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The site selected was Executive Education Academy Charter school, a K-11 public charter school within the Allentown School District.  The school was established in 2013 as an alternative to the current public schools serving local school districts in the area.  The school currently serves approximately 770 students, with a 17:1 teacher to student ratio.

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Outside of the requirement of meeting AYP and standardized testing standards, little is known about principal beliefs and perceptions that drive the leadership actions, practices and daily routines that affect the school community, teacher effectiveness and overall student achievement.

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The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the impact of principal’s perceptions of future educational trends and the effects on overall student achievement in urban, Title I school communities. There is little known about the principal’s perception toward future educational trends and the direct result on student achievement.  In addition, there is even less evidence related to students that fall into the category of historically underperforming demographics or as a comparison between public and charter schools.  This narrative research will address this topic and describe the relationship between principal belief based actions and student performance.

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a.     How does a principal’s perception of future trends in education influence their transformational actions about curriculum design?

b.     How do the actions a principal based on his/her thinking about future trends affect the daily routines and behavior of the school community?

c.     What transformational leadership practices does the principal use to increase interactions between principals and teachers and improve instructional practices?

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One-on-one personal interviews:
Conducted with three members of the administrative team.  This team serves collectively as a traditional school principal & superintendent.

Participant A: CEO of school responsible for overall vision, mission and planning

Participant B: COO of school responsible for architecture of design and organizational managment

Participant C: Chief curriculum officer in charge of curricular instruction & teacher development

Focus group, Participants F-a through F-d: team lead teachers

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First Cycle Coding: In vivo coding, descriptive coding
Second Cycle Coding: Tabletop Categorizing for theme

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Result Three:  Leadership practices used to improve communication result in opposing perceptions of effectiveness in improving instructional and collaborative practices.

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Result Three:  Leadership practices used to improve communication result in opposing perceptions of effectiveness in improving instructional and collaborative practices.

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Focus group consensus: “We have to use a buffer, in between, but I like more hands on kind of feedback, so I could have addressed (issues) with the person as opposed to giving it to my manager.”

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Based upon findings

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Result One: The administration’s perception of future trends toward curriculum and school culture design can create an imbalance during implementation, effectively working against transformational actions for student success. 

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Result One: The administration’s perception of future trends toward curriculum and school culture design can create an imbalance during implementation, effectively working against transformational actions for student success. 

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Participant A: “there’s not a bunch of red tape, if we see a broken system we’re going to change it…in flash or on the fly.”  vs. Participant F-c: “not really sure what to expect…during gigantic huge steps that turn everything on its

ear.  Teachers can’t use what they’ve done the year before, gathered data is now no

good because we’re changing the way we’re assessing. We are not unstable but it

gives the sense of being unstable,”

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Communication.
The largest area of concern for lead teachers is a perceived breakdown in the communication process between upper and lower leaders.
Instruction before Implementation
To combat these events, I propose using the weekly professional development meetings to instruct, assess and model any new directives prior to implementation.

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Result Two:  Daily leadership action provides a foundational framework for an entire school community.

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Result Two:  Daily leadership action provides a foundational framework for an entire school community.

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Participant B: “we are going through this journey all at once so it’s not we talk about rules from

authority, so we’re all saying, we’re doing this.  The school culture gives everyone, even kids, a voice.”