Running head: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 1

Transformational School Leadership Case Study Analysis

William Foster

Georgia Southern University

CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 2

Transformational School Leadership Case Study Analysis

Executive Summary

The principal of the school, Maria Soledad, needs to involve more of her stakeholders in

the process of identifying the issues and creating an action plan for her school change initiative.

She can do this by utilizing her school leadership team as well as smaller professional learning

communities to identify and problem solve for her school. Norms and structure will need to be

established and expected, and time will need to be given to do this work to accomplish school

change. These steps will involve more stakeholders and promote more buy-in through a shared

leadership model. This buy-in from the teachers in the school will help facilitate change more

effectively and efficiently within the school.

Problem Statement

There are several key issues that arise during the meeting between Maria Soledad and the

faculty of the school where she is the principal. The long-term issue that seems to be the driving

force behind the need for the aforementioned meeting is the idea that the rules and regulations at

the school need to be changed to manage the increasingly poor behavior of the students. These

behavior issues are linked to changes in the community that feeds into the school since its

inception and since the last revision of the school rules and regulations. Problems in the short

term arise from the lack of structure for the meeting. No apparent agenda has been set. This leads

to individuals speaking at will and others being talked over. Norms have not been set in regards

to expectations for this type of meeting which causes frustration and inappropriate comments.

Another short-term problem which has fed into some animosity towards the school and the

principal is the scheduling of the meeting. It was scheduled for a Saturday, which is outside of
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normal working hours. This links to the behavior of the faculty being different than it would be

during normal working hours.

Causes of the Problem

According to Tomal, Schilling and Wilhite (2014), a leader can motivate through the

attainment of needs. These needs are in connection with Maslow’s hierarchy. By meeting these

needs at ever increasing levels, a leader can motivate. A leader can also cause people to be

unmotivated if basic needs are not met, like rest and social activities. These teachers were asked

to come in on what is normally an off day, depriving them of some of these more basic needs for

motivation, and several demonstrated their lack of motivation through their comments and short-

term mindsets. Also, according to Riggins and Knowles (2020), if work is important, it should be

given guaranteed time during the school day. If time is not given for this activity during the

school day, it sends the message that collaboration and a collective mindset and not required.

The meeting held by Maria Soledad to address the issues within the school was chaotic

from the beginning. The text mentions that the moment she started the meeting, she was

bombarded with questions. This continued throughout the meeting. This caused the meeting to

lack a focus on solving problems. Near the end, Maria thought to herself about how they needed

to look into the school’s values before addressing the concern, but at that point the meeting was

too far out of control to be brought back. The meeting lacked focus, and there was a lack of

preparation beforehand. This all caused the meeting to spiral out of control and as the text states,

even Maria was ready to leave by the end without any real progress having been made.

Decision Criteria/Alternative Solutions

It is unclear what the goals are for the new rules and regulations. Time needs to be spent

performing a needs analysis to see what is needed in terms of the major behaviors that need to be
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addressed. It will also take time to evaluate where is the school is currently in terms of a baseline

of data for their behavior and academic achievement. They will need time to research possible

behavior consequences and see what is actually feasible for their school. This may be tough to

accept for some teachers who want immediate solutions. It is feasible, but will require people

dedicated to tracking and analyzing the data on behavior and academic achievement. Before

another meeting can be held, the principal will also need to establish meeting norms for future

gatherings. This will take structure and preparation to decide on the norms and communicate

those to staff. Several smaller meetings may need to be held to practice following the norms and

collect viewpoints in a smaller and more controlled environment. An agenda would need to be

set and based around the data collected. This all takes time and stakeholders who are willing to

be patient and have a long-term approach to reach a long-term solution. According to Tomal,

Schilling, and Wilhite (2014), short term solutions are sought after by school leaders because of

the pressure applied through test-based accountability measures. Administrators need teacher-

leaders who are able to assist in long-term efforts to change the climate of the school. The pros

of both of these solutions is that they would give structure to future conversations about new

rules and regulations. They would focus the conversations on true data and what is feasible for

the school to implement. The con of these ideas is that they take time. The stakeholders would

have to be patient. It also requires several dedicated people to do the work needed.

Recommendations

Enacting major changes requires stakeholder involvement if the changes are meant to be

successful. According to Tomal, Schilling, and Wilhite a key to change in a school is leading

teachers and allowing them to feel ownership over the change. They refer to this as a “human

centered” school climate (2014, p. 124). Teachers, administrators, and community members need
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to be brought in to set goals and expectations as to what changes they want to see within the

school. Care will need to be taken to make sure the goals are attainable, measurable, and a time

line is set. To do this effectively, data will need to be collecting to create a baseline from which

change can be measured. Without a baseline, it is difficult to measure change and track progress.

According to Thornton, Usinger, and Sanchez (2019) in their article on building level change in

schools, the leadership PLC must collect data to create a baseline and get a clearer picture of the

current status of the school.

To involve teachers in this process, groups can be brought together and formed to address

individual goals. Riggins and Knowles (2020) say that a good leader forms strong groups and

holds them accountable for the work that needs to be accomplished. These groups need to set

norms and procedures for their meetings in order to set themselves up for efficiency and focused

meeting time. According to Strike, Sims, Mann, and Wilhite, establishing shared leadership is

key to successful leadership (2019, p.56). By involving these stakeholders in the process, Maria

could gain buy-in from teachers that could help in presenting and implementing a plan for the

school changes.

In keeping with the shared leadership model, once the groups have addressed their goals

and come up with a plan for change and an opportunity had been given for feedback from the

original group of stakeholders, the entire plan could be presented to the faculty and staff of the

school. Norms and structure would need to be in place for this meeting that is during regular

school hours. This could possibly happen during a teacher work-day or an already established

time for faculty meetings as recommended by Riggins and Knowles (2020) in their thoughts on

guaranteed time for professional learning. Each group could present their data, their goal, and
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their action plans to the group. By doing this, teachers would feel that they and their colleagues

played an active role in the process, thus encouraging increased buy-in from this crucial group.
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References

Riggins, C., & Knowles, D. (2020). Caught in the Trap of Plc Lite: Essential Steps Needed for

Implementation of a True Professional Learning Community. Education, 141(1), 46–54

Thornton, B., Usinger, J., & Sanchez, J. (2019). Leading Effective Building Level

Change. Education, 139(3), 131–138.

Tomal, D. R., Schilling, C. A., & Wilhite, K. (2014). The teacher leader: core competencies and

strategies for effective leadership. Roman and Littlefield.

Strike, K. T., Sims, P. A., Mann, S. L., & Wilhite R. K. (2019) Transforming professional

practice: A framework for effective leadership. Roman and Littlefield.