A New Politics of the Principalship? Accountability-Driven Change in New York City

Shipps, Dorothy; White, Monica A.

doi:10.1080/01619560902973563

Cited by 35 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…For instance, we are still identifying ways to obtain information on multiple accountabilities. Shipps and White (2009) used the critical incident technique, asking principals to describe the multiple accountabilities influencing single decisions. The critical incident approach highlights conflicting accountabilities and provides less opportunity to describe internal accountability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educational tug‐of‐war: internal and external accountability of principals in varied contexts

González

Firestone

2013

Journal of Educational Administration

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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -Principals face shifting accountability pressures from many sources. The most notable recent change in the USA has been the growing pressure from state and federal government. The purpose of this study is to explore the extent to which the accountability pressures experienced by principals in one American state were the same as those reported in research documenting "objective" changes in those pressures. Design/methodology/approach -This qualitative study uses interviews with New Jersey middle school principals. The purposeful sample includes principals who had been in their buildings at least three years and enhances variation on socioeconomic status (as measured by New Jersey's rating of "district factor groups") and school achievement. The authors averaged three years of achievement data and controlled for variation in poverty, ethnicity, language proficiency, and enrollment. A total of 37 principals were contacted; 25 were interviewed. Principals first rank ordered seven sources of accountability. They were then interviewed to learn why the one they ranked highest was most important. Findings -The most frequent top source of accountability was "your own conscience." Principals who selected this option highlighted a sense of personal responsibility, responsibility to the children in their charge, and how conscience mediates among competing accountabilities. Accountability to one's conscience was most prevalent in high achieving schools. Originality/value -Frequent reference to internal responsibility among leaders suggests that they continue to feel a strong sense of internal accountability in spite of increasing external pressures. It also illustrates the range of external, often conflicting pressures that principals face which include pressures from the public and the district office as well as state and federal government. In this increasingly prescriptive and contradictory environment the principal's moral code is important to her or his school.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educational tug‐of‐war: internal and external accountability of principals in varied contexts

González

Firestone

2013

Journal of Educational Administration

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“…Terosky (2014) profiled how New York City principals asserted individual agency in order to follow a 'learning imperative' (1) rather than merely a managerial imperative, thus overcoming what other scholars have described as urban school principals' sense of 'limited control' amidst 'relentless accountability' (West, Peck, and Reitzug 2010, 238). Shipps (2012), meanwhile, found that New York City principals felt 'beleaguered' rather than 'empowered' by increased autonomy (1), while Shipps and White (2009) questioned whether external accountability in the form of district-provided, publicly available school letter grades essentially trumped internal accountability as the central motivators for school administrators.…”

Section: Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 98%

Accountability, autonomy and stress: principal responses to superintendent change in a large US urban school district

West

Peck

Reitzug

et al. 2014

School Leadership & Management

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This study investigates how principals in a large US urban school district responded to two different superintendents who employed contrasting leadership styles and utilised divergent organisational schemes. We originally conducted interviews with principals in 2007, when the district's superintendent asserted fierce performance demands and limited principals' site-based discretion in favour of protecting and exerting central office power. We conducted interviews again in 2013 after a new superintendent had relaxed school test score expectations and distributed the central office's previously tight, centralised control into largely self-directing sub-regions. Our findings demonstrate that superintendent change noticeably affected how principals understood and encountered accountability, autonomy and stress. To help make sense of our findings, we employ a three-part conceptual framework drawn from the study of educational leadership. We conclude by considering implications, including the notion that unrelenting stress has become a permanent part of the modern urban US principalship.This study situates at the nexus of district and building leadership in order to provide particular attention to the lived experiences of school-based leaders. In doing so, we build on previous research that has examined the work lives and attitudes of principals (Leithwood et al. 2004;Mintrop 2012;Shipps 2012;Spillane and Hunt 2010). Specifically, we investigate how principals responded to two different superintendents (chief school system leaders) in a large urban school district in the Southeastern United States. In 2007, the superintendent, Dr Morgan (a pseudonym), exhibited an aggressive, top-down management style in which he demanded immediate results and exerted constant accountability performance pressure regarding school aggregate test scores. In 2008, a new superintendent, Mr Davis (a pseudonym), took over the district. By 2013, he had established greater system-wide autonomy and deemphasised using aggregate school test scores as the predominant determinant of principal performance. Symbolic of the differences between the two superintendents' approaches to principals, Dr Morgan was well known for either demoting principals or transferring them to a different school two or three years after they took their positions. Under Mr Davis, conversely, ensuring principal stability became a stated systemic goal, and the district introduced a modest financial incentive plan intended to reward principals who stayed at their schools for at least five years.

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“…Under this circumstance, their distinctive behavior of devoting to self-interest of the supply side may be the byproduct of increasing difficulty in positioning the inherent attribute of profit-seeking organizations in appropriate alignment with public values in public schooling. Given that the lack of the comprehension of public values in competitive markets exposes privately owned and run EMO charter schools to struggles between private interests and public purposes (Hansmann, 1980;Labaree, 1997;Lubienski, 2006;Samuelson, 1954), we should carefully question and consider how private firms pursuing monetary gains make a contribution to democratic accountability for equal access (Biesta, 2004;DiMartino & Scott, 2013;Epstein, 1993;Garn, 2001;Garn & Cobb, 2001;Shipps & White, 2009). In rethinking the purpose of parental choice and competition among educational providers in terms of equitable environments as well as efficient structures for public education, discourse about whether to confine schooling provided by profit-oriented firms to a public or private commodity is necessary to establish their role and limitations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding site selection of for-profit educational management organization charter schools

Liu

2018

EPAA

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Citation: Lee, J. (2018). Understanding site selection of for-profit educational management organization charter schools. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 26(77). http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.26.3024Abstract: The rise of for-profit EMOs often becomes evidence of substantial shifts in the governance of education, through which schooling may become privatized and commercialized. This study is designed to understand the economic behavior of for -profit educational management organization charter schools, by focusing on their site selection decisions as a critical factor in making a profit. Using the locations of for-profit EMO charter schools in Michigan, the study examines determinants of the location decision on charter school markets, with the choice set of potential school districts. This research finds changes of the odds ratio in the percentage of for-profit EMO charter schools, logged expenditures per pupil, and in the proportions of African-American populations, populations who have experienced higher education, and unemployed populations. Provided that for-profit EMO charter schools make a site selection decision according to areas with certain characteristics, the spatial disparity of access to charter schools can raise issues concerning unequal educational opportunities. Keywords: for-profit; educational management organization; charter school; location Education Policy Analysis Archives Vol. 26 No. 77 2 Entendiendo la selección de local de organizaciones charter de organización educativa con fines de lucro Resumen: La aparición de EMO con fines de lucro a menudo se convierte en evidencia de cambios sustanciales en la gobernanza de la educación, a través de los cuales la escolarización puede tornarse privatizada y comercializada. Este estudio fue elaborado para entender el comportamiento económico de las escuelas charter de organizaciones de gestión educativa con fines lucrativos, concentrándose en sus decisiones de selección de local como un factor crítico para obtener ganancias. Utilizando la ubicación de escuelas charter EMO con fines de lucro en Michigan, el estudio examina los determinantes de la decisión de localización en los mercados de escuelas chárter, con la elección de los distritos escolares potenciales. Esta investigación encuentra cambios en la razón de posibilidades en el porcentaje de escuelas charter EMO con fines lucrativos, gastos registrados por alumno, y en las proporciones de poblaciones afroamericanas, que tienen educación superior y poblaciones desempleadas. Dado que las escuelas charter EMO con fines de lucro toman una decisión de selección de local de acuerdo con áreas con ciertas características, la disparidad espacial de acceso a escuelas charter puede plantear cuestiones sobre oportunidades educativas desiguales. Palabras clave: con fines de lucro; organización de gestión educativa; escuela charter; localización Entendendo a seleção de local de organizações charter de organização educacional com fins lucrativos Resumo: O surgimento de EMOs com fins lucrativos muitas...

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A New Politics of the Principalship? Accountability-Driven Change in New York City

Cited by 35 publications

References 20 publications

Educational tug‐of‐war: internal and external accountability of principals in varied contexts

Educational tug‐of‐war: internal and external accountability of principals in varied contexts

Accountability, autonomy and stress: principal responses to superintendent change in a large US urban school district

Understanding site selection of for-profit educational management organization charter schools

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