Leadership and Decision-Making Skills of High Poverty Elementary School Principals in an Era of Reduced Resources

     I am recruiting retired principals from high poverty (title 1) elementary schools in Oregon to participate in this study.  I have IRB approval from Portland State University.  Please contact me at kspooner123@gmail.com if you are interested.

ABSTRACT

Recently, a great deal of interest has been generated around the role of principal and its effectiveness, especially its impact on improving teacher instruction and student learning. Waters, Marzano, and McNulty (2003) concluded that one quarter of all “school effects” on achievement can be attributed to principals. While there is general agreement on the principal’s importance and affect, do we understand how principals have adapted to changes in schools with reduced resources and increased learning needs of students?  How have principals made decisions in an environment where resources have been reduced over time?  Given the stories of principals from high poverty elementary schools, the purpose of this narrative inquiry is to describe the leadership and decision-making skills principals employed when having to respond to decreasing resources and the need for increased student achievement. Participants in the study will include retired principals from high poverty elementary schools who were employed during the time period extending from 2008 through 2014.  Findings from the study should make sense of the meanings elementary principals have constructed and attached to the phenomena of  decision making in times of financial reduction in order to help other principals who have been challenged by similar circumstances.