School leader development with action learning

This case study measures the impact on elements of schools’ professional environment after school leaders participated in eight action learning (AL) sessions over one summer. The guiding research question asks, What, if any, impact on a building level administrator’s leadership practices result after their participation in an Action Learning program? Data collection and analysis were structured to focus on the impact collaborative environmental factors perceived by teachers following their respective administrator’s participation in the AL program. Outcomes measured include Perceived School-Leader Support (PSLS), Actual Participation in Decision Making, Satisfaction with Participation in Decision Making, and Formalization of Participation in Decision Making. These factors were measured with a survey before summer and four months after the last AL session. Additional analyses of two more factors include Teacher’s Orientation Toward Student Performance and Teacher Collaboration. Using Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick’s (2016) model for program evaluation, these measures serve as leading indicators toward desired results. Findings of the Related Samples Wilcoxon Signed Rank test only found a significant, positive difference from pre to post survey for PSLS.