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Academic Leadership Journal
Number of Followers: 39

This is an Open Access Journal

Open Access journal
ISSN (Print) 1533-7812
Published by Fort Hays State University

[2 journals]

“It takes more than brown paint to portray a realistic African American
character”: Lessons Learned about Teaching Multicultural Literature
- Authors: Theresa Adkins
  Abstract: The documentary “Waiting for ‘Superman’” shines a light on many issues in public education. The film was released too much fanfare in late September of 2010. It received a lot of media attention and seemed to get everyone talking about American education and how to fix its problems. NBC’s television networks went so far as to dedicate an entire week of programming to the topic of education. Their “Education Week” aired several town hall meetings and debates with leaders in education. However, “Education Week” ended and with it so ended the mainstream media’s coverage of education reform. I had hoped the DVD release of “Waiting for ‘Superman’” this past February would again provide a spark of awareness to the many challenges that face America’s public education system and allow a wider audience to view this eye opening film. Regretfully, the DVD release without much fanfare, being snubbed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science for a best documentary Oscar nomination didn’t help either. I still believe this is an important film and it can help make substantive changes to our country’s public education system. What follows if my review of two of the films main messages; importance of quality teachers and effectiveness of charter schools.
  PubDate: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:28:11 PDT
Waiting for ‘Superman’: A Review and Commentary
- Authors: Tony Durr
  Abstract: With the advent of the global economy and high-speed Internet, online collaboration is fast becoming the norm in education and industry [1]. Information technology (IT) creates many new inter-relationships among businesses, expands the scope of industries in which a company must compete to achieve competitive advantage. Information systems and technology allow companies to coordinate their activities in distant geographic locations [2]. IT is providing the infrastructure necessary to support the development of new collaboration forms among industry and education. Virtual research and development (R&D) teams represent one such relational form, one that could revolutionize the workplace and provide organizations with unprecedented levels of flexibility and responsiveness [3-4]. Virtual teams give many advantages to organizations, including increased knowledge sharing [5] and improve organizational performance [6]. Virtual teams have altered the expectations and boundaries of knowledge worker’s interactions. Many R&D organizations and teams currently use a specialized knowledge portal for research collaboration and knowledge management [7]. Hence, the move towards a virtual world is becoming ever more relevant to industry and education as organizations outsource activities across national geographic boundaries [8].
  PubDate: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:28:05 PDT
Virtual R&D Teams: A potential growth of education-industry
collaboration
- Authors: Nale Ebrahim et al.
  Abstract: Both the professional literature and non-academic resources are replete with references to both the successes and failures of the current state of education. There is very little doubt that education is receiving intense scrutiny from a variety of sources and in regard to numerous aspects of its implementation. A primary focus of this examination has been the teacher work force, specifically its effectiveness in promoting measurable student growth and achievement. While this is a natural and imperative center of the investigation, it also encompasses ancillary issues, such as the manner in which the teachers are prepared to assume their instructional roles, and to what extent they are continuing to augment their professional development and effectiveness once they enter the classroom setting. Issues such as these clearly draw teacher preparation programs at the higher education level into the conversation. To address these concerns, conventional teacher education programs are being analyzed as to their efficacy and practical application to real world demands.
  PubDate: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:28:01 PDT
Trends toward Alternative Teaching Certification and Compensation in
Special Education: Considerations and Implications for Traditional Teacher
Preparation Programs
- Authors: Theresa Quigney
  Abstract: Within a framework of trust markets, this study compares expenses, instructional expenses, and revenues per FTE of not-for-profit and for-profit postsecondary institutions using IPEDS data. Median expenses per FTE at not-for-profit institutions were double those at the for-profit institutions. Median revenue beyond instructional expenses increased at the 4-year-and-above level institutions while decreasing at other levels. Percent of revenue allocated to instructional expenses, other expenses, and excess revenue is presented. Surprisingly, 4-year-and-above, not-for-profit institutions generate more excess revenue per FTE than 4-year-and-above for-profit institutions. Implications of the nondistribution constraint for trust markets and the policy implications of these findings are discussed.
  PubDate: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:27:55 PDT
Trends in Expenses and Revenues at Not-for-profit and For-profit
Postsecondary Institutions: The Nondistribution Constraint and the Future
of the Trust Market
- Authors: Bonnie Fox-Garrity et al.
  Abstract: In the United States, every child has the right to an education and is required by law to attend school. The government provides an enormous number of public schools throughout the country, free of charge, in order to ensure education for all, yet there are families who choose to homeschool their children instead. Hill (2010) explains that “homeschooling is not a new phenomenon. In colonial days families, including wealthy ones, educated their children at home, combining the efforts of parents, tutors, and older children” (p.1). He goes on to mention how colonial rural one-room schoolhouses provided a place for the children of several families to study together under the direction of a teacher who implemented their personal program of instruction.
  PubDate: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:27:50 PDT
Trend and Data Analysis of Homeschooling
- Authors: Danielle Geary
  Abstract: Since the inception of the No Child Left Behind legislation, school districts have been faced with a growing need to gather, analyze and monitor more data than ever before in their leadership of schools (Blink, 2007; Kowalski, Lasley & Mahoney, 2008; Mills, 2006). The adage that schools are “data rich” and “information poor”, while comical, is often true. School systems are awash in data and drowning is a real concern for new and soon-to-be leaders. The critical task for school leaders is to turn existing student achievement data into a format that lends itself to answering questions and improving outcomes for the students. Common barriers to transforming data into knowledge in educational settings often include poorly designed or non-existent data systems, disorganized record management, and temperamental gatekeepers who withhold data to preserve power, or personnel who simply fail to ask the right questions of the available data (Mills, 2006). Using data effectively does not require great statistical knowledge or high-priced analytical tools. It simply requires a desire to improve outcomes for students, staff, and school and a willingness to stop doing the same things and hoping for a different outcome (aka superstitious behavior). The ultimate goal for the training program delivered to students in the Masters in School Administration (MSA) program was to empower future principals to have the knowledge and skills to go beyond the usage of static reports and simple data views to develop skill and understanding of data as a dynamic entity to help support their leadership focus.
  PubDate: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:27:45 PDT
Transforming Data into Knowledge
- Authors: Lane Mills et al.
  Abstract: Hans Selye, the first major researcher of stress coined the word ‘stress’ in 1936 and defined it as “a non-specific response of the body to any demand for change”. Selye (1974) is of the view that stress is a facet of life which human beings cannot avoid. In fact he confidently declares that “total freedom from stress is death” Selye (1976) stated that stress in moderate levels enhances function. Kaplan and Sadock (2000) in their study on students also found out that moderate stress among students enhances learning ability. Pfeiffer (2001) emphasizes that stress helps students to peak their performance. However, stressors become a problem when they are excessive and tend to decrease the function of the individual.
  PubDate: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:27:40 PDT
The Types and Incidence of Stressors of Students in the University of
Ghana-Legon
- Authors: Samuel Atindanbila et al.
  Abstract: Over the past two decades, theorists and researchers have consistently cited the importance of effective school leadership in relation to improved educational outcomes (Fullan, 2002; Hallinger & Heck, 1998; Leithwood, Jantzi, & Steinbach, 1999; Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom, 2004). The Wallace Foundation recently commissioned an exhaustive research project on the relationships between school leadership and student learning, and the authors concluded that “when principals and teachers share leadership, teachers’ working relationships with one another are stronger and student achievement is higher” (Louis, Leithwood, Wahlstrom, & Anderson, 2010, p. 282).
  PubDate: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:27:35 PDT
Teachers’ Perceptions of the Leadership Styles of Middle School
Principals and Instructional Leaders
- Authors: Jessica Devine et al.
  Abstract: Grade inflation has been a “hot topic” in the higher education literature for some time now, due primarily to conflicting interpretations of grade-change data. While definitions of grade inflation vary, most seem to indicate that inflation has occurred if a higher grade is awarded without a co-occurring increase in student achievement, and is the outcome of decreased rigor in the assessment of student learning (see Boretz 2004; Young and ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education 2003). Thus, the controversy is in regard to whether or not reported changes in GPA and grade distributions reflect instructor leniency.
  PubDate: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:27:29 PDT
Reconsidering Grade Inflation in Higher Education
- Authors: Megan McCall
  Abstract: Organizational climate is the human environment within which an organization’s employees do their work. It may refer to the environment within a department or in an entire organization. We cannot see climate or touch it, but it is there. In turn climate is affected by every thing that is occurring in an organization (Davis & Newstrom 1985). According to Andrew (1971) the term climate is used to design the quality of internal environment which conditions in turn the quality of cooperation, the development of individual, the extent of members’ dedication or commitment to organization’s purposes, and the efficiency with which those purposes are translated into results. Climate is an atmosphere in which individuals help, judge, reward, constrain, and find out about each other.
  PubDate: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:27:24 PDT
Principals’ Behavior and Job Satisfaction of Secondary School
Teachers
- Authors: Azhar Chaudhary
  Abstract: Without question, the concept and practice of shared governance is critical to the health and vitality of any institution of higher education. Perhaps no other characteristic distinguishes American higher education more than this system of participatory governance and oversight. Democratic involvement in institutional decision-making, both operational and strategic, and at the institutional, school, and even academic department level, is necessary for institutional effectiveness and efficiency (Eckel, 2000). However, the issue is not without controversy, as shared governance is second only to tenure as most debated topic in academe (Tierney & Holley, 2005).
  PubDate: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:27:19 PDT
Modeling Shared Governance at the School and Department Level
- Authors: Charles Harrington et al.
  Abstract: The article explores social capital and culturally responsive leadership theories as a means to understand and bridge differences that arise in diverse educational settings for public school leaders. Issues explored include those related to the educational histories and cultural heritages that students and stakeholders bring with them to the educational setting. More specifically, the article illuminates how the merging of social capital and culturally responsive leadership theories as a conceptual framework for leadership can lead to not only student achievement, but also positive social networking and relationships among school leaders, teachers, and students. Emphasis is placed on the notion that in order for school leaders to close the achievement gap, they must first close the opportunity gap.
  PubDate: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:27:14 PDT
It Is Simple, But Not Easy–Culturally Responsive Leadership and Social
Capital: A Framework for Closing the Opportunity Gap
- Authors: Alisa Taliaferro
  Abstract: Instructional designers are not often found in a public school setting. However, the leadership an instructional designer can provide, especially as part of a professional learning community (PLC), could help achieve the transformational change for which many schools are looking. With the issues cited by Hoyle and Kutka (2008) in public education today, such as the drop out rate and increased necessity for remedial coursework at the college level, the need for effective instructional design practices being implemented by high school teachers is great. However, as Moallem (1998) notes, “Teachers’ use of instructional design practices is not encouraging (Driscoll, 1989; Martin, 1990). Research on teacher planning and decision-making processes (e.g., Brown, 1988; Kagan, 1992; Reynolds, 1992; Shavelson, 1983) revealed that teachers typically do not plan and provide instruction in accordance with [instructional design] procedures” (p. 38). Change is required if education is to meet the rapidly changing needs of society today. Evidence is building that change in instructive practice does not occur unless faculty become involved in leadership, including professional development and professional learning communities (Bezzina, 2006; Colbert, Brown, Choi, & Thomas, 2008; Pijanowski, 2010). The implementation of professional learning communities (PLCs) in a public school requires leadership from both administration and from faculty. While it may seem counterintuitive, guidance and direction from the faculty is more important than the management of the administration. Specifically, an instructional designer would have a vital role in the success of a professional learning community striving toward transformative instructional change, and should be part of the faculty team.
  PubDate: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:27:08 PDT
Instructional Designers as Leaders in Professional Learning Communities:
Catalysts for Transformative Change
- Authors: Shari Smith
  Abstract: When it comes to gifted and talented education, once a student has been identified as gifted, educators make it a priority to push them to higher levels of thinking. Higher thinking is one of the desires of these gifted students, however the emotional needs of gifted students can often be lost as they are driven to focus on their academic abilities (Johnson, 2001). Often times the assumption about gifted students is that they come from a two parent home and that they will make good grades no matter what. The following modified verbatim examples will show the impact of not meeting the emotional needs of gifted students. The first case study, by Kayleen Williams, points out how gifted students often comedown on themselves too hard when they come across their first academic challenge (Edmunds, 2005). The following three case studies, by Emily Sketch, Nima Tahai and Kristi Rutter, show how gifted students often have to find a source of motivation after being engaged in gifted programs for a relatively long period. The final case study, by Kelli Cohen, reveals how a student almost completed his graduate studies with unidentified social problems. They will also demonstrate the transformation that takes place when the person within the gifted child is ministered to.
  PubDate: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:27:03 PDT
Gifted Is as Gifted Does
- Authors: Theresa Monaco
  Abstract: In the last decades, interest in instructional process has drawn the attention of linguists to classroom discourse studies (Lee, 2007; Chen, 2007; Hall, 2007; Macbeth, 2004). Such growing attention has been attributed to the importance associated with verbal discourse in meaning making (Chin, 2006). Chin further notes that a common ground available in the literature on pedagogical discourse is the three-turn sequence interaction called “triadic dialogue” (Lemke, 1990 cited in Macbeth, 2004), or Initiation Response Evaluation (IRE) (Menham ,1979 cited in Chin, 2006), or Initiation Response Feedback (IRF) (Sinclair & Coulthard, 1975 cited in Macbeth, 2004). In other words, a classroom interaction primarily comprise of three actions: the teacher’s initiation of questions, learners’ responses’, and the teacher’s feedback on the correctness of the responses. The three-part move in a classroom discourse provides teachers the opportunity to ask questions which require predetermined low- order cognitive level short answers (Chin, 2006).
  PubDate: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:26:57 PDT
Communicative Functions of Repair on Nigerian Students’
Participation in Computer Studies
- Authors: Alaba Agbatogun
  Abstract: Doctorate programs in educational leadership have been criticized in recent years for failing to prepare their graduates to effectively serve as instructional leaders in the nation’s schools. Criticisms have included ambiguity of purpose and research foci, weak admission and graduation requirements, irrelevant curriculum, and the lack of applied practice. The purpose of this study was to analyze specific characteristics of thirteen highly ranked applied doctorate programs in educational leadership. Findings revealed that touchstone doctorate programs display many of the features that have been criticized, and that they are largely similar in structure and foci to lower ranked programs.
  PubDate: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:26:52 PDT
Characterizing the Touchstones of Educational Leadership: An Analysis of
Distinguished Applied Doctorate Programs
- Authors: Julie Carlson et al.
  Abstract: Organizations are ever-present feature of a modern society. We look toward organization for food, education, employment, entertainment, healthcare, transportation and protection of basic rights. Nearly every aspect of modern life is influenced in one way or another by organization. Organizations are social entities that enable people to work together to achieve objectives. Job satisfaction refers to certain experiences and qualities that are related to the ways a person thinks and feels. The feeling of worthwhileness, which an individual has in particular in an occupational position, can be called job satisfaction.
  PubDate: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:26:47 PDT
Career Satisfaction of Public Secondary School Teachers in Pakistan
- Authors: Azhar Chaudhary
  Abstract: Strong and healthy collegial relationships among educators is believed to be a vital element in enhancing school effectiveness and school improvement. Numerous benefits from teacher collegiality have been reported as evidence of the need for building a more effective collegial culture in schools. Regrouping among teachers to promote collaboration in teaching and new configurations of teacher collegiality constitute integral parts of constructive schools (Johnson, 1990). However, in spite of its numerous benefits, collegiality is still a rare element in most schools (Bruffee, 1999; Heider, 2005). This article elucidates some of the common barriers to collegiality among school teachers.
  PubDate: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:26:42 PDT
Barriers to Teacher Collegiality
- Authors: Madiha Shah
  Abstract: According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2010) there is a significant disparity in life expectance rates between Caucasian males and ethnic minority males in the United States, resulting from factors that include nutrition. While the employment outlook for dietitians and nutritionists is expected to grow by 9.24% through 2018, to approximately 65,000, the percentage of self-employed professionals within the sector is expected to decrease slightly from 8.81% to 8.49% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010).
  PubDate: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:26:37 PDT
An Opportunity for Higher Education: Using Social Entrepreneurship
Instruction to Mitigate Social Problems
- Authors: Matthew Kenney
  Abstract: Ten elementary school teachers and one Spanish teacher enrolled in Multicultural Children’s and Adolescent Literature expecting to develop a long list of books for their classroom libraries that featured people with brown and black faces. Generally, coming into the course, their primary criterion for appropriate multicultural literature was that it included characters of color. These teachers, students in a graduate reading program, noted repeatedly in course reflection papers and online discussions that they never considered issues of power, privilege, and authenticity in the media in general and in literature in particular prior to their experience in the course. By the end of the course, however, these teachers understood the rationale for selecting multicultural literature from a more critical perspective and gained some strategies to begin to apply their new knowledge in their own classrooms.
  PubDate: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 15:26:33 PDT

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