Volume 25, Issue3

School and District Leaders’ Roles in Diversifying the Teacher Workforce

Ramon B. Goings , Larry J. Walker and Heather Cotignola-Pickens

Diversifying the teaching profession has garnered attention from researchers, policy makers, and educational stakeholders. However, missing within this conversation is the role of school and district leaders in diversifying the teaching profession. We argue that without considering school and district leaders, diversity initiatives will not have a long-term systemic impact. Thus, this article fills in a gap in the literature on this topic. First, we provide a brief overview of the current racial and ethnic demographics of the teaching workforce and student population and discuss the barriers to recruiting and retaining a diverse teacher workforce. Second, we highlight the factors that have been found to influence the recruitment and retention of racial diversity of teachers at the pre-service and in-service levels. Lastly, we provide recommendations for school-based and district leaders on how they should plan for diversifying their teacher workforce.

Principal and Professor Perspective on Principal Preparation, Program Redesign, and Educational Planning

Arvin D. Johnson and Stephanie James

The purpose of this reflective research was to highlight professor and principal perspectives on the most impactful principal preparation components. These perspectives were aligned to literature in the field and used to inform educational planning during a leadership program redesign at a small, private university in the southeastern region of the United States. Eight participants were interviewed to gain their unique perspectives of what should be included in the program redesign. Results were coded and organized into themes by participant group. The themes were then used as reflection points to inform program redesign and educational planning.

International Students of Higher Education in the United States:  A GIS Study of their Origination and Location

Yuan Yao and Yonghong Tong

This study investigated the places of origin of international students and their distribution in the United States higher education. The data concerning the population of international students were obtained from the official website of International Institution of Education (IIE), and transferred into three maps using geographic information systems (GIS) software so that a more direct view of the data was available. The results of the study showed that 1) A larger proportion of international students come from Asian countries; 2) California, New York, and Texas are the top three states hosting international students; 3) most of the universities enrolling international students are located in the eastern part of the country; and 4) the states with already large international student populations experienced a faster growth in the population of international students over the past five years. Some implications for policy planning are discussed at the end of this paper.

Examining Methodological Differences:  Research on the Relationship between School Building Condition and Student Achievement

Glen I. Earthman

Research in the field of Education has produced a corpus of studies dealing with the specific relationship between school building condition and student achievement reporting positive results. Yet, studies have been completed reporting no significant difference in achievement scores from students in buildings in poor and good condition. The differences in research findings may lie in the methodology employed. The most important difference might be in how the building is assessed and the instrument utilized to make that assessment. An instrument that reports those building elements that have a direct research relationship to student performance provides better data on the actual learning condition of a school building, resulting in better findings. Further, the measurement of student achievement presents unique problems to the researchers. In some instances researchers were unable to use the mean of student scaled scores and were forced to use the percentage of students passing the examination. The percent of students is not an accurate measure of student achievement, but is often the only measure available. A few researchers have used the percentage of student attendance as a proxy for student achievement with some success.