A principal interest: leading for learning in high school consolidation
type: CreativeWork
description: The growing body of research on school consolidation does not detail the role of the high school principal. This revelatory case study examined a principal in an Illinois high school during the first year of consolidation. Furthermore, this study is informed by two separate bodies of literature. The first relates to school district consolidation. The second body of literature framing this study emanates from the leadership for learning literature. Ultimately, understanding any influence the principal exerts on student learning within the context of school district consolidation is of notable interest to legislators, state education officials, local community residents, and school administrators confronted with the reality of school consolidation. Using a case study design, I drew upon interview, observation, and document review to analyze the data from this revelatory case. Four research questions framed this study: (a) how does the high school principal maintain a focus on student learning in the first year of a school district consolidation; (b) what factors facilitate or support the principal’s ability to maintain a focus on student learning; (c) what factors inhibit or are barriers to the principal’s ability to maintain a focus on student learning; and (d) does leadership for learning as a conceptual framework inform the principal’s practice and focus on student learning in the first year of a school district consolidation? I examined the influence of school consolidation on the principal’s ability to maintain the school’s focus on student learning in a newly consolidated high school. To guide my data collection and analysis, I utilized a conceptual framework developed by Knapp, Copland, Ford et al. (2003), leadership for learning, which based on five areas that learning-focused leaders address: (a) establishing a focus on learning; (b) building professional communities that take learning seriously; (c) engaging external environments that matter for learning; (d…
abstract: The growing body of research on school consolidation does not detail the role of the high school principal. This revelatory case study examined a principal in an Illinois high school during the first year of consolidation. Furthermore, this study is informed by two separate bodies of literature. The first relates to school district consolidation. The second body of literature framing this study emanates from the leadership for learning literature. Ultimately, understanding any influence the principal exerts on student learning within the context of school district consolidation is of notable interest to legislators, state education officials, local community residents, and school administrators confronted with the reality of school consolidation. Using a case study design, I drew upon interview, observation, and document review to analyze the data from this revelatory case. Four research questions framed this study: (a) how does the high school principal maintain a focus on student learning in the first year of a school district consolidation; (b) what factors facilitate or support the principal’s ability to maintain a focus on student learning; (c) what factors inhibit or are barriers to the principal’s ability to maintain a focus on student learning; and (d) does leadership for learning as a conceptual framework inform the principal’s practice and focus on student learning in the first year of a school district consolidation? I examined the influence of school consolidation on the principal’s ability to maintain the school’s focus on student learning in a newly consolidated high school. To guide my data collection and analysis, I utilized a conceptual framework developed by Knapp, Copland, Ford et al. (2003), leadership for learning, which based on five areas that learning-focused leaders address: (a) establishing a focus on learning; (b) building professional communities that take learning seriously; (c) engaging external environments that matter for learning; (d…
author: Thurman, Lance
language: en
keywords: school consolidation, leadership, learning, culture, communication, Governance
date published: 2012-05-22T00:27:16Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:25:30Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/31090