Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School

Education

Advisor

James Bailey

Abstract

The achievement gap between students with disabilities and their nondisabled peers continues to be a major issue in most school systems across the United States, with this gap expanding as students move from elementary to middle school. Using the distributed leadership framework, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore middle school principals’ perspectives on leadership practices within their instructional leadership teams that improved the academic achievement of students with disabilities. Researchers have demonstrated that distributed leadership is embodied through the collaboration of school leaders, followers, and their situation to influence organizational and instructional changes. The research question focused on middle school principals’ perspectives on distributed leadership practices to increase academic achievement for students with disabilities. The data were collected through semistructured interviews with eight middle school principals in a Mid-Atlantic urban school district who were selected using purposive sampling and demonstrated positive academic growth trends for students with disabilities. Data were analyzed using axial coding for emergent themes. Results showed that middle school principals used collaboration, co-planning, formal and informal leadership roles, schoolwide tools and routines, and the use of a master schedule to distribute leadership within their instructional leadership teams to increase the academic performance of students with disabilities. Middle school principals can use the strategies identified in this study to assist with narrowing the achievement gap for students with disabilities by focusing on collaborative approaches, which allow students to learn more effectively and efficiently, creating positive social change.

Download

Share

 
COinS