinates, stimulating them to achieve more, leading to her promotion to Executive Director of Student Services.

In this chapter, Fullan begins by maintaining that principals who are effective lead learners are necessarily also good managers, because they understand that having clear routines is essential for school improvement.” (57) He quotes from Viviane Robinson’s Student-Centered Leadership to both underscore the previous point and emphasize that successful principals take an active learning stance: “The principal who makes the biggest impact on learning is the one who attends to other matters as well, but, most important, ‘participates as a learner’ with teachers in helping move the school forward.” (58) Fullan also borrows from Helen Timperley’s work in responding to the question, Who is in a principal’s class? The principal’s class consists of “team leaders who in turn can leverage the learning of other teachers in their group”

The achievement gap is defined as the disparity between the performance groups of students, especially groups defined by gender, race/ethnicity, ability and socio-economic status. The achievement gap can be observed through a variety of measures including standardized test scores, grade point averages, drop out rates, college enrollment and completion rates. The Black-White achievement gap is a critical issue in modern society’s education system. Although data surrounding the issue clearly indicates that the racial performance gap exists in areas of standardized tests, graduation rates, dropout rates, and enrollment in continuing education, the causative reasons for the gap are ambiguous—therefore presenting a significant challenge in

The importance of effective leadership and its impact on improving student achievement are evident in today’s schools (Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, and Wahlstrom, 2004). While the school principal is traditionally thought to be the school leader, Glickman (1989) proposes that “the principal of successful schools is not the instructional leader but the educational leader who mobilizes the expertise, talent, and care of others” (p. 8). Lumpkin, Claxton, and Wilson (2014) contend that helping “each school fulfill its mission and energize and expand the professionalism and professional contributions of teachers, the expertise of all teachers, especially teacher leaders, is needed” (p. 59). Teachers directly impact student learning, and

The “achievement gap” in education refers to the disparity in academic performance between groups of students. The achievement gap is shown in grades, standardized-test scores, course selection, dropout rates, among other success measures. It’s most often used to describe the troubling performance gaps between African-American and latino students, towards the lower end of the performance scale, compared to their white peers, and the similar academic differences between students from low-income families and those who are privileged. In the past decade, scholars and policy makers began focusing their attention on other achievement gaps, such as those based on sex, English language and learning disabilities.

According to former Indiana state superintendent of schools Dr. Suellen Reed, “We know from our research that there’s no turnaround school without a turnaround principal” (as cited in Gammil, 2007, para. 2), further supporting the fact that “school leaders have an essential role in cultivating a positive school culture in public schools” (Peterson and Deal, 2002, p.30). However, it is imperative to improve our understanding as to how principal leadership impacts the school culture in high poverty schools to ensure that all children receive a quality education, regardless of zip code, in an environment conducive to learning. The six measured factors are as follows:

Schools can’t solve the problem alone,” and” without local initiative, reformers cannot succeed.” The neighborhood is where the children grow up, so some of the small level programs depend on local promote. Third, do not ignore the stupendous gap of income. The achievement gap begins when children are young because some of them have had better medical care and have memorized more vocabulary than others because of highly educational parents. According to what Sean Reardon found, the income achievement gap is growing, and it is two times larger than black-white achievement. Therefore, to mend the schools, to act in concert with local, and not to neglect the large income achievement gap are the points that Diane Ravitch

In American education, there is overwhelming evidence that there is an achievement gap between groups of students. In other words, there are measurable differences in the educations and test scores of different groups of students. Some gaps exist between groups or differing gender or socioeconomic status, but the largest gaps exist between groups of different races. America has always been a country with an influx of different cultures through immigration. In schools, these cultures still remain separated. The most noticeable separation is probably that of White and African American students. Although the achievement gap between White and Black students is easily seen there are other clear gaps in the education of Latino and Asian American

Teachers can’t bring change in the achievement gap by becoming better educators. The teachers are not the only people in the students’ lives that can help the students achieve better grades. The blame for the achievement gap should be shared with the adults in the students’ lives and the community (McKinstry). The youth that are falling behind academically are usually fighting one or more of this barriers: retention in grade level, poor attendance, behavioral problems, low socioeconomic status, low achievement, substance abuse, or teenage pregnancy

Achievement Gaps in the United States are tough to define. Currently academia is focusing on racial and ethnic gaps and might be overlooking a subtle fact. There is a trend in ongoing research that shows many of lowest achieving students hail from a low socioeconomic status. Before addressing the racial gaps in achievement, educators must look towards better understanding the effect that low SES has on students. After knowing how much SES impacts achievement, educators and researchers will be better able to address racial achievement gaps without biased factors manipulating their data. Articles by Rolf K. Blank, a case study performed by the Washington Board of Education, and an article by Victoria Risko and Doris Walker-Dalhouse will explore

Number of studies have asserted that teaching experience of principal positively associates with his/her instructional leadership (Eberts & Stone, 1988; Glasman, 1984; Hallinger, 1983; Leithwood et al., 1990). Studies have identified personal values of principal to indirectly shape his/her attention to varying aspects of educational programs (Barth, 1980, 1990; Cuban, 1988; Glasman, 1984; Leithwood et al., 1990, 1992). “Research on effects of principal leadership on student learning draws its conceptual lineage more directly from research on school effectiveness and school improvement.” (Hallinger, Bickman and Davis,

The principal of the school is considered a figurehead. They have many responsibilities that involve all stakeholders in the district. Not only do principals have to understand the school, community, and students, they must relate well to the teachers and staff to be successful. Principals as leaders, have to be able to communicate effectively and openly to create a collaborative environment which is the single most important factor in creating school improvement. (Halawah, 2004, pg. 335). Glickman, Gordon, & Ross-Gordon (2004), state “The supervisor who knows about characteristics of successful schools, the norms that mediate against success, and the ways teacher development contrasts with optimal adult development can begin to formulate

After careful examination of the policy, it is a feasible policy that would reduce achievement gaps in students. A perfect example of a teacher pay raise program that was successful in reducing the achievement gap was the Equality Project. “The Equity Project charter middle school, or TEP, in New York City set starting teacher salaries at $125,000,” and because of this “it’s mostly low-income, Latino students outperformed similar students at comparable N.Y. schools with test score gains equal to an extra 1.6 years in math and by smaller gains in science and language arts” (Startz and Goldhaber). The results from New York undeniably proved that paying the teachers who work well draws better results from them. “An important study by Professor

When considering leadership studies, the research is quite prolific. Leadership occurs in every facet of social dynamics to varying degrees. In education, specifically elementary and secondary education, the hierarchical approach of a top down leadership style has been the accepted norm with the principal as the figurehead of the school. In the past, the principal served the role of a manager and not a leader. However, in today’s changing educational climate of accountability and high stakes testing, the principal’s role continues to evolve into one of an instructional leader first who also has managerial duties. Cheney and Davis (2011) acknowledge this changing role stating “The job has evolved into a highly complex and demanding

According to the authors of this article (Donaldson, Marnik, Mackenzie, & Ackerman, 2009), principals need to concentrate on the development of skills and behaviors in order to be successful in motivating, leading, and changing the direction of a school. The successful principal understands that there exists a fine balance of caring for others and the need to accomplish specific tasks (Donaldson, Marnik, Mackenzie, & Ackerman, 2009).