Dissertation
SCHOOL PRINCIPALS' REASSIGNMENT UNDER RACE TO THE TOP LEGISLATION: WASHINGTON STATE PRINCIPALS' SENSE MAKING AND AFFECTIVE EXPERIENCES
Doctor of Education (EdD), Washington State University
01/2015
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/5514
Abstract
The purpose of this qualitative interview study was to explore how K-12 public school principals in Washington State "made sense" of the experience of being reassigned under the provisions of Washington State's version of RTTT. The research questions this study attempted to answer were: (a) How do principals describe what happened when they were reassigned? (b) How did principals work with staff, students, district, and community around the issue of being reassigned? (c) How did reassignment impact principals emotionally, personally, and professionally? (d) What are principals' evaluations of this type of policy approach? And (e) What were the human costs/benefits associated with reassignment? Conceptual frames related to human costs (Rice & Malen, 2003), sensemaking (Weick, 1995, 2005, & 2007), and Kübler-Ross's Grief Construct (1969) were used to guide the study. Extensive in-depth interviews were conducted with six selected principal participants to explore their experiences of reassignment. The major themes that emerged from the data analysis were (a) costs of reassignment associated with RTTT policy implementation, (b) principal critique of this type of policy approach, and (c) the sensemaking journey of each principal impacted by reassignment. This study found that reassignment had substantial impacts on principals, their critiques of the policy included: (a) unintended consequences; (b) the number of years required to successfully turn around a low-performing school; (c) lack of alignment with good practice in schools; (d) SIG grants' failure to demonstrate notable benefits to students; (e) the mistake of funding education through competitive means; and (f) the importance of political action and principal "voice" in shaping education policy.
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Details
- Title
- SCHOOL PRINCIPALS' REASSIGNMENT UNDER RACE TO THE TOP LEGISLATION: WASHINGTON STATE PRINCIPALS' SENSE MAKING AND AFFECTIVE EXPERIENCES
- Creators
- Carole Lynne Meyer
- Contributors
- Gail Furman (Advisor)Joan Kingrey (Committee Member)Michele Acker-Hocevar (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Educational Leadership, Sport Studies, and Educational/Counseling Psychology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Education (EdD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 172
- Identifiers
- 99900581528601842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation