Successful Leadership in High-Needs Schools: An Examination of Core Leadership Practices Enacted in Challenging Contexts

• In Event: Leading Change in Schools

Abstract

In this paper we present a cross-case analysis of principal leadership in three diverse, high-poverty, rural middle schools in the southeastern United States. Specifically, we examine the ways in which these principals enacted core leadership practices in concert with their immediate contexts to support student achievement. We compiled the cases using quantitative and qualitative research instruments adapted from the International Successful School Principals’ Project. Our findings explicate the large degree to which the leadership practices and beliefs that influenced student achievement and reduced achievement gaps in these schools were commensurate with the immediate contexts and broader social conditions, and reflective of the principals’ previous experiences. We conclude our paper with implications for practice and further research.

Authors

• Hans W. Klar, Clemson University

• Curtis Anthony Brewer, Clemson University

• Jane Clark Lindle, Clemson University

• Robert Charles Knoeppel, Clemson University

• Marissa Whitehouse, Clemson University

• Amanda Bell Werts, Appalachian State University

• Emily R. Green, Clemson University