Date of Conferral

3-18-2026

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School

Education

Advisor

Robert Flanders

Abstract

The problem that was addressed through this study is that faith-based school leaders are challenged to support teachers to address student achievement gaps following the COVID-19 pandemic. Grounded in Bass’s transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate strategies veteran faith-based school leaders use to support teachers in addressing student achievement gaps in six Ohio districts that had a minimum of 50 students. For this basic qualitative design, semistructured interviews were conducted with one faith-based school leader from each of the six Ohio districts. Thematic coding yielded four themes encompassing the strategies that veteran faith-based school leaders provide: (a) academic support, (b) collaboration, (c) communication, and (d) encouragement. The results must be interpreted with caution as data saturation could not be reached. Although each participating school leader indicated some strategies, none provided evidence of all the strategies that emerged from the themes. Therefore, school leaders might be able to strengthen their support of teachers when participating in professional development. Consequently, a 3-day professional development program was developed for school leaders, which focuses on aligning their transformational leadership goals with academic support, collaboration, communication, and encouragement. School leaders who are better trained might be able to support teachers, which, in turn, might benefit the students.

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