Date of Award

Fall 2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Committee Chair

Stephen Laws

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the phenomenon of school turnaround through an examination of educator perceptions of the implementation of Voelkel’s (2014) framework for professional learning communities (PLCs), collective efficacy, and transformational leadership, which provided the theoretical framework for the study. This study explored the processes that take place in one of the previously lowest-performing elementary schools in the state to explore the patterns of behavior and beliefs of the team engaged in the work of turnaround. During this study, 19 educators completed a 25-question survey instrument with a 5-point Likert scale that measured the aforementioned constructs of collective efficacy, PLCs, and leadership. Grade level, exceptional children (EC), and curriculum team focus groups with four to six members each were conducted to give breadth to the quantitative data. Quantitative and qualitative data collection and analyses were followed up by another review of the literature to determine congruent themes. The findings of this study show that data-based decisions made through strong PLC collegiality, along with strong administrative leadership, are cornerstones for school improvement at the studied turnaround school.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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