Date of Award

Fall 9-26-2019

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Executive Ed.D. in Education Leadership Management and Policy

Department

Education Leadership, Management and Policy

Advisor

Joseph M. Stetar, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Richard Tomko, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Elaine Walker, Ph.D.

Keywords

Turnaround, ScIP, School Improvement Panel, Leadership Team, Principal, Underperformance, Underprivileged, Educational Leadership, Urban Education

Abstract

Socioeconomics has been a factor that exposes the disparities in student achievement across communities within the state of New Jersey, and as a result of the disparities, in 1985, the Education Law Center filed the first ruling of Abbot v. Burke; this case ruled that significant funding be provided in an effort to ensure that underprivileged students within these underperforming districts receive public education in accordance with the state constitution. However, despite the funding efforts, since 1985, (87%) of the 31 school districts identified as Abbott not only remain underprivileged, but they also remain underperforming. Therefore, to remedy the underperformance the New Jersey State Department of Education (NJDOE) employs the Regional Agency Center (RAC) to evaluate and to classify schools/districts underperforming “focus” or “priority.” Furthermore, in conjunction with school/district leaders, the RAC orchestrates a plan to aid school/district leaders in a perspective five-year turnaround. The purpose of this case study was to determine the practices and processes the School Improvement Panel (ScIP) employed to help to successfully turnaround an underperforming underprivileged high school classified as a “focus” school in 2012, and had “no designation” by 2017. The qualitative data collected using RAC’s (8) Turnaround Principles and Bolman & Deal’s (4) frames provided a context as well as a conceptual construct for the school’s turnaround efforts.

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