ORCID Identifier(s)

0000-0002-9668-1589

Graduation Semester and Year

2018

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

Department

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

First Advisor

Graham Casey Brown

Abstract

Principals newly assigned to a campus often begin their work by talking with staff, reviewing data, and evaluating the organizational structure with which they were entrusted (Daresh & Alexander, 2015). Common areas for review include campus budget, student performance on state and federal testing, overall operating systems such as the school bell schedule, school culture, and campus operating systems for communication (Daresh & Alexander, 2015). From this review, principals design action plans that they believe best fit the needs of the campus. The effectiveness of the principals’ action plans generally is based on quantitative student performance data from state and federal assessments (Coburn, Hill, & Spillane, 2016; Grissom, Kalogrides, & Loeb, 2015). However, these data sets can be void of input from the teachers, who are responsible for implementing the principals’ action plans (Noddings, 2015). Knowledge of teachers' experiences can provide additional information for principals to use in calculating the true effectiveness of their action plan. An action plan aspect often used by principals is the implementation of a new school schedule. In this study, I sought to examine the experiences of teachers who experienced a campus-wide schedule change from a semester schedule to a trimester schedule. The participants of this phenomenological study were employed at a school that previously was not performing at a level equal to schools in the state comparison group on state assessments. Due to low student achievement, school leaders explored pathways to improve instruction and changed the school schedule from a semester schedule to a trimester schedule in hopes of improving student and teacher performance. The perceptions of 11 educators who participated in the organizational change of the school schedule from a semester schedule to a trimester schedule were examined. The specific areas of exploration included the experiences of teachers in the areas of campus culture, tutoring, and remediation of students. The study also included an examination of the experiences with professional collaboration among colleagues. The relevance of this research lies in the ability to understand better how teachers experience the change of schedules from a semester schedule to a trimester schedule. Through this understanding, administrators will have additional knowledge to use as they continue to lead schools and make similar school reform decisions.

Keywords

Trimester schedule, Teachers

Disciplines

Education | Educational Leadership

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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