Exploring Urban School Principal Reports of the Professional Development Perceived as Beneficial for Working in a District that Adopted a model for Improving Student Achievement Requiring both Decentralization and Accountability at the School Level

The purpose of this study was to describe the professional development (knowledge and skills) urban school principals' report as beneficial for working in districts that have adopted a model for improving student achievement requiring both decentralization and accountability at the school level. Tucker and Codding (2002) provided the conceptual framework for identifying professional development beneficial for working in a district that adopted decentralization and accountability for improving student achievement. Data sources included: (1) digital recordings and transcripts of individual one-on-one, open-ended, in-depth interviews and (2) interviewer notes on the interview protocol taken during interviews and interviewer notes written in a journal during coding. Qualitative findings for all eight research questions suggest that principal reports of the professional development beneficial for working in an urban district that adopted decentralization and accountability for improving student achievement included learning focused on: (1) Vision formation and best practices for operationalizing the vision, (2) Processes required to set effective goals for improving instruction and raising student achievement, (3) Increasing the accuracy and reliability of teacher observation skills and the ability to give quality feedback for improving instruction, (4) Understanding district accountability requirements for schools and the implications of those requirements at the classroom level, (5) Developing teacher commitment to improving student achievement through a deeper understanding of district accountability expectations and the role of teacher effectiveness in improving achievement, and (6) The process of using school and classroom data for improving instruction. In addition, they identified a need for obtaining specific feedback from district-level supervisors to improve their leadership practices as potentially beneficial. Principals in the study also indicated that the most beneficial professional development they had received was being assigned a coach, mentor or working as a resident for one year under the supervision of a successful principal.