Developing school principals who make a difference for literacy achievement

The project was funded by the Australian Government as part of its Literacy and Numeracy Pilots in Low SES Communities Initiative. APPA in turn, through the South Australian Department of Education and Children's Services, commissioned a research team from Edith Cowan, Australian Catholic and Griffith Universities to develop a two year program to support principals leading learning in their schools. Congratulations must go to the universities for the quality of the work developed and also to the education jurisdictions in the Northern Territory, South Australia, Western Australian and Queensland for enthusiastically involving fifteen of their schools to be part of the pilot. The uniqueness of the overall team involved in PALL should not be underestimated nor overlooked. From the research, we know that the role of the principal is a key factor in the effectiveness of students learning to read at school. However, APPA believed that the support for this role through a strategic professional development program had never been effectively addressed. This was the foundation for the PALL Pilot project. This report provides a systematic way of evaluating the effectiveness of the program. What is hard to record are the numerous comments received from principals outside the project thanking APPA for this initiative and requesting how they could be involved. Our sincere thanks must go to Leonie Trimper who initiated this work and was President of APPA at the time and John Binks-Williams who undertook the role of Project Manager. Christine Perri and Ann Williams must also be highly praised for the administrative role they played to ensure the program was successful. The report is significant and deserves attention from all levels of government. We believe that the PALL project is an excellent example of the quality professional learning programs that all principals deserve to receive. The research also indicates that there are insufficient resources in primary schools to enable all of the most needy students to receive the support they need to learn to read. This finding is supported in previous research conducted by APPA including In The Balance: The future of Australia's primary schools and Targeting High-Support Students in Primary Schools.

ABSTRACT This paper reports on Australian case study research in schools where principals completed the Principals as Literacy Leaders (PALL) program. The purpose was to gather data about the effects of PALL on principals’ leadership and the impact of interventions in Reading on teaching, student learning, and achievement. Data gathering included interviews with principals, leadership teams and teachers (parents in some schools), a student survey and examples, and reading progress data. Findings indicated that PALL had impacted positively on principals’ leadership and provided a framework to lead their teachers in ways that improved teaching practice, student engagement and learning.

The Reading Teacher, 2020

Teaching is a profession that requires ongoing professional development and learning. This ongoing learning can take place in professional learning communities, in structured professional development settings, and in literacy coaching contexts. This department highlights the ongoing professional development of literacy teachers.

Elementary School Journal, 2018

Elementary and secondary principals were surveyed to better understand their perceptions of the roles and impact of specialized literacy professionals (e.g., reading specialists, coaches) in their schools. A 32-question survey was completed by 103 Pennsylvania principals across elementary and secondary school contexts. Findings include distinct differences reported between roles of read-ing/literacy specialists and coaches, with few differences noted within roles, across elementary and secondary levels. The frequency and type of specialized literacy professional activities aligned with those principals deemed most important to literacy program improvement. Results indicated that surveyed principals viewed their specialized literacy professionals as having an important influence on literacy teaching and learning. The results have implications for those who prepare specialized literacy professionals and those who employ them. These findings corroborate and update earlier studies of specialized literacy professionals that described their multiple roles, including that of sharing in the leadership of the school's literacy program. Rita M. Bean university of pittsburgh Allison Swan Dagen west virginia university Jacy Ippolito salem state university Diane Kern university of rhode island the elementary scho ol journal

This study investigates how the role of the reading specialist (RS) is defined and communicated by principals, and examines to what degree a common understanding of this role exists among teachers, building administrators and reading specialists. The principal' s responsibility in defining and communicating role, and the effect these efforts have on job satisfaction and specialists' perceived effectiveness is also studied. Eight elementary schools in the western part of New York State (USA) are studied. Based on interviews with principals and reading specialists and surveys completed by principals, reading specialists, and teachers, the following themes emerge: a) Principal leadership was essential in defining the RS role; b) A clearly defined RS role was associated with greater RS satisfaction and perceptions of effectiveness as well as greater teacher compliance; c) Greater teacher compliance with a school' s literacy program did not affect beliefs about the proper role of RSs; d) Lack of a clearly defined role in a school was associated with role conflict and role ambiguity for reading specialists; e) Reading specialists, even without coaching responsibilities, served as a resource to teachers, although no time was allocated in their schedule to do so; f) Reading specialists faced challenges due to increased accountability and assessment demands affected by policy, demographics, and accountability requirements. It is concluded that principals must assume responsibility for defining and communicating the reading specialist role within their schools to strengthen literacy programming.

2005

School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 2020

This article discusses the impact of a professional learning activity called the Principals as Literacy Leaders (PALL) program on the capacity of school leaders to engage, involve, and support teachers and their school communities to develop a shared moral purpose for making their school more effective in assisting students to become more able readers. It uses data collected from participants in the PALL program together with case study data collected from five Tasmanian schools to analyse the actions by school leaders to develop a shared moral purpose related to facilitating higher levels of student learning in reading. The study shows that school leaders felt more capable in their ability to lead their schools after completing the program and that the development of a shared moral purpose led to improved teaching practices and higher levels of student engagement, students' ability to talk about their learning, and better achievement in reading.

School of Education at Gardner-Webb University. P.O. Box 7304, Bolling Springs, NC 28017. Tel: 704-406-4295; e-mail: library@gardner-webb.edu; Web site: http://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/joel/, 2020

nrconline.org

Over the past two decades, new perspectives on leadership in education have emerged. Research literature documents the growing number of leadership roles played both formally and informally by teachers and demonstrates how they contribute to instructional improvement and ...