Strategies Framed Within Transformational Leadership That ...

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Strategies Framed Within Transformational Leadership That Strategies Framed Within Transformational Leadership That

African American Female Principals Use to Retain Teachers in African American Female Principals Use to Retain Teachers in

Texas High-Poverty Schools: A Case Study Texas High-Poverty Schools: A Case Study

Tiffany M. Clark [email protected]

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Abilene Christian University

School of Educational Leadership

Strategies Framed Within Transformational Leadership That African American Female

Principals Use to Retain Teachers in Texas High-Poverty Schools: A Case Study

A dissertation in partial satisfaction

of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Education in Organizational Leadership

by

Tiffany M. Clark

March 2020

i

Dedication

This process has taught me that God is always in control and I truly believe in Jeremiah

29:11–13: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not

harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to

me, and I will listen to you. You will see me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

To my parents Charles and Queenie Clark, your unconditional support of my scholastic

endeavors never ceases to amaze me. Through the good times of this process and the bad you

both were right there.

To my grandmother Lorine Allen, all you bragged about was telling your family and

friends that your granddaughter was going to be a doctor; this is for you. The last words you said

to me were to stay sweet and pretty and that you loved me. I have completed this dissertation for

you. Your everlasting love and support are missed but I know you are shining down on me daily,

protecting me.

To my aunt DeVera, I thank you for instilling in me the importance of having a vision

and executing my vison. Your spirit lives within me daily and because of that I became resilient

understanding the importance of keeping my eye on the prize.

To Ahmad Love, thank you, friend, for reviewing my papers, giving me your

unconditional love and support during the first year of adjusting to my doctoral program.

ii

Acknowledgments

I would like to give a very special thanks to Dr. Sandra Harris, who graciously accepted

the role as my chairperson, for your guidance and encouragement throughout the dissertation

process. I believe you were truly heaven-sent to be my chair and I cannot thank God enough for

allowing you to be chosen to assist me.

To Dr. Andrea Nelson, thank you for being there to support me when I could not see the

end of the journey. The weekends you sacrificed for me, the late-night calls, text messages, and

emails were an integral part of my success.

To my family, friends, sisters, Sorors, community members, thank you all so much for

your support throughout this journey. There are far too many to name individually, but I am

beyond grateful for all of you holding me accountable and making sure I reached the point of

completion. Your support for me and towards this process will forever be embedded in my heart.

iii

© Copyright by Tiffany M. Clark (2020)

All Rights Reserved

iv

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to describe strategies framed within

transformational leadership that exemplary African American female principals implement to

retain teachers in Texas high-poverty schools. Participants of this case study included 10 African

American female principals from elementary, middle, high, and alternative Title 1 schools within

the state of Texas. All of the principals had been on their campus at least 2 years and had a 75%

or higher retention rate on their campus. The participants were asked questions based on the 4

categories of transformational leadership: idealized influence, inspirational motivation,

individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation. The researcher interviewed all the

participants on their respective campuses, transcribed the data, member checked, and then

analyzed for common themes. The findings indicated that effective communication, creating

campus leadership teams, developing positive principal-teacher relationships, developing

positive relationships with students and parents, and having a personal commitment to specific

goals were important in retaining teachers. The findings also suggested that when principals

effectively train staff, are attentive to the needs of staff, give staff positive praise and activities,

and allow uninhibited conversations they are likely to stay on that campus. Implementing the

Bambrick model, providing effective professional development (learning), and developing

continual learners within the field of education were also found to increase teacher retention. In

addition, when principals give teachers autonomy, engage in weekly reviews of lesson plans, and

implement effective walkthroughs, teachers remain on their campuses. When all these strategies

are completed with fidelity, the rate of teachers remaining in the profession should increase on

campuses where African American and Hispanic students are the majority.

Keywords: transformational leadership, positive relationships, personal commitment

v

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... ii

Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iv

List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vii

List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii

Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................1

Statement of the Problem ...............................................................................................3 Purpose of the Study ......................................................................................................4 Research Questions ........................................................................................................4 Definitions of Key Terms ..............................................................................................5 Summary ........................................................................................................................6

Chapter 2: Literature Review ...............................................................................................7

Retention of Teachers ....................................................................................................7 Retention of Minority Teachers .....................................................................................8 Influence of Teachers .....................................................................................................9 Lack of Parental Involvement ......................................................................................10 Student Behavior ..........................................................................................................11 Lack of Administrative Support...................................................................................12 Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka ...............................................................13 Urban Schools and Urban Education ...........................................................................15 School Leadership ........................................................................................................18 Theoretical Framework: Transformational Leadership ...............................................25 Additional Theoretical Framework ..............................................................................27 Summary ......................................................................................................................28

Chapter 3: Research Method ..............................................................................................30

Research Design...........................................................................................................30 Purpose Statement and Research Questions ................................................................31 Population ....................................................................................................................32 Data Collection and Instrument ...................................................................................34 Qualitative Data Analysis Procedures .........................................................................35 Researcher’s Role ........................................................................................................36 Trustworthiness ............................................................................................................38 Ethical Considerations .................................................................................................39 Assumptions .................................................................................................................40 Limitations ...................................................................................................................40 Delimitations ................................................................................................................41

vi

Summary ......................................................................................................................41

Chapter 4: Results ..............................................................................................................42

Research Question 1 ....................................................................................................43 Research Question 2 ....................................................................................................50 Research Question 3 ....................................................................................................55 Research Question 4 ....................................................................................................65 Summary ......................................................................................................................70

Chapter 5: Discussion, Conclusions, and Recommendations ............................................71

Summary of the Study .................................................................................................71 Interpretation and Discussion of the Findings .............................................................75 Recommendations for Practice and Future Research ..................................................80 Reflections and Closing Remarks ................................................................................82

References ..........................................................................................................................84

Appendix A: Interview Protocol ......................................................................................106

Appendix B: IRB Approval Form....................................................................................108

vii

List of Tables

Table 1. Principal Data ......................................................................................................33

viii

List of Figures

Figure 1. Newsletter ...........................................................................................................44

Figure 2. Examples of parent student engagement newsletter ...........................................47

Figure 3. Apply professional development ........................................................................51

Figure 4. The backward design ..........................................................................................57

Figure 5. Understanding the Bambrick model ...................................................................58

Figure 6. Understanding the WHY ....................................................................................59

Figure 7. Learning schedule given to teachers during professional learning

community .............................................................................................................60

Figure 8. English professional learning community agenda ..............................................61

Figure 9. Professional learning community session agenda ..............................................62

Figure 10. Back to school agenda ......................................................................................63

1

Chapter 1: Introduction

Teacher attrition has been an ongoing concern in public education since the 1900s

(Ingersoll, 1999, 2001, 2003). High teacher attrition rates affect the stability of public-school

systems as well as the degree to which students learn (Ingersoll, 2012; Martinez, Frick, Kim, &

Fried, 2010; Quartz et al., 2008). In urban school settings, there is a particular need for high

quality and experienced teachers to support the learning needs of diverse student populations

(Kearney, 2008). Approximately 3.5 million public school teachers in the United States are

leaving their schools at the end of each year (Simon & Moore-Johnson, 2015). The percentage of

teacher mobility was higher in schools where 75% or more students were minority or 75% or

more participated in the free or reduced lunch program (Dağli, 2012). However, principal

leadership has been found to have a strong influence on teachers’ decisions to remain in the

teaching profession (Thibodeaux, Labat, Lee, & Labat, 2015). Transformational leadership

behaviors in principals has a positive effect on teacher retention (Schneider, 2016).

Principals set the climate of an educational campus (Terosky & Reitano, 2016). In fact,

several researchers have found teachers’ primary reason for leaving the profession is a lack of

coaching and support from their campus principal (Bobek, 2002; Cansoy, Polatcan, & Kilinç,

2019). The combination of mentoring programs and induction programs have helped to improve

teacher retention (Ingersoll, 2012). When teachers are empowered within their teaching

responsibilities, their passion about what they are doing appears as their retention rates improve,

especially those who teach math (Curtis, 2012). Therefore, the importance of the principal and

their role in “leadership has proven vital, if not the most important aspect of the effective

functioning in a school,” which is the result of a transformational leader (Seymour, 2016, p. 22).

2

Transformational leadership involves guiding individuals through systems to create a

change in an organization (Bass & Riggio, 2014). It centers upon leveraging the strength of

interpersonal relationships to capture the buy-in of followers. Campus principals must act as a

change agent, challenging the status quo in the school when needed (Marzano, Waters, &

McNulty, 2005). These leaders are charismatic, brave, and often put others before themselves to

help as many people as possible. Transformational leaders are those who stimulate and inspire

followers to achieve extraordinary outcomes, and in the process, develop their own capacity

(Hickman, 2016).

Female leaders have been known to exhibit the transformational leadership style due to

the way they have encouraged participation, shared power, and worked to enhance the self-work

of others on their campus (Gunbayi, 2005, as cited in Campbell, 2010). Four domains are utilized

to determine the traits a transformational leader should demonstrate: idealized influence,

inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation (Bass &

Riggio, 2014). Idealized influence is the ability for a leader to establish goals and visions in a

way where their followers will gravitate toward the change (Woods & Martin, 2016).

Inspirational motivation can be summed up when the staff is ecstatic toward the goals and shared

vision of the organization (Balyer, 2012). Individualized consideration is being aware of the

followers (staff) needs, which can yield them growth and opportunities within the field of

education (Groves & LaRocca, 2011). Intellectual stimulation, the last area under

transformational leadership, is challenging followers (staff) to use their imagination and bring

bold new revitalized ideas to the classroom (Vogel, 2018). This chapter contains the following

topics: statement of the problem, purpose of the study, research questions, definitions of key

terms, and the summary.

3

Statement of the Problem

Urban school teachers need resilience to remain in the field, especially minority teachers

who need to be retained in the profession to meet the needs of African American and Hispanic

children because African American and Hispanic students are becoming the majority in many

Texas school districts (Donaldson, 2012; McKinney, Berry, Dickerson, Campbell-Whately,

2007; Sass, Flores, Claeys, & Perez, 2012). Between 40% and 50% of teachers will leave the

classroom within their first five years, which includes the 9.5% who leave before the end of their

first year. Students in these hard-to-staff schools disproportionately suffer the consequences of

turnover and shortages, substitute teachers, canceled classes, and inexperienced, underprepared

teachers (Riggs, 2013; Strauss, 2017). Education systems are still looking ways to improve and

sustain effective leadership practices (Levin, 2013). Previous research has shown female, African

American principals’ leadership styles have a positive effect on school culture and climate

(Adkinson, 1981; Bloom & Erlandson, 2003; Gooden, 2005; Murakami & Tornsen, 2017; Reed,

2012). However, there is a gap in the literature about how African American female principals

influence teacher attrition in urban, Title 1, high-poverty secondary schools.

A transformational principal has the ability to frame the attitudes of their staff and move

the school in a progressive manner (Balyer, 2012). Principals in a large school district have been

identified as having the ability to identify the skills needed for a principal to perform their job

effectively and how those skills resulted in positive school effectiveness (Grissom & Loeb,

2011). Nelson (2013) discussed how the role of the campus principal uses transformational

leadership skills because they are tasked with building the capacity of their followers. Principals

who do not have a keen awareness and understanding of the manner in which they carry out the

daily operations can have a detrimental effect on the retention of teachers on their campus (Hitt,

4

Woodruff, Meyers, & Zhu, 2018). However, M. Anderson (2017) stated that “transformational

leadership exhibited by principals plays a key role in school improvement initiatives and is

evident when principals engage in building a shared vision” (p. 6).

Purpose of the Study



retain teachers in Texas high-poverty schools. Teacher retention strategies are defined in this

study as actions principals have taken to encourage and support teachers to stay at the same

school for at least two consecutive years. I conducted a qualitative, descriptive, instrumental,

collective case study to describe strategies that principals implement to retain teachers. I

recruited African American female principals from urban, high-poverty schools throughout

Texas and each self-identified as a transformational leader. In addition, only principals whose

schools have a teacher-retention rate of 75% or above over a two-year period were invited to

participate. I conducted interviews with current or former principals using a guided protocol

based on the research questions to describe strategies implemented with a goal to retain teachers.

The analysis of data collected from the interviews was content-oriented and qualitative.

Research Questions

Q1. Idealized Influence—What strategies do principals implement to establish goals and

a shared vision to support teacher retention?

Q2. Inspirational Motivation—What strategies do principals implement to motivate staff

to achieve the goals and shared vision of the organization that supports teacher retention?

Q3. Individualized Consideration—What strategies do principals implement to provide

teachers with growth opportunities that support teacher retention?

5

Q4. Intellectual Stimulation—What strategies do principals implement to support teacher

creativity and do they use new ideas to support teacher retention?

Definitions of Key Terms

African American. An American having African and especially Black African ancestors

(U.S. Census Bureau, 2010).

Attrition. The uncountable reduction in force within a company or industry (McQuerrey,

2019).

Educational leaders. Someone who has an influence on the culture and climate in whom

people feel comfortable to follow (Brooks, 2012).

Exemplary. For the purposes of this study, exemplary principals are those with a high

retention rate of teachers.

High retention. For the purposes of this study, high retention is a teacher retention rate

in Texas that is above 76% over a two-year period.

Leadership. The ability to motivate and guide people toward common goals (Munir &

Aboidullah, 2018).

Principal. The head of an educational facility which serves students. This person is

meant to be the leader and make executive decisions for the campus (Nelson, 2013).

Retention. To keep people year after year; similar to a succession plan in an effort to

reduce turnover (Grissom, Viano, & Selin, 2016).

Title 1 school. A school where a high student population is living below the poverty line

and relies heavily on the state to cover cost to help with student academic needs (U.S.

Department of Education, 2018).

6

Transformational leadership. A leader who has the influence to motivate their

followers to achieve individual and collective goals for the organization (Bass & Riggio, 2014).

Urban school. A school having a high population of students on free-reduced lunch and

are typically in a single parent home (Acton, 2018).

Summary

In this chapter, I have provided the background on why African American

transformational principal leaders must share the strategies they are using to influence teachers’

attrition in urban, Title 1, high-poverty secondary schools. This chapter included the problem

statement as well as the purpose of needing to add to the body of research on this topic. Also,

this chapter identified key terms utilized in this body of research. Chapter 2 consists of the

literature review in which I look at challenges of urban schools, female principals, school

leadership, and transformational leadership further. Chapter 3 is an explanation of the research

methods which provided the foundation for how I conducted the research. In Chapter 4, I report

the findings of the study, and Chapter 5 contains a summary of the study along with my

conclusions, implications for practice, and suggestions for future studies.

7

Chapter 2: Literature Review



retain teachers in Texas high-poverty schools. This chapter is a discussion of the following

topics: retention of teachers, influence of teachers, lack of parental support, student behavior,

lack of administrative support, challenges of urban low-income schools, school leadership,

principals, female principals, and African American principals. The theoretical framework of

transformational leadership and the conceptual framework follow.

Retention of Teachers

Teachers are retiring while the number of students is still rising, and teachers are leaving

the profession (Guarino, Brown & Wyse, 2011). The numbers suggested by Papay, Bacher-

Hicks, Page, and Marinell (2017) show 19% of all teachers are leaving their school within the

first year and 58% within five years. Thus, within five years, 55% of novice teachers leave the

district and 70% leave their schools (Papay et al., 2017). Kearney (2008) studied the numbers of

teachers hired, terminated, and retained during a given time period and concluded that stability is

needed to attract and retain minority teachers. The results suggested teachers wanted good

salaries with good working conditions to influence them to remain in the field of education.

Papay et al. (2017) indicated that the higher national retention rate could be in part due to

the recession that occurred in 2015. Another factor often discussed that is associated with teacher

retention is the cost for continual turnover, but Papay et al. argued this supersedes the notion

there is a true teacher shortage in the United States. High-poverty schools are in the crossfire of

this concern and they are constantly challenged to retain teachers and principals at a higher rate

and often with less qualified teachers (Badenhorst & Koalepe, 2014). The reported cost of

8

teacher turnover especially in urban schools is anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 with the idea

of having to bring in a novice teacher (Papay et al., 2017).

The teacher labor force is not reflective of the demographics in the school and despite the

need for diversity it seems to be saturated with White females (Farinde-Wu & Fitchett, 2016).

Teacher burnout due to stress has an impact on negatively influencing African American

students due to the inability to retain teachers who look like them (Bottiani, Bradshaw, &

Mendelsen, 2014; Pas, Bradshaw, & Hershfeldt, 2012).

Retention of Minority Teachers

The shortage of African American teachers has reached “crisis proportions” (Kearney,

2008, p. 617), which is critical because there is no succession plan for the African American

principals who are leaving the field of education (Boyd et al., 2011). There has been a conscious

effort to recruit and retain minority teachers often through the alternative certification route but

somehow the demographics are not changing (Madkins, 2011). Consequently, among those

challenges of working in an urban school is that of having a high teacher turnover rate. Jones

(2005) commented, “It is essential to enhance the recruitment and retention of African American

teachers in order to create an inclusive school climate and ensure that there are mentors for

African American students and inspiring educational leaders” (as cited in Campbell, 2010, p.

43). Positive student-teacher race matching effects could be linked to a favorable outcome of

minority teachers, which results in students having positive academic success (Cherng & Halpin,

2016).

According to Kokka (2016), standardized tests, attendance, and advanced-level course

enrollment results have shown that teachers of color have a higher success rate with students of

color. Therefore, teachers in urban schools need to be studied because the attrition rate is higher

9

in this area. And yet, teachers of color have a positive effect on teacher achievement and student

engagement (Whipp & Geronime, 2017). Due to inconsistent instruction, teacher turnover often

results in lower student academic achievement, especially African American students, and has an

impact on the organizational structure by impacting the composition (Papay et al., 2017).

Consequently, many African American students lack a school-based model depicted by

their teachers in public schools because of the limited number of African American teachers and

administrators (S. R. Logan, Hilton, Watson, & Kirkland-Holmes, 2018). Currently, there are

only about 8% African American teachers in the workforce and 60% White females; therefore,

these students are underrepresented making it hard to grow into a different capacity within the

educational field (Farinde-Wu, 2018).

Influence of Teachers

The influence of teachers and school personnel is one of the most important factors for

school improvement (Chambers & Huggins, (2014). Teachers are influential in shaping the lives

of young individuals, but the school community and characteristics of the working environment

is a contributing factor for educators (Brault, Janosz, & Archambault, 2014). Teacher turnover

negatively affects student progress due to the lack of constant and consistent instruction of

students (Ronfeldt, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2013). African American students typically achieve higher

than their counterparts when they are taught by teachers who look like them more than other

ethnic backgrounds; therefore, making it possible for African American teachers to have a

positive influence on their students (Coffey & Farinde-Wu, 2016). The teaching profession is

highly populated with individuals who tend to like to work close to where they grew up or

similar to where they attended themselves (Whipp & Geronime, 2017). However, the loss of

10

teachers has weakened the quality of the profession making it harder to maintain productive

relations with the community (Lloyd & Sullivan, 2012). Levin (2013) argued:

Good people will stay in the profession if they feel supported in doing the work they care

about, they are treated fairly, have some autonomy in their work, have good colleagues to

work with, have talented and supportive leadership, and have working conditions that

make their jobs possible. (p. 198)

Teaching is an emotionally charged job and when teachers are intellectually engaged the

motivation is at a heightened awareness, which results in higher productivity and ultimately the

teacher wanting to be retained (Kirkpatrick & Moore-Johnson, 2014). Teachers form positive

working relationships when they feel they are being heard, supported, and have regular

interactions with colleagues and when the school feels like a safe environment (Adams, 2010).

Teachers rely on a positive school structure and sociological environment to help them thrive in

their working environments, which result in academic success for their students (Brault et al.,

2014).

Teachers who believe other school members have the same values as they do, such as

academic achievement and working to engage students, typically have higher expectations for

their students, which has an impact on high teacher retention (Brault et al., 2014). A suggestion

is that district leaders create a policy around retention to help motivate campus leaders to find

strategies to retain teachers (Papay et al., 2017).

Lack of Parental Involvement

There appears to be a gap in sociocultural congruity in terms of family structure and

student support in the urban schools mostly populated with African American students (Coffey

& Farinde-Wu, 2016). Parent engagement or involvement is defined as the ability to aid in

11

homework, communicate with the teacher, and support their child in school functions (Hoglund,

Brown, Jones, & Aber, 2015). Researchers have shown that parents’ self-identity has a positive

correlation as to why they are not involved in schools due to their inability to find trust with the

teacher (Ross, Marchand, Cox, & Rowley, 2018). Decreased parental involvement can be extra

challenging in high schools, thereby hampering some students’ academic and social behaviors

(Wilkerson & Wilson, 2017). Parent involvement is instrumental because it allows the parent to

commit to resources, which in turn helps to shape the child’s academic future (Murray et al.,

2014). Velsor and Orozco (2007) stated that “62% of parents of color agreed with the statement

that the teacher should be in charge of getting parents involved” (p. 19). Parents often feel as if

school personnel are lukewarm about parental engagement, which contributes to why parents

stay at a distance on the educational outcomes of students (Robinson, 2017).

Parents are not as involved in the school system as they once were, especially within the

urban city schools, making it harder to promote a positive relationship between teacher and

parent (Pas et al., 2012). Parents of African American minority students feel that when they are

involved their opinion is not valued and often feel as if they are put down or a teacher feels they

have undermined them (Wallace, 2013). Day and Hong (2015) argued that parents have begun to

become more dependent on the teachers’ commitment to care for and about the student more

than they should. They found that students’ lack of motivation and behavioral problems were a

contributing factor to teacher turnover due in part to the lack of stability in the home and parents

lack of emotional nurturing towards the student.

Student Behavior

Teachers are complaining more and more about the behavior of students, and how they

are not being respected; however, 50% of the behavior problems are not occurring directly in the

12

classroom setting (Cash, Debnam, Waasdorp, Wahl, & Bradshaw, 2019). Student behavior is

attributed to be the most robust predictor of student attrition among new teachers (Ouellette et

al., 2018). Arum (2011) said “school disciplinary climates are the organizational context in

which education functions and authority relationships between students and educators are

embedded” (p. 9). In addition, the percentage of children living in single-parent homes went

from 16% in 1975 to 30% as of 2008 (Arum, 2011).

The teachers must constantly redirect students and it almost seems as if students do not

have basic home training anymore, as the number of referrals in the classroom are often from

defiance, tardiness, and truancy (Cash et al., 2019). Cash et al. stated teachers become stressed

because they become frustrated by their inability to teach effectively because of student

misbehavior; therefore, they consider jobs that do not rquire them to manage children acting out

every day. In fact, Arum (2011) argued that “39% of high school teachers reported that student

misbehavior interfered with their teaching in 2007–2008” (p. 10).

Lack of Administrative Support

Teachers have suggested that support from principals and other administrators is a key

indicator for success toward positive organizational health, which then creates a better

environment for them to remain at their campus (Bottiani et al., 2014). The lack of administrative

support is crucial in the retention rate of teachers (Farinde-Wu & Fitchett, 2016; Kukla-Acevedo,

2009). Over 3.5 million public school teachers in the United States leave their schools each year

(Simon & Moore-Johnson, 2015). The cost of maintaining and retaining teachers is very

expensive and estimated at about $2.2 billion yearly (Donaldson, 2012).

Vanderbilt researchers found that effective principals possess tangible qualities, such as a

“supportive, responsive attitude toward the children and a sense by teachers they are part of a

13

community of professionals focused on good instruction” (Wallace Foundation, 2013, p. 8).

Principals must trust teachers’ decisions, even if it is not the ideal route of the principal (Rooney,

2008). Teachers need to feel supported because at the end of the day they want to make sure they

are being as effective as they can be. Leaders who value this component will increase student

performance and retain teachers even in low income-urban schools (Bottiani et al., 2014).

Teachers have a positive outlook toward the future of the school system and increased ability to

return to the profession when they have positive perceptions of their principal (Pas et al., 2012).

Principals who can build the capacity of their teachers through trust is vital for improving

schools (Price, 2012).

Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka

Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka in 1954 overturned the 1896 Plessy v.

Ferguson case forcing schools to create desegregation plans to integrate White and African

American students (Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence, and Research, n.d.;

Dixson, Clayton, Peoples, & Reynolds, 2016; Patterson, 2010). The Supreme Court ruled that

segregation of schools was unlawful, and it was illegal to continue the practice of separate but

equal (Reardon, Grewal, Kalogrides, & Greenberg, 2012). This decision in 1954 was said to be a

catalyst in launching the modern civil rights movement (O’Brine & Kritsonis, 2008). This court

case enforced strict mandates for school districts to follow, which included but was not limited to

student assignments, racial balance quotas, and approving busing to achieve each of the above

standards to desegregate schools (Reardon et al., 2012).

While Brown v. Board of Education is a monumental case, it neglected to offer the idea

that separate but equal schools violated the 14th Amendment (Kornblau, 2019). However,

“Black teachers were concerned because there would now not be any teachers who had high

14

aspirations for the little Black kids” (Walker, 2015, p. 114). However, to keep African American

people from excelling in the field of education is not a new tactic, but it was a strategic design to

keep African American people in a state of ignorance (Coleman, 2016). Even with Brown v.

Board of Education, African Americans were still not educated with the same curriculum,

circumstances, or information as Whites until the early 1970s (Coleman, 2016).

The following statement was made regarding the desegregation of public schools: “If and

when they [African Americans] are admitted to these [public] schools, certain things will

inevitably follow. Negro teachers will become rare and, in many cases, disappear (Du Bois,

1973, as cited in Madkins, 2011, p. 419). Due to Brown v. Board of Education, the segregation of

schools ended, which affected the field of education both positively and negatively (Patterson,

2010). To be a teacher was a highly sought-after position in the early 1950s and was highly

respected, especially in the African American community (Wiley, Bustamante, Ballenger, &

Polnick, 2017). Reardon et al. (2012) compiled research on the segregation and resegregation of

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and found that the positive aspect of the case was that it

desegregated the schools, allowing all races to get the same type of education. However, the

negative component of this monumental case was that it could be the reason the African

American community is now hurting in the field of education. The desegregation of schools

marked the beginning of a long period in which African Americans were not hired to teach in the

newly segregated schools and this prevented a whole generation of African American educators

from participating (Madkins, 2011; Wiley et al., 2017). This left the African American

community with limited access to African American educators and strong role models for

African American students were absent in the schools (Wiley et al., 2017).

15

However, 65 years later, students of color are finding public schools are essentially

resegregated at rates equal to or exceeding pre-Brown segregation (Dixson et al., 2016). More

urban schools are becoming overwhelmingly poor and minority and most suburban schools are

full of White, middle-class students, making them more segregated than they were prior to

Brown v. Board of Education (O’Brine & Kritsonis, 2008). In the year 2000, more than 70% of

all African American and Hispanic students attended predominately minority schools, which is a

higher percentage than it was more than 30 years ago. Racial isolation still exists in schools

(Dixson et al., 2016).

The school-of-choice model, which includes vouchers, charter schools, private schools,

and open enrollment, is assisting in the process of resegregating schools and not helping to

desegregate school populations (Roda & Wells, 2013). Dixson et al. (2016) argued that the

location of a school, public transportation, safety, and finances are all contributing factors

affecting school-of-choice systems making it difficult for families in typical minority

communities to send their children to the school of their choice. Thus, the only way to challenge

true segregation is for more education policies to include intentional desegregation initiatives to

address the injustices that are present in the “color-blind” philosophy.

Urban Schools and Urban Education

Urban education is defined as the size of the city in which a school is located, the

students in the school—racial, ethnic, linguistic, and socioeconomic diversity, the amount of

financial and technological resources, as well as federal funding such as Title 1 (Milner, Murray,

Farinde, & Delale-O’Connor, 2015). Students who attend urban schools are often stigmatized for

receiving free or reduced lunch as an indicator of their social status (Milner et al., 2015). Urban

school teachers often face high stress environments with limited resources and time (Ouellete et

16

al., 2018). These same students are typically the ones who are known to start school without

early literacy school, have lower self-esteem, and lack study motivation, making them less

motivated to excel in the school system (Badenhorst & Koalepe, 2014). Urban schools are

typically still segregated and most of the students occupying these schools are low-income

African American and Latino students, which make them underexposed to opportunities given to

White students (Kornblau, 2019). U.S. classrooms are filled with some of the nation’s neediest

students, but substitute teachers often fill these classrooms because the regular teachers might

have left midyear and principals cannot find full-time replacements (Brown, 2005). Principals

who serve in urban schools mostly serve poor students of color who are similar in race (Peters,

2012). In 2018, Texas Education Agency reported the number of students enrolled in public

schools for the 2017–2018 school year was 5,399,682. Of this number, 3,508,624 were Hispanics

or African Americans. According to the Texas Education Agency (2018), the Title 1 population

of schools in Texas was 3,507,107 and 3,168,294 consisted of economically disadvantaged; these

statistics make up the underrepresented children. Fifty percent of school districts in the nation are

urban school districts and 30% of this population has a higher teacher turnover rate when

compared to the rest of the nation’s schools (Helfeldt, Capraro, Capraro, Foster, & Carter, 2009).

Economically disadvantaged youth attend schools which are overcrowded, poorly funded, have

few resources, and have less qualified teachers. Too often, this is the portrait of an urban, Title 1

school (Farinde-Wu, 2018). Teachers are critical for good development but still these are the

same schools which are often filled underqualified teachers (Badenhorst & Koalepe, 2014). The

teachers who are leaving are often looking for better work environments, which leaves the most

vulnerable areas underserved.

17

Bloom and Erlandson (2003) asserted, “Urban schools are mirages, imaginary places

where poor, minority children go ostensibly to receive an education” (p. 342). They cautioned

that as urban public schools in the United States become more populated with students of color,

it is important that the demographics of leadership mirror the students. The challenge is finding

educators who can meet the needs of these underrepresented students who fall prey to the

socioeconomic problems of these neighborhoods (Bennett & Murakami, 2016). Texas schools

have seen an increase regarding a cultural gap between the educators and students (Jimenez,

Guzmán, & Maxwell, 2014). Urban schools are often staffed with novice principals who are less

experienced which results in them often transferring out of these challenging schools. Principals

in high-poverty Title 1 schools are often confronted with unpleasant school environments, which

often consists of old buildings, furniture, and facilities (Badenhorst & Koalepe, 2014). Principals

in urban schools must have an increased focus on academic achievement when they are in these

schools (Carson, 2017).

Teaching school in urban low-income communities poses emotionally intense and

complex challenges (Bennett & Murakami, 2016). Teachers in urban schools serving minority

populations often have greater stress and lower job satisfaction compared to their colleagues,

resulting in high teacher turnover (Ouellette et al., 2018). Urban schools are often labeled as

having poor organization, which also results in teacher turnover (Ingersoll, May, & Collins,

2019). When an organization goes from doing extremely well to declining within a short

timeframe, it is often because of fractured leadership (Rosenzweig, 2007). Often in the field of

education it is forgotten how much the organizational culture and leadership are dually affected,

which has an impact on student achievement (Campbell, 2010; Seymour, 2016).

18

Brooks (2012) stated, “While many educators throughout school systems can find

inspiration in the call to ameliorate hegemony and work toward more ethical and equitable

educational practice, school leaders are uniquely positioned to facilitate meaningful and

substantive change at the building level” (p. 17). Thus, principals are the top leaders of a

campus; they set the climate and culture (Cherkowski, Walker, & Kutsyuruba, 2015; Pater, 2015;

Terosky & Reitano, 2016). However, the average time for a principal to make positive changes is

at least five years, but the tenure of principals in high-poverty schools averages less than three

years (Seashore-Louis, Leithwood, Wahlstrom, & Anderson, 2010).

School Leadership

School leadership must be complex, have a vision, and work to generate staff to meet

success (Bennett & Murakami, 2016). School leadership, specifically in high-poverty urban

schools, should be rooted in enhancing the knowledge and skills of the educators, creating a

culture of high expectations to hold people accountable, and the use of relationships as a

component to link people within the organization (Carson, 2017). Educational leaders agree that

culture, climate, and community have an influence on their leadership, which is the same

element that distinguishes schools from one another (Brault et al., 2014; Brooks, 2012). School

leaders are expected to build organizational capacity in order to prepare students for 21st-century

skills and also to provide an educational program that yields equitable outcomes (Morgan, 2018).

In fact, the Wallace Foundation (2013) suggested that the building of trusting relationships is a

construct requiring training for many principals. When the campus vision has been set and

professional development is given to teachers, they become motivated to work in an environment

that facilitates strong retention (Seymour, 2016). School leadership is also a predictor of a

principal’s success and is a contributing factor for principal turnover, which then influences the

19

unpredictability of teachers making an increased contribution to teacher turnover (Pas et al.,

2012).

African American principals, whether new or veterans, are often in some of the lowest

performing, underfunded, and under-resourced schools, which is a disservice to these

professionals (Wilkerson & Wilson, 2017). School leaders are often selected for which school

they will lead based on their race and that of the student population (Peters, 2012). Therefore,

school leadership has been defined as the school principal who ultimately is responsible for the

relationship among staff and students (Makgato & Mudzanani, 2019).

Principals. A school can only be successful if the educational outcomes are recognized

by all stakeholders, especially the principal and the teachers (Lee & Kuo, 2019). Three-quarters

of public school teachers are female but only 30% of educational administrators are female

(Fugler, 2016). Providing principal support is vital in the process of turning around a high

priority school (Wilkerson & Wilson, 2017). School principals play an important role in the field

of education, and as society is changing, so are the roles of principals (Bennett & Murakami,

2016). Their role has a significant impact on the teachers and overall school outcome (Smit,

Bagley, & Ward, 2014). Principals need to develop their own value-based visions for change

efforts as well as be able to manage conflicts to help build the organization (Leo & Wickenberg,

2013). Principals are the head of school administration and are responsible for the educational

goals (Eboka, 2016). In educational settings the principal is expected to understand quality

instruction and have enough knowledge of the curriculum to ensure it is adequately given to the

students but also be able to support teachers to improve outcomes for them as well (Badenhorst

& Koalepe, 2014).

20

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2019), Texas employed about 23,000

principals of primary and secondary schools all earning under the national income level. School

principals are expected to increase student achievement and provide leadership, which then

results in an environment where staff feel satisfied in the system resulting in strong retention

(Makgato & Mudzanai, 2019). School principals are also expected to provide the mission and

give recognition to teachers professionally when needed (Lee & Kuo, 2019). Current research

supports the idea that high performing schools have principals whose values align with that of a

transformational leader specifically regarding being people-oriented (Makgato & Mudzannai,

2019).

The principal’s role has changed within the past 30 years. It has always been student

accountability and academics but now there is a heightened awareness for school safety,

technology, student voice, as well as public accountability (Stiles, 2014). However, one

component that has stayed the same through the evolving role of a principal is that it is critical to

build sustainable leaders and organizational capacity (Kadji-Beltran, Zachariou, & Stevenson,

2013). Principals are faced with the constant challenges of keeping up with all the new policies

being developed to accomplish the task of running a school (Smit et al., 2014).

In fact, principals are often inundated with the idea they need to become “super-

principals” to meet all the demands of running a school system (Morgan, 2018, p. 2). Principals

should be capable of facilitating a shared vision of all participants or stakeholders to increase

school change, which is a type of leader building trust among the staff (Kadji-Beltran et al.,

2013). Considering the ever-changing needs of principals, it is important to provide them with

professional development to achieve the expected results of all students (Stiles, 2014).

21

According to Huang, “the principal’s leadership skills affect school development and

performance” (as cited in Lee & Kuo, 2019, p. 91). Therefore, the principal’s leadership style

can significantly impact a school’s atmosphere and they can no longer just consider advocacy

and care as a means to run a school. With a growing shortage of principals, it is important to

understand that there needs to be a system to develop capable leaders (Morgan, 2018). Therefore,

it seems as if the concept of principal needs to be a transformational leader because they have the

ability to create change in the current structure of the school system (Lee & Kuo, 2019; Morgan,

2018).

Female principals. Women are seen to make better principals because their leadership

practices are more preferred compared to men, but somehow a man as the principal still has a

larger impact on teacher morale (Eboka, 2016). According to Jean-Marie (2013), “literature on

women in K–12 settings, especially gender issues in the realm of principalship, is still very

vigilant. The National Center for Education Statistics (2010) found 52% of the principals in low-

poverty and 65% of principals in high-poverty elementary schools were females. Consequently,

female principals often have higher expectations than other administrators from a different

gender. Women are more democratic and transformative than men typically because of the

mantra of women being more sensitive and their ability to communicate (Munir & Aboidullah,

2018).

Women who lead successfully typically have to have strong personalities (Goodson,

2016). Female principals have to understand characteristics associated within their leadership

role is often undervalued, despite “women school leaders being described as able to display their

emotional and compassionate sides within their leadership” (Reed, 2012, p. 42). However,

female teachers feel more comfortable with female bosses, describing them as having the nature

22

and nurture component that helps them feel validated and helps build strong relationships (Roane

& Newcomb, 2013).

According to Fuller, Pendola, and LeMay (2018), “68% of men and about 52% of women

who graduate with [principal] certifications in Texas gained employment” (p. 4). However, there

is still a disproportion of female principals across the state of Texas with men holding these

positions, even though women are obtaining more licensure and certifications for these positions.

This is important because it furthers the equity and equality issues women encounter in obtaining

jobs as principals (Gipson, Pfaff, Mendelsohn, Catenacci, & Burke, 2017; Hill, Miller, Benson,

& Handley, 2016; Hoyt & Simon, 2011). Fuller et al. (2018) found that half of the principals in

Texas are still leaving their job within the first three years. African Americans seeking to elevate

into mainstream spaces (spaces that are typically tailored for Whites) should be articulate, clean-

cut, African American (but not too African American), friendly, upbeat, and accommodating;

this is what it is like for many of the African American principals who have to deal with the

politics of education (E. Logan, 2014).

African American principals. The literature surrounding African American principals is

sparse (Loder, 2005). The suppression of research on African American women is an

undermining force in the economic and political revitalization which lies inside the African

American woman’s world, especially as a growing leader (Peters, 2012). Nonetheless, due to the

educational attainment of African Americans in the mid-20th century, they began to see career

attainment was possible due to the civil rights movement and the creation of financial assistance,

which allowed them to further their careers (Jackson & Miller, 2014).

There is no traditional path for African American female principals and typically they are

over the age of 40 before they obtain their first administrative role (Peters, 2012). The number of

23

African American female principals is growing; however, it is still relatively small when

compared to the number of White men and even African American men serving as principals

(Newcomb & Nieymer, 2015; Tillman, 2004). African American female principals are in great

demand as the needs of urban schools continue to rise (Newcomb & Niemeyer, 2015).

Nationally, 11% of the nation’s principals are African American but they are also concentrated

primarily in the nation’s urban public schools, which are normed for having a high turnover for

administration as well as an abundance of educational problems (Brooks, 2012).

African American female principals are viewed as being able to connect to their race,

which makes them racially connected in their field, but they are also considered rare in the

educational field because of their gender and leadership capabilities (Jean-Marie, 2013; Reed &

Evans, 2008). African American women who are in education could be subjected to mediocre

reviews and isolation from the lack of women mentors (Jackson & Miller, 2014). African

American principals are often employed in large urban school districts with low support, which

jeopardizes their ability to reach improvement goals and keep their teachers (Wilkerson &

Wilson, 2017). Farinde-Wu (2018) noted that educational problems for African American

women begin prior to their tenure as a principal or a teacher. These problems begin in the K–12

sector as they are the highest population of students who are suspended; but despite all odds

African American women are still enrolling and completing college at a higher rate than their

male counterparts. African American women are also plagued by the notion they are too young

or do not have enough experience to be in leadership roles, which is why it is often saturated

with White men and women (Jean-Marie, 2013). Teachers who work in urban schools find it

more difficult to remain at their schools due to the challenges that come with working in this

type of environment (Donaldson, 2012).

24

While the research on African American principals is limited, it is imperative to

understand the issues and experiences faced by African American principals (Bloom &

Erlandson, 2003; Campbell, 2010). It is problematic to assume that African Americans are best

suited to only lead majority African American populated schools and not fully allowing them to

work in high performing schools (Wilkerson & Wilson, 2017). Campbell (2010) noted, “The

number of African American principals in the United States is not a representation of the

population and they are traditionally perceived as lesser leaders by their White counterparts” (p.

43). “There are few African American public school principals and these principals generally

practice leadership in the most challenging schools, making their tenures shorter and the work

more difficult” (Brooks, 2012, p. 12). Also, while their tenure may be difficult, the race

affiliation between teachers, administrators, and students is critical as well as essential for their

schooling and education structure (Reed & Evans, 2008).

Yet, African American women are making substantial contributions in regard to the

quality of life and well-being for individuals as well as families in their communities, but it has

come with some restrictions (Jackson & Miller, 2014). African American women are often

required to present themselves in a way that is not “too Black” or “too feminine” (Fordham,

1993, as cited in Wiley et al., 2017, p. 19). African American women are often shifting in

different positions because they often feel suppressed by other races to survive, which means

they are hiding who they are (Roane & Newcomb, 2013). The notion of an African American

principal is crucial to the development and success of African American students and has often

been left out of research literature in social sciences (Brooks, 2012; Wiley et al., 2017). African

American principals lead with pastoral care, which is similar to the care exhibited in African

American churches (Roane & Newcomb, 2013). African Americans who have typically fallen

25

into this work consider it to be an organic link connected to a spiritual calling opposed to a job

(Loder, 2005). African American women have a major contribution to give to the field of

education which would be influential in the development and leadership of the educational

system; thus, emphasizing why studying the leadership of female, African American leaders is

important (Reed, 2012). African American leaders have adopted a notion of feeling responsible

for all students and to be intellectual role models for the African American community (Brooks,

2012).

Theoretical Framework: Transformational Leadership

Schools have become more business oriented and school leaders are now developing

skills that encompass the needs of both business and educational settings, thus creating the need

for transformational leadership (M. Anderson, 2017). Transformational leaders focus on the

people around them through their relationships, beliefs, feelings, and attitudes (Angelides, 2011).

Transformational leadership is a style of management that has modern, diverse trends but

emphasizes the moral requirements of all leaders as well as followers (Hsu, 2001). The type of

leadership exhibited under the transformational leadership style is meant to encourage members

to exceed expectations and give them the energy needed to push an organization to excel, while

increasing the capacity of the individual as well as the commitment (Lee & Kuo, 2019).

There are four specific traits which successful transformational leaders exhibit: idealized

influence, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation

(Bass & Riggio, 2014). Idealized influence can be linked to “the moment a transformational

leader assumes control of an organization, the culture changes as the transformational leader

looks to inspire followers to commit to shared vision and goals as an organizational unit”

(Hickman, 2016, p. 77). Inspirational motivation encourages good people to stay in the field of

26

education; as Levin (2013) asserted, “if they feel supported in doing the work they care about,

are treated fairly, have some autonomy in their work, work with good colleagues, have talented

and supportive leadership, and working conditions that make their jobs possible” (p. 198).

Bass’s concept of intellectual stimulation was differentiating jobs to give teachers the

opportunity to change and impact instructional practices on various levels of education as a

partnership to facilitate conversations about the field of education and ways to continue

educating individuals (Margolis, 2008). Individualized consideration is a hands-on approach

which uses mentorship to acknowledge and promote the unique value of each team contributor

(Hickman, 2016). The combination of mentoring programs and induction programs has helped to

improve teacher retention (Ingersoll, 2012). Transformational leadership positively influences

school leaders’ ability to influence change to meet the demands of education in the 21st century

(R. A. Anderson, 2008). Transformational leadership is the leadership style most researchers feel

is appropriate for today’s schools (M. Anderson, 2017). A principal is the campus leader and

therefore, must lead the school in a transformational way because that is what teachers are

looking for in campus leaders (Hauserman & Stick, 2013). Research shows that teachers’

internal state and positive impact on student achievement is linked to a transformational

leadership (M. Anderson, 2017). According to Navickaite and Janiunaite (2010), school

principals who are transformational leaders develop themselves first and then create conditions

for their staff by developing the school community to help each other achieve new heights for the

schools. Yadav and Kumar (2019) concluded that most teachers are affected by principals who

have adopted the transformational leadership style.

Teachers want a transformational leader because they are “less likely to follow the status

quo” (Hauserman & Stick, 2013, p. 188). Hauserman and Stick revealed that “teachers’

27

perceptions of highly transformational principals resulted in teachers being happier with the

school leadership and more willing to put greater effort into their jobs; making their leaders more

effective than other schools” (p. 189). M. Anderson (2017) noted that “teachers reported that

transformational leadership is shown to have positive correlations to enhanced student

performance in reading, as well as being successful in energizing students, getting them to

transcend self-interest, and embrace change” (p. 7).

Additional Theoretical Framework

African American feminist thought came from the idea that African American women are

to be viewed as knowledgeable about the interconnectedness of sexism, class oppression, and

racism (Wiley et al., 2017). Roane and Newcomb (2013) suggested this theory explores African

American women and specifically who can have an impact on leadership development. African

American feminist thought is set to uplift other African Americans in the community to

understand education and advancement, and it does help especially amongst an underrepresented

group within society.

Witherspoon and Mitchell (2009) argued that critical race theory is situated in the idea of

race being at the center of the U.S. society and that it can be used to theorize, examine, and

challenge issues within racial constructs. Critical race theory encompasses injustice, inequality,

and other oppressions and is directly tied to the impact of education on African American

students. S. R. Logan et al. (2018) postulated that curriculum in education upholds White

supremacy, which uses strategies that African American students are deficient and relies on

assessments to justify a perspective that African American students cannot reach their maximum

achievement potential. Critical race theory postulates that racism is oppressive and not an oddity

and that the idea of racism is very much still permeating much of what educators do (Wilkerson

28

& Wilson, 2017). The interest of African Americans in achieving racial equality will be

accommodated only when it converges with the interest of Whites who are in policy-making

positions (Bell, 2004, as cited in Wilkerson & Wilson, 2017).

Wilkerson and Wilson (2017) argued critical race theory has been derived from racial

constructs which have generally given favor to White people and has not paid attention to the

disadvantaged people of color. Consequently, African American people will not have the same

rights as White people until civil rights gains or legal actions are taken to appease White people

and making them feel less threatened by benefiting from African Americans being in higher

positions (Wilkerson & Wilson, as cited by Gooden, 2012; Khalifa, 2015). This is critical as it

effects the retention of teachers in the field of education, especially African American teachers

and leaders since they are often placed in high-poverty schools leaving the privileged schools for

White leaders or teachers making their longevity easier (Wilkerson & Wilson, 2017).

Self-efficacy, according to Bandura’s (1986) social cognition theory, emphasizes the

importance of human agency and how people believe in themselves (Morgan, 2018). Principals

must have high self-efficacy especially as a school leader, because the organization runs largely

based on how they think and behave (Petridou, Nicolaidou, & Williams, 2014). School leaders

with high levels of self-efficacy believe they could achieve the school and district goals despite

possibly receiving setbacks and failures (McCullers & Bozeman, 2010).

Summary

Chapter 2 was relevant information on why there is a need to study this body of literature

further. Teacher attrition is a national issue and it is even worse in low socioeconomic

neighborhoods where the impact strikes some of the neediest students hardest. It is important to

understand how transformational African American principals who utilize this leadership model

29

improve their schools, which results in positive outcomes for minority students. In Texas, it is

even more important to know how minority leaders can have an impact on minority students as

they are currently the largest population within the state. In Chapter 3, I describe the research

methods which provide the foundation for how I conducted the research. In Chapter 4, I report

the findings. Chapter 5 contains a summary of the study and I present the conclusions,

implications for practice, and suggestions for future studies.

30

Chapter 3: Research Method



retain teachers in Texas high-poverty schools. The principal as school leader has been assigned

to direct the school campus and is tasked with creating followers (teachers) who want to remain

on the campus from year to year. In this chapter, I explain the research design and method,

population, sampling, materials and instruments, the qualitative data collection, as well as the

analysis, researcher’s role, ethical considerations, assumptions, limitations, and delimitations.

Research Design

The methodology I used for conducting this study was a qualitative case study. Yin

(2018) stated, “A case study is the preferred methodology when the relevant behaviors still

cannot be manipulated and when the desire is to study some contemporary event or events” (p.

12). According to Creswell and Creswell (2018), a case study is where the researcher develops

an in-depth analysis of an event, activity, or process where data were collected over a period of

time. Yin and Davis (2007) supported the idea that implementation of a case study allows for the

researcher to address real-world concerns that are meant to improve the contextual conditions

prevalent to the case. They argued a qualitative instrumental case is derived from open-ended

questions and the researcher will typically bring personal values into the study. Qualitative

research focuses on a singular concept to aid in finding results that could be replicated through

authentic information (Yin, 2018).

Case study research is the empirical investigation of a phenomenon derived within its

natural context using multiple sources of evidence (Yin, 2013, as cited by Hancock & Algozzine,

2017). A case study is defined by Flyvbjerg (2011) as “an intensive analysis of an individual unit

31

as a person or community stressing development factors in relation to environment” (p. 301). A

case study was chosen because Yin (2018) articulated this type of study is taking real world

interventions that are too complex for surveys and experimental methods. Within the teaching

field of education, urban schools are often at the forefront of teacher retention and this is why

there needs to be a collective amount of strategies for others to use within the urban community.

Thus, this design has been chosen because it is imperative to understand what strategies

principals, who self-identify as transformational leaders, utilize to retain teachers in a way that

can be replicated. For this case study, I collected data from 10 principals, which will contribute

to understanding how to retain teachers within the field of education.

Purpose Statement and Research Questions



retain teachers in Texas high-poverty schools. I conducted the research using narrative

interviews from a guided protocol based on the research questions to identify strategies

implemented by principals with a goal to retain teachers.

Q1. Idealized Influence—What strategies do principals implement to establish goals and

a shared vision to support teacher retention?

Q2. Inspirational Motivation—What strategies do principals implement to motivate staff


Q3. Individualized Consideration—What strategies do principals implement to provide


Q4. Intellectual Stimulation—What strategies do principals implement to support teacher


32

Population

According to the most recent report from the Texas Education Agency (2019), in 2017–

2018 there were 5,427 female principals. The same report showed there were 1,069 African

American principals working in Texas school systems. However, I was not able to determine

how many of these female principals are African American. I contacted Region 10, which

services the Dallas area schools, and the Texas Alliance of Black School Educators to see if

either had an actual number, but I was unsuccessful with these organizations.

Qualitative sampling in this study consisted of African American female principals to

capture authentic information. Also, because I studied a particular population, it was interesting

to see how many similarities occurred based on the ability to have genuine conversations. All of

the participants completed and signed an informed consent (Appendix A) that explained to them

all the rules and regulations that governed their privacy and protection.

This study involved 10 participants who were African American female principals who

self-identified as transformational leaders, which was the first criterion participants had to meet.

Since this was a qualitative research study, “there aren’t any rules for sample size” (Patton, 2015,

p. 311). Therefore, the number of participants was chosen because they would be useful and

would be able to provide credibility as well as make it reliable in lieu of the timeframe. I selected

participants purposefully due to the delimitations that I determined for this study. Creswell

(2011) believed purposeful sampling should be used when the researcher intentionally selects

individuals and sites in order to discover and understand their phenomenon through certain

characteristics. The delimitations and criteria were as follows:

• Must be female;

• Must be African American;

33

• Must self-identify as a transformational leader;

• Must be located in Texas;

• Must be the principal of an urban Title 1 school;

• Must have been principal at the current school for two years;

• The school must have a high teacher retention rate of at least 76% for the past two

years;

• The principal must hold a principal certification and at least a master’s degree or

higher.

Table 1 depicts the number of years each participant has worked as a principal and the

retention rates of their staffs. The table provides a visual representation of the 10 African

American female principals who participated in this research.

Table 1

Principal Data

Number of Years Retention Rate

Principal A 2 99%

Principal B 4 80%

Principal C 3 80%

Principal D 7 86%

Principal E 3 95%

Principal F 5 97%

Principal G 3 81%

Principal H 9.5 90%

Principal I 4 90%

Principal J 5 85%

34

The participants all had direct knowledge of the roles and responsibilities associated with

being a principal in a Title 1 urban, high-poverty school. Each participant holds a master’s

degree or higher, which is the required minimum to obtain a principal certification in the state of

Texas. I contacted each principal via email and telephone, and I obtained them using a snowball

sampling methodology—I contacted a principal who identified with the stated study criteria and

then asked them to recommend others who would also qualify (Patton, 2015). Each participant

was contacted via email about their participation and the email included a consent to release

information at that time (S. R. Logan et al., 2018).

Forty-five African American principals were identified, 32 did not respond to the inquiry

when I reached out, and 13 responded. Of the 13 who responded, three did not fit the criteria for

the study, which left the 10 who participated. After receiving their approval, each one was given

an informed consent before any formal interviews took place. I recorded all the interviews,

transcribed them, and then member checked for accuracy. I used pseudonyms to protect the

principal’s confidentiality as well as the school that they serve. To maintain trustworthiness with

the principal, I altered the location of the school and the districts.

Data Collection and Instrument

Prior to collecting data, I obtained an exempt Internal Review Board approval from

Abilene Christian University (see Appendix B), which allowed me to conduct the current

research on the campus of each principal. To understand how the principals are retaining their

teachers, interviewing was the primary data collection process I implemented in this research

because the principals were discussing strategies. I audio recorded the interviews but also took

field notes during the interview visit. Other data points included reviewing the website, checking

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the culture and climate of each school, reading the bulletin boards, and noting the atmosphere of

the school.

Case study research is descriptive because it is grounded in deep and varied sources of

information (Hancock & Algozzine, 2017). The data collection process gave me key factors

which aided in knowing how to retain teachers in low socioeconomic areas. The data consisted

of key information from open-ended interviews, which helped me create mental images to bring

the context to life (Hancock & Algozzine, 2017). Creswell and Creswell (2018) suggested open-

ended interviews will elicit views and opinions from the participants. I tailored the interview

questions to answer each of the research questions. It was imperative to ask the same questions

to each participant to gain true insight and validity as this is important in conducting personal

interviews (S. R. Logan et al., 2018). The guided protocol (see Appendix A) I used is a

combination of research questions, the literature review, and personal professional experiences.

There was one interview with each principal, conducted in person, and each interview lasted

between 30 minutes and 3 hours. I recorded the interviews using a handheld recorder that I then

sent to a transcription company (Temi, 2020) to be transcribed. Then, I gave the transcription to

the principal to check to ensure everything was transcribed correctly.

Qualitative Data Analysis Procedures

Creswell and Creswell (2018) discussed coding as a quick way to locate passages or text

segments in which participants responded in a similar or different way as the last step in

gathering qualitative data. Coding is used to assign tags to pieces of data systematically (S. R.

Logan et al., 2018). Saldaña (2013) identified three coding practices: in vivo, pattern, and

process coding. Saldaña asserted that the in vivo coding style uses the participants’ own

language as a good coding concept. This was important for this study because interviewing

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principals to gather their input and feedback was vital for the study to be authentic. Another

perspective of coding utilized was pattern coding, which Saldaña identified as helping determine

the similarities identified by the participants. Patton (2015) provided examples of how to code

information with abbreviations, and this made coding data for this situation very convenient.

Last, I used process coding because it is a word or phrase that captures action (Saldaña, 2013). I

used a software coding program called NVivo (2020), which broke down each one of these

coding mechanisms.

According to Patton (2015), a qualitative analyst must first deal with the challenge of

figuring out what things fit into this study and how to merge the content together. Patton also

discussed the “importance of a three-step process which uses extension which is going deeper

into the patterns, bridging to make the connection, and surfacing that allows one to propose new

ideas that might fit into existence” (p. 557). Creswell and Creswell (2018) referred to data

analysis as simultaneous procedures because all of the qualitative data must be analyzed to create

a narrative. Creswell and Creswell then emphasized it was important to narrow down and truly

focus on what the purpose of the study is meant to find while alleviating the excess information.

Researcher’s Role

In Luke 16:10–12 it is written:

He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous

in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. Therefore, if you have not been faithful

in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? And if you have

not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is

your own?

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The verse by Luke reminds me that it is important in all situations to be fruitful with words, build

trust, and be honest with one another, because establishing that respect early is pivotal for

sustaining the ultimate prize. The same way Luke spoke of trustworthiness in the Bible is the

same way I as a researcher have to uphold the standards.

I have spent the past seven years as an educator and the past three years as a school board

trustee. Due to my background in education, I did have a few assumptions, but I worked to stay

on track and ask the prescribed questions, which limited my biases. While education was not

always the career, I planned for myself, it became my passion. After graduating from college

with my bachelor’s degree, I realized there was nothing I could do with a degree in Psychology

and thank God I was already accepted into a Master of Education Counseling program. I went to

classes Monday–Thursday from 4:30 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. every night as I was a full-time

graduate student, but I still needed to earn an income. I began my work as a substitute teacher

and then was offered to be a permanent substitute for a science classroom. It was within this time

period of my life where I was walking into my vocation. I immediately began a summer

alternative certification program and was a teacher entering the 2012 school year.

I chose a school in my community to go back and serve as an eighth-grade science

teacher because it was the school where I attended junior high. It was important to me to give

back to the students in my community and be around teachers who poured into me when I was a

student. My first year of teaching was amazing; I was working alongside one of the pillar

principals of the community. My second year was not as great, as we had a change in leadership

and there was a culture shift in the building. There was no trust between the principal and staff,

the principal was not easily accessible nor supportive. At the end of this school year, I left the

district and took on another role as a high school counselor, but I had to leave my comfort zone.

38

However, I was now part of the problem—walking out on the kids in my community who I could

help foster. This was the moment I began to realize I had a deeper calling to serve students in a

different capacity while keeping students in the forefront. I began to research the topic of

retention to see how other educators felt that a lack of support, a culture change, and a lack of

relationship with their principal caused them to leave their schools or even the education sector

in general. This is a concern for the state for the educational system, but it is more an issue for

me in relation to the African American and Hispanic communities, whose children are being lost

in the shuffle.

Trustworthiness

Patton (2015) discussed how establishing the credibility of the findings and the

interpretations depends on the careful attention to establishing trust, the importance of providing

a snippet of the literature review, and the way my peers have discussed this topic. Another

component is the presentation of the self, one’s status, and experience that gives credibility to the

inquirer.

Patton (2015) argued that “trustworthiness as an important component to get people’s

honest opinion as they connect and relate to the researcher” (p. 457). Therefore, it was

imperative to gain the principals’ trust and convey to them the importance of my trustworthiness

throughout the process of compiling the research. During this process we were co-investigators

because we shared power and decision making. I also relayed to them that they would check and

verify all information gathered from the interview in a process called member checking. Each

participant was provided a copy of their interview and invited to approve or make any

adjustments. I also took field notes during the interviews. I dated them, noted where the

interview occurred, who presented, the setting, the social interaction, as well as the activities that

39

occurred during this time to help with the data analysis. Patton discussed the triangulation effect

of capturing and respecting multiple perspectives, which is an important aspect of

trustworthiness. In this study, triangulation included the interview data, field notes, websites, and

document reviews, such as meeting agendas, for compatibility with the current literature review.

I stored all data in a locked space to ensure confidentiality.

Ethical Considerations

Prior to any data being gathered, the application and approval from the Internal Review

Board of Abilene Christian University occurred. Other ethical guidelines to consider was that

each participant received an informed consent that contained the purpose of the study and the

expected amount of time they would contribute to this research. Also, each participant

understood through the informed consent that their participation was voluntary, they could

withdraw at any time, and their information would remain confidential. This information was all

relayed to the participants orally prior to beginning any research as well as when each signed the

informed consent agreement.

Due to the nature of this research, it was imperative to ensure that confidentiality was

held to the highest standard possible. It was also very important to make sure that ethically I

ensured the principals and districts understood the importance of this purposeful research. There

is limited literature on African American principals; and the culture of schools in high-poverty

areas is an issue that educators must begin to cultivate to ensure students are receiving an equal

education to their White counterparts. As an African American researcher, I wanted to

understand the culture of the school; a high part of being ethical in the school community is

knowing if something is wrong and how to report it properly.

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Assumptions

According to M. Simon (2011), assumptions are issues in the study that are out of the

researcher’s control, but if they did not exist the study would not be relevant. It was an

assumption that the principals, who self-identified as transformational leaders, were creating

change agents on their teams and had a team of believers. It was an assumption that these

campuses were thriving despite the limitations and stigma people expect from Title I schools.

The principals of these schools have groomed and given all four of the components of individual

consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and idealized influence to their

teachers on the campus that made them want to support the young people they serve. This

research has the potential to help struggling schools overcome the gap and contribute to what is

needed to make these campuses as inviting to the top talent of teachers, while giving African

American and Hispanic students the ability to compete on the same level as their White

counterparts. Another assumption was that all participants answered interview questions honestly

and that the interview questions were concise and easy to understand.

Limitations

Limitations are the ways a study is limited by the methodology, which is generally out of

the control of the researcher (M. Simon, 2011). A major limitation is this study is not

generalizable to larger populations because qualitative studies are not generalizable (Creswell &

Creswell, 2018). This study is limited by the understanding of the participants and their ability to

provide a true insight into each one of their experiences. Another limitation was that the

participants’ schedules allowed for a timely interview to proceed. This study was also limited by

its focus on African American female principals, which suggests that other cultures might not be

able to necessarily understand all of the implications of the study. Another limitation was the

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experiences of these principals and how they attained their profession might not be the same for

all ethnicities. If another ethnic culture was to study this, perhaps different results would be

found.

Delimitations

A delimitation was finding principals who self-identified as transformational leaders in

urban areas. I also believe that because I was only looking at females, I was not focusing on the

men who were also transformational leaders. Another delimitation is that while I was focused on

Title 1 schools, many schools do not fall under this category simply because they are under-

identified but are also struggling to retain teachers within their schools. I wonder about the low-

poverty schools which are also cycling through principals and are not seeing how to retain those

teachers due to the instability of principals.

Therefore, delimitations of this study included participants who were African American

females located in urban, Title 1 schools in Texas. The participants also had to hold a master’s

degree or higher, which is a requirement of the state of Texas to be a principal. The participants

must also have been a transformational leader and been at their current school for three years.

The principal must also have retained teachers at their current school at a 76% threshold within

the past two years.

Summary

In this chapter, I reviewed the methodology and research design method that I utilized to

discover how to retain teachers in Title 1, high-poverty schools. Then I discussed the qualitative

data collection process and what this entailed. Next, I presented the researcher’s role and the

ethical considerations that must be taken into consideration to ensure I did not breaking any laws

and stayed compliant. I also provided assumptions of what the research should look like, the

42

limitations of what might occur, and the delimitations. In Chapter 4, I report the data gathered

from the interviews. Chapter 5 contains a summary of the study along with my conclusions,

implications for practice, and suggestions for future studies.

Chapter 4: Results



retain teachers in Texas high-poverty schools. Principal leadership has been found to have a

strong influence on teachers’ decision to remain in the teaching profession (Thibodeaux et al.,

2015). Transformational leadership behaviors in principals have a positive effect on teacher

retention (Schneider, 2016). In this chapter, I report findings from interviews with school

principals in Texas in relation to the four components of transformational leadership—idealized

influence, individual influence, inspirational motivation, and intellectual stimulation.

The participants in this study were 10 African American female principals who self-

identified as transformational leaders. These principals also had to be on their campus for at least

two consecutive years, had to have a teacher retention rate of 75% or more, and serve a Title 1

campus. The principals interviewed came from elementary schools, middle schools, high

schools, and alternative campuses within the state of Texas. The average timespan that principals

had been working at their campus was 4.55 years. One principal had been on her campus for the

two-year minimum and the longest had been on her campus for nine years. All of the principals

had been in the field of education for at least 12 years and the longest time in the profession was

30 years. Also, most of the principals had between an 85% to 95% retention rate of staff over at

least two years. There were two principals who reported they have not lost a single person over

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at least two years and had to increase teachers to their campus because the schools had grown so

much.

Research Question 1

Addressing research question 1, I explored strategies principals implement to establish

goals and a shared vision to support teacher retention. There were several themes which occurred

under idealized influence. These themes included engaging in effective communication, creating

campus leadership teams, developing positive principal-teacher relationships, developing

positive relationships with students and parents, and having a personal commitment to specific

goals.

Engaging in effective communication. Every principal discussed the importance of

engaging in open communication with their staff in multiple ways, such as creating surveys and

having one-on-one conversations to decide what the goal and vision should be for the campus.

All the principals said it was important to ask staff what they thought the vision should be for the

year. Seven out of 10 of the principals discussed the importance of weekly newsletters that

contained information for the week. Figure 1 is an example of a newsletter which was sent out to

the staff at one school.

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Figure 1. Newsletter.

Several of the principals stated the importance of not having staff meetings “just to have

them” but making sure the information at a staff meeting was informational and not just

something that could go into an email. Principals also used computer software—Remind 101,

Class DOJO, and School Messenger—to send quick memos to staff. Remind 101 is a platform

used to help teachers, administrators, parents and students of K–12 schools communicate with

everyone at once (Remind, 2020). ClassDojo (2020) is a platform for educators to send conduct

and behavior reports to parents using real time information. School Messenger is used to send

out recorded memos to staff and parents through an automated calling system.

Creating campus leadership teams. Seven of the 10 principals said they created a

campus leadership team that included department heads, instructional coaches, and assistant

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principals across campuses. According to the different principals, the campus leadership team is

selected in several ways. For example, one principal noted that the department head was

determined by their test scores and having the ability to be a mentor to incoming individuals new

to the team or to the overall support of their team. The instructional coaches were chosen by the

principals as someone who was well-versed in their content and able to buy into the campus

vision. An interview process led by the principals selected the assistant principals, and all of

them made it known that all these individuals had to support the overall vision. One principal

stated, “Just because someone is good at what they do, does not make them a good fit for my

campus; they have to support the vision and goals.” Common words used as they discussed their

strategies included family, coach, group, community, team, and collaboration. All of these words

were symbolic of how they viewed their campus staff.

Developing positive principal-teacher relationships. Principals have a unique way of

getting to know all their teachers. One principal stated, “I like to look at things from an

improvement mindset because every day we live, we should be progressing towards improving

for ourselves and especially our students.” This was essential for her when thinking about how to

engage teachers individually because she was able to tap into what they wanted to do long term

and help them to establish goals while understanding their vision.

All the principals discussed the importance of one-on-one meetings with their teachers to

hear their individual goals and how these are done prior to the school year starting, a midyear

check, and at the end of the school year. The principals emphasized the importance of building a

genuine, caring relationship with teachers. One principal noted:

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Some teachers want to be the best classroom teacher they can be and that is their goal

while other teachers want to grow into the leadership position but supporting them will

get them to do what you need them to do overall.

Another principal stated, “We work on their goals together, if I can’t be their first contact

for support then I’m not an effective leader.” Several of the principals stated that setting goals

and creating a vision with teachers individually allowed them to step into the coaching role as

opposed to the supervisor role that allowed the teachers to be more receptive to the feedback.

Also, the principals each allowed their staff to seek out learning opportunities whether it was

shadowing someone or going to a training.

Another principal indicated they have created a social and emotional learning center for

staff, which is separate from the teacher lounge. This area had reclining chairs, aromatherapy,

and yoga mats; it was a safe space for teachers to be able to debrief and relax throughout the day.

All the principals discussed how they must be trauma-informed because they serve many

students from foster and migrant families, and they need to understand the socioeconomic status

of the students. One principal stated, “This is when you have to know if the students and staff

needs, Maslow’s (basic needs), are met before they can begin to understand Blooms’ Taxonomy

(how to learn).” However, all the principals made sure to treat the staff and students alike letting

them know life happens and that the principals were here to support the teachers. All the

principals acknowledged that they met the basic needs of staff and students. It boiled down to

building relationships. Every one of them emphasized relationships. One principal said it this

way: “Relationships matter, tell the kids they are valued, and student success is derived from

relationships.”

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Building positive relationships with students and parents. Building positive

relationships with students and parents was a finding. For example, a principal disclosed that a

challenge for her campus was keeping the students motivated to be successful because of their

environmental situations outside of school. On one of the school websites it has the school

statements of commitments which reflect the views and priorities of the campus, which support

the principal’s idea of being committed to their goals while making sure students and parents are

familiar with the expectations. Principals said it was important to understand the social and

emotional learning concepts in their schools particularly because of the population of students

they serve. Several principals commented that parent participation was low on their campuses

and instead of considering this a hindrance, these principals made it a point to get deeper into the

communities where the kids lived, which eventually would get the parents comfortable about

visiting the schools. Figure 2 is an example of a newsletter to get parents and students engaged

and then referenced back to ClassDojo.

Figure 2. Examples of parent student engagement newsletter.

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All the principals discussed “meeting them where they are,” which meant knocking on

doors for basic introductions and letting parents know they wanted to collaborate with them and

build positive relationships for the school year. Another principal commented that a challenge for

her was keeping her school safe because of the “park” behind the school which has an influx of

drugs and just making sure they are not coming into her building.

Having a personal commitment to specific goals. All the principals acknowledged that

they had a clear understanding of their individual campus goals. Several principals identified

academics was a problem in terms of making sure all of their students were able to read on grade

level. A principal emphasized, “Reading is not on grade level for most of our students and that

trickles into every other subject, it is important we spend time focused on reading.” These

principals also made it known they had to implement a DEAR (drop everything and read) time

daily for 20 minutes to get students to build their reading skills. A principal also mentioned they

have a “reading club” which is similar to student council or dance clubs on campus and this has

gotten students to want to read more as well. Another principal stated, “Our school has

traditionally performed well and at all times we have to reach our goal of continuing to perform

well, whether you have staff turnover or not.” Another principal stated, “It’s not necessarily a

magic bullet out there to make your scores go up, it’s the teachers working together in

collaboration to create the best lessons to talk about the standards and know the standards inside

and out.” One of the principals made this statement: “We focus not only on students learning and

students growing, but we focus on teacher growth in all of our professional developments and all

of our conversations with teachers, through feedback and evaluations, focus on a growth

mindset.”

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One principal made it clear for the mission and vision of her campus to be aligned with

her goal because it is the first thing on the campus website: “Engage, equip, & empower all

students to become successful.” Each of these principals was able to address their goals. Overall,

the goals emphasized the focus on growth and that everyone has bought into their vision.

Principals’ goals were the following:

• Principal A: “My goal is to be 100% meets, 50% masters for all my students.

However, this meant all my teachers had to adapt the 100% focus and growth mindset.

Each student needs to grow because they are all different.”

• Principal B: “The goal is to become a blue-ribbon campus, which means 90% or above

approaches, 70% meets, and 50%–60% of all students master their STAAR test.”

• Principal C: “The goal is to LEVEL UP. Wherever your students or you are, the idea is

for them to move up in their respective categories.”

• Principal D: “Our vision is ONE THING, our one goal or ‘one thing’ is to improve our

English EOC scores.”

• Principal E: “Our goal is to increase 6% in reading and math in third grade.”

• Principal F: “Our goal is to make sure teachers are continual learners and that our

students progress at their level of success.”

• Principal G: “Our vision is to equip leaders to build the whole child and the goal is

100% growth for all students.”

• Principal H: “Our goal is to be lifelong learners for all, teachers and students.”

• Principal I: “Our goal is to continually increase our attendance in an effort to show

growth through progress monitoring.”

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• Principal J: “Our goal this year is to increase our student achievement and parental

involvement, continue a positive culture, and work on our social and emotional

learning plan.”

Research Question 2

With research question 2, I explored strategies principals implemented to motivate staff

to achieve the goals and shared vision of the organization which supports teacher retention.

Several themes emerged under this topic: Effectively train staff, be attentive to the needs of staff,

give staff positive praise and activities, and allow uninhibited conversations. These four themes

have direct strategies with the intention to allow a new principal to understand how to motivate

their staff to want to achieve goals.

Effectively train staff. One principal stated, “If you want your staff to achieve the goals

you’ve set out for the campus you have to be willing to give the staff the trainings they request.”

While reviewing one of the campus websites, I could clearly see that staff was employing what

they have learned during their staff trainings as depicted in Figure 3.

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Figure 3. Apply professional development. Facial images are blacked out for confidentiality

purposes. The labels on the images from top to bottom are as follows: Purposeful talk, Recognize

and reinforce, frame the lesson, in the power zone, and critical writing.

Several principals noted that when a teacher is directly asked to attend a training, it is

because they want to improve in that area and personally feel it is a weakness. Another principal

stated, “When my teachers are growing my kids are growing, because the teachers come back

motivated to try out whatever they attended the training on.” One principal said she sends the

whole department to conferences either during the school year or in the summer, whenever they

need to go. Another principal noted, “My whole science team is at the CAST (Conference for the

Advancement of Science Teaching) science conference this week and every time they go, they

come back full of new projects for the kids.”

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Because these principals led Title 1 schools, it was important to ask how principals

budgeted for these conferences and this received a simple response by several, such as, “You

budget for it early, start working on your budget in January of each new year and when it is due

in March you won’t have pushback; the key is to submit it early.” Eight of the 10 principals also

discussed using every day as an opportunity to train staff and this can be done informally or

formally, whether through walk-throughs or professional learning communities. Other principals

discussed allowing other teachers who are doing well to lead learning stations on campus

professional development days because it gives teachers autonomy to be trained from other peers

while saving money. One principal stated, “Teachers can learn a lot from one another, it is just

giving them the time to see someone else with the same students modeling it in a different way.”

This same principal also emphasized how she will allow staff to take an internal half day to

complete observations of other teachers’ classes in order to learn from them. She said she will

find coverage for them, but that they had to submit a request a week before.

Be attentive to the needs of staff. When discussing being attentive to staff needs to keep

them motivated, one principal noted, “It’s the small things that matter to staff.” Some defined

small things on several campuses as keeping an open door so that staff felt welcome to come by

the principal’s office to just chat. On another campus small things included providing a swag bag

of supplies, which included an ID holder, highlighters, markers, a big thing of sanitizer, and a

$50 credit to the media center. One principal said that a small thing on her campus was going

back to the classroom where she used to teach when the permanent teacher was out on maternity

leave. One principal indicated that “I’ll give you [teacher] everything that you [teacher] need as

long as it’s tied back to student improvement.”

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Another principal indicated that her campus teachers have the ability to send a message to

the administration team if they feel themselves getting overwhelmed. In that case, a campus

leader will go relieve that teacher for about 10 to 15 minutes without asking questions. The

principal stated, “This concept has allowed the campus to understand we are all human and you

have to take care of yourself first or you won’t be effective for my kids.” Another principal said

that

It is important for me to greet every staff member, every day. I don’t stand at the door

either, I go by each one of their classrooms to make sure I see their face and I have that

moment to check in directly with them.

Give staff positive praise and activities. According to one principal, “Teachers like to

feel appreciated and often times it is not until kids are long gone, in which they appreciate their

teachers, which is why it is up to me to show them appreciation.” Every principal acknowledged

this is where they use their weekly newsletters to highlight the positive things that have

happened around campus for the week. One of the principals mentioned that the weekly

newsletters should always start “with a motivational quote at the top to jump start the entire

segment, make it uplifting, I make people want to read the newsletter.” Several principals

discussed how they use their campus websites and campus Facebook and Twitter accounts to

showcase the positive things that are happening at their campuses. Another principal suggested,

“Don’t make it complicated, if you see something good happening tell the teacher right then and

there.” One principal stated, “I recognize the entire team when growth has occurred because

when we get our scores it doesn’t say teacher A, it says the school received the rating.” Several

principals articulated the importance of giving positive praise to their teachers in front of the

students and how it makes the students begin to work harder because they see their teacher

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getting rewarded for being a good teacher. A principal described the following: “One thing we

do is hang a little thing that says you’re the key to our success on a teacher’s door, so the kids

actually see it whenever they’re approaching the door as well.”

Each principal discussed activities they do on their campuses to motivate their staff. One

that was generic to all campuses was showing appreciation to the staff with chocolate or food

with the explanation from all that if there is an opportunity, then take advantage of it. One

principal explained that “if you can keep a teacher from having to spend 15 minutes of their 30-

minute lunch by having food for them from time to time that teacher will be much more effective

throughout the day.” Another strategy was to allow the staff to wear jeans to school. A principal

stated, “I don’t know what it is with jeans, jeans passes, or jean day but the staff will do almost

anything to get to wear jeans.” One of the principals stated the importance of allowing the staff

to wear sweats the last week before the break as a show of appreciation for the work they

completed the first semester.

Another principal shared how every month she tries to have a theme. Examples included

October as “Stress Free,” November as “Thankful Thursdays,” and December as “10 days of

Christmas.” She stated these days could be dress up days attached to independent theme days,

with the principal giving them something daily or even passing out snacks. She said these

activities are “impactful on my campus.” One principal noted that she “pushes coffee around

from time to time on a cart.”

One principal explained, she does a teacher lottery system where she raffles off two

Dallas Cowboy tickets with an all access-pass, two Southwest airlines tickets, and gift cards for

attendance to keep staff motivated to be at work daily. Another principal acknowledged how a

local chiropractor office comes to her campus twice a year to provide free chair massages to the

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staff, and she holds competitions that help drive staff to achieve their goals. One principal said

that on her campus they created a fall teacher appreciation week, and the staff received Kona Ice

one day, breakfast one day, and lunch another day just to show appreciation.

Allow uninhibited conversations. Eight of the 10 principals went back to the basics of

how relationships matter and noted once they have built that relationship with the staff, then staff

will talk to the principal. One principal stated, “Be vulnerable, show you are human, and that you

are not above making mistakes.” One principal explained the quote like this: “The moment your

staff understands you are not above them; you are here to work with them, is the moment you

will be able to be a change agent on your campus.” Another principal discussed how a single

teacher on her campus never has a problem because “We are in this together” and she noted it is

her job as a leader to help teachers navigate when a problem does arise. One principal said, “My

staff, they’ll probably tell you that I’m one of the keep-it-real people. I’m not going to sugar coat

anything I do, but I do lead with love.” Another principal emphasized that

If you suspect or hear remarks around campus, be willing to address it head on with

whomever, because it means you are in tune to the campus, you might not know the ins

and outs but you don’t want it to foster a bad work environment for others.

Research Question 3

Research question 3 focused on individualized consideration and what strategies

principals implement to provide teacher growth opportunities to support teacher retention. The

evolving themes from this section included implementing the Bambrick model, providing

effective professional development (learning), and developing continual learners within the field

of education. The strategies implemented in this section incorporate the importance of knowing

the staff and being able to support them to grow in the field of education.

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Implementing the Bambrick model. Every principal I interviewed discussed the

concept of understanding the Bambrick model and how they have to take a backwards approach

to understanding how to meet their goals. The Bambrick model is a building block approach with

four components—assessments, analysis, action, and culture—when looking at data driven

instruction (Bambrick-Santoyo, 2018). Bambrick-Santoyo discussed in his book Leverage

Leadership 2.0: A Practical Guide to Building Exceptional Schools that data driven instruction

shifts a school’s focus from what was taught to what was learned. Principals discussed how the

Bambrick model allowed them to look at their current data and make adjustments while in the

moment and not after the fact. One principal said, “We follow the Bambrick look forward, look

back data protocols.” Another principal stated how the Bambrick model allowed for the

administrative team “to see the differentiation within the intervention and within the enrichment

activities because it can’t be the same for every child.” One principal discussed how they thought

this was going to be a difficult process incorporating the Bambrick model. She stated that

We started implementing the look forward and look back models and what I saw was that

it gave teachers the opportunity to really sit down and talk with each other regarding

instruction and to look at their student work and think about the different strategies that

everybody’s using in their classroom.

With the Bambrick model, one principal stated, “This is done every Monday after school

for 45 minutes because my staff was struggling with the development part of writing out the

plan.” I saw Figure 4 below in one of the principal’s office, and she stated, “this stays on my

board the entire year because it helps remind us of our ‘WHY’, which is a depiction of

understanding the stages of the backward design that is directly tied to the Bambrick model.”

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Figure 4. The backward design.

Figure 5 is a chart placed in another principal’s office which is a reflection of the

Bambrick model. It shows how one’s experience will guide beliefs, which drive action, which

leads to results. The principal stated, “This is why it was important to share my vision with the

staff, because now their action will only help us to ‘Level Up’ and give us our desired results.”

Figure 5. Understanding the Bambrick model.

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Figure 6 is another example of the Bambrick model and understanding the process

located in a principal’s office. The first level is to clarity of the mission, the second is to the

strategic plan (decision making), the third one is to empower self and others, four is to provide

measurement feedback (helps your staff to grow), five is to adjust and continually improve, and

the final stage is rewarding because it is where you get to see the fruits of your labor. All of this

is part of the breakdown of the Bambrick model and showing how it is used in their school.

Figure 6. Understanding the WHY.

Providing effective professional learning. The most recurrent theme discussed by all

principals was they do not like the term professional development, instead all of them called it

professional learning. All the principals believed the term development was seen in a negative

connotation so on their campuses it was called professional learning. One principal discussed the

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importance of differentiation of professional learning just as you would for student instruction.

This concept is also supported through the Bambrick model, which notes individualized

professional learning is avoiding the standardized professional learning and getting rid of the

one-size-fits-all approach. One principal stated, “We don’t go to professional learning

communities, we are a professional learning community.” Another principal said, “Professional

learning is done every other week for 15 minutes in the morning, which is more than the state

requirement.” Yet another principal discussed the importance of tiering the teachers. Tiering

teachers is done by their data, content, and STAAR results. Tier 3 teachers need extensive

support, Tier 2 teachers need moderate support, and Tier 1 teachers are given support as needed.

In other words, she noted, “Don’t make all teachers attend the same training when all of them do

not need the same instructional growth.” Another principal explained, “Using teacher input

drives our professional learning opportunities and again, I think teachers, where they feel like

their voice is heard, they’re going to stay.”

Figure 7 was given to teachers during a professional learning community at one of the

schools and depicts how a classroom should be functioning. Figures 8 and 9 depict a specific

agenda for a professional learning community on a campus.

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Figure 7. Learning schedule given to teachers during professional learning community.

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Figure 8. English professional learning community agenda.

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Figure 9. Professional learning community session agenda.

A principal pointed out that when professional learning is happening on their campus,

they give their teachers enough “cushion time” to take care of their needs, talk to friends, go to

the restroom, drink water, and check email. She said, “I do not go bell to bell on these days of

learning.” Another principal stated, “My teachers will find professional developments and as

long as it is within the scope of the campus improvement plan, then I send them.” One principal

said, “Most of my teachers will find their professional developments they want to attend and just

ask to go, very few do I have to send to trainings because they need work in their content area.”

One principal explained, “I prefer my staff to find their own professional development

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opportunities because it allows them to buy into it, opposed to it seeming like a hindrance for

them to attend the trainings.”

Several principals discussed a new teacher huddle, which is a group formed just for the

few new teachers they might have and making those few teachers they do have on their campus

feel like family. One principal stated, “While they might not be new to teaching, I want them to

get acclimated to the campus and district systems.” Figure 10 displays an agenda for teachers

coming back to campus for the new year.

Figure 10. Back to school agenda.

Another principal suggested, “The new teacher huddle gives me time to check in with

them to see how I can support them better; sometimes it turns into a vent session of new teacher

jitters, and I’m okay with that.” Another principal stated, “I end every meeting asking the

teachers is there something you have a problem with which I haven’t seen? Being new to the

campus, what is your perspective on this?” One principal reported professional learning is

incorporated into every staff meeting. For example, she stated, “I find one topic in which my

staff can learn something new and often it is presented by a teacher.” Another principal stated,

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“If a new member is added to a grade level team then the team will have meetings to make sure

they have everything they need.” In fact, another principal stated, “New teachers don’t create

lesson plans when they come to campus, we make them for them so they can work on developing

their craft, this happens during new teacher huddles.” One principal stated, “If you are at work

you come to a professional learning community and I bring the snacks, and teachers enjoy

snacks.”

Developing continual learners. Each principal emphasized they have a growth mindset

which makes their staff develop a growth mindset mentality as well. One principal made it clear

this way:

The goal is to always be training my administrative staff and or my teachers to take my

place. I mean ultimately your goal is for them to be able to grow, to get better, to build

their capacity. And then when I’m not here how the building runs is a reflection of me. I

don’t want to have to be here for it to run smooth.

One principal discussed the importance of truly knowing what her teachers want to do in

the long term and giving them those opportunities. The principal described it like this:

I have teachers that are ready for that next level and I’m referring teachers and

recommending teachers to different organizations where they will get the opportunity on

the next level. I’ve referred a couple of teachers to master’s programs where they’ll get

additional leadership opportunities as well as looking at a few teachers to go to different

conferences to develop their capacity.

One principal stated, “I include teachers on administrative team meetings if they’re

looking to be an administrator in the future, just to get a bird’s eye view, to see what it looks like

to be in a team meeting.”

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Another principal described the importance of giving a teacher a book and recommending

them to read a few chapters and then come back to discuss. The principal explained, “I give them

book recommendations and then ask them questions like how that impacts leadership for you?”

One principal suggested, “You develop leaders by being selective of who you make mentors,

while you give someone a mentor, they are often learning how to be a better learner, it’s an equal

trade off.” Another principal recommended to allow the veteran teachers to all take a new teacher

into the profession and allow them to grasp new concepts from each other. Another principal

mentioned, “I pay for my staff to attend conferences to present on what our school is doing,

because while they are teaching, they get to learn and grow as well.” Another discussed how she

has allowed several of her staff to intern under her, but for those who want a different level, she

partners with other schools in the district and will send the teacher over there. She emphasized

the importance of “knowing your staff and seeing potential in them when they don’t see it in

themselves.”

Research Question 4

With research question 4, I focused on individualized stimulation and strategies

principals use to support teacher creativity and try new ideas to support teacher retention. The

themes that were common were to give teachers autonomy, engage in weekly review of lesson

plans, and implement effective walkthroughs.

Give teachers autonomy. All the principals discussed that it was important to give the

teachers the ability to be creative in their classrooms because they know what the students need

to grasp the material. All the principals noted that a teacher’s autonomy in their classroom helps

them feel as if that was the area they controlled. One of the principals stated, “I tell my teachers

as long as it is legal, ethical, and moral, then make it work.” She adopted that philosophy and has

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seen her staff take leaps and bounds to convey curriculum to their students. Another principal

stated the following:

The things they have to do is already on a tight rope, if I don’t give them space to work

then what is the purpose of them being here as a teacher, we could just get robots if we

wanted it to all look the same.

One principal indicated she just tells her staff that “I don’t want to walk by and see a

boring classroom; if it’s boring to me when I come by then I know it is boring to the kids.”

Another principal stated, “a teacher is the master of the content and classroom, if I tell them how

to do it then I strip them of their control.” Another principal explained that “lesson plans are

reviewed based on how the teachers are tiered. A Tier 1 teacher will have a lot more flexibility

opposed to a Tier 3 teacher.” One principal had a teacher who enjoyed singing and she allows

her to sing curriculum-related items, which has increased EOC scores for her department.

Another principal stated, “I do not want cookie cutter teachers; I need them to be creative and

teach the content.” One principal explained, “I tell them it’s like Nike—just do it and then if it

doesn’t work, we’ll circle back to it. I mean 90% of success is failure.” In fact, one principal

said, “I tell my staff you can’t make mistakes. The only thing I tell them is that it has to be

aligned to the TEKS.”

Engage in a weekly review of lesson plans. One principal stated, “lesson planning is

preparation to know what you are teaching and if you don’t plan, you don’t know what to teach.”

Allowing the staff to plan together was reiterated by every principal. They stated their teachers

planned with either their grade- or content-level team, depending on their school. Nine of the 10

principals discussed using Strive by Eduphoria! (Adkins, 2020) as the platform for lesson

planning, which allowed for immediate feedback to their staff. A different principal said, “I do

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lesson planning differently; we do them together during PLC [professional learning community]

but as far as writing it all down and submitting it regularly, I don’t have time to recheck

information we just discussed.” She further explained that typing out all the information in

certain boxes and answering certain questions is overwhelming and that “teachers can use that

mental capacity to teach.”

One principal explained, “I don’t look at lesson plans to see ‘enrichment or review’ I

need to know how the enrichment is going to be different in order to get the desired results.”

Another principal stated, “We go from top to bottom from teacher to teacher to just make sure

the information is STAAR-aligned; it has to be data driven.” On this topic, another principal

explained that

I tell my staff, I need you to make sure that your plans are new and innovative and to

think back on what worked and what didn’t and adjust accordingly, because you don’t

have the same students from last year.

Another principal noted, “Lesson plans have to be reviewed for alignment; I need them to be a

good use of students’ time.” One principal said that teachers submit their lesson plans on

Thursdays because it allows “myself and the admin team to review them and give feedback prior

to the following week if needed.” However, she further explained there is not a lot of critiquing

being done of the lesson plans because they are done together in “our professional learning

communities.” A different principal explained that lesson plans are put in a Google doc where

they can be viewed by the principal, team leader, and administrative staff; and the plans are

organized by content areas. She further explained that lesson plans are derived by addressing

four questions: “What are students expected to be learning; how will we know that they are

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learning; how do we respond when they don’t learn; and what are you going to do if students

have already learned this concept.”

Implementing effective walkthroughs. All the principals explained the importance of

daily data-driven walkthroughs on their campus. Each of the principals further mentioned that

the T-TESS system (Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System) is what was used to

complete walkthroughs. Every principal also indicated that walkthroughs are not meant to be

“gotcha moments” but are meant to provide instructional opportunities for staff and students.

Also, all the principals explained when they are constantly out and about in the school, the staff

knows they are more than likely going to come into their classroom, so always be visible. Lastly,

they all talked about the number of walkthroughs that were expected to happen. A distinguished

teacher only receives two walkthroughs a year, proficient is four walkthroughs, and six

walkthroughs is any teacher below proficient.

To make a walkthrough effective for the staff, one principal stated, “Sometimes you just

do a walkthrough to look for the positives.” A different principal explained that often she will

take her work and go sit in a classroom and then complete an observation. However, she stated,

“You have to build the relationship with your staff for them to know this is just what you do, and

you are not there to necessarily give them feedback.” This same principal also stated that she

does give feedback when needed to staff and she will follow up within a week after speaking

with the teacher to see if the change has occurred. She said this makes staff comfortable to have

these conversations, because they are given the opportunity to correct it prior to their official

evaluation.

However, one principal discussed the most important thing about walkthroughs is the

feedback and coaching component. She stated:

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I always leave feedback, whether it’s ‘I liked when I saw x, y, z, or I’m wondering how

you could have used randomizing when asking class questions, or a simple great work’

but teachers need to know when you are in their rooms.

Also, she stated that a walkthrough is longer than two minutes; two minutes or less is a pass-

through and when I do those, I will leave a quick note. One principal stated, “Be intentional

about the feedback you leave with teachers, for example, ‘Wow, you had 100% participation on

this activity; you really engaged the students.’”

Another principal commented that multiple walkthroughs have allowed for the staff to

build a partnership with the administration team as opposed to seeing them as a threat and “we

can give immediate feedback.” For example, another principal noted that

I do the mandatory T-TESS, but because our campus goal is English EOCs, we have a

specialized form, because I am in those classrooms more . . . I follow up with an email to

those teachers. When I come into the classroom, I have my keys and my drink, and I

pay attention to the instruction. It makes the teachers feel comfortable because I’m

not coming in with anything to overwhelm them.

Another principal said, “Teachers expect to see us in the classroom, we go in with our

coffee and just sit.” A different principal explained that on her walkthroughs she talks to the

students to allow them to tell her what they are doing, if they understand what they are learning.

This has a twofold effect, because it also allows her to, as she described, “praise the kid and the

teacher.” A different principal said she is going to start asking her staff how they would like to

receive their feedback, “because just like we want to give differentiation to kids, staff need the

same thing.”

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Summary

In this chapter I discussed the findings from 10 African American female principals who

self-identify as transformational leaders and serve in Title 1 schools within the state of Texas.

There were several overarching themes and strategies that principals used to retain 75% or more

of their teachers. There were four research questions derived from the theory of transformational

leadership, which helped me discover those themes and strategies in the principals’ responses.

The themes that emerged from the findings derived from research question 1 included principals’

engagement in effective communication with staff, creating campus leadership teams,

developing positive principal-teacher relationships, building positive relationships with parents

and staff, and having a personal commitment to specific goals. Responses derived from research

question 2 revealed the importance of effectively training staff, being attentive to staff needs,

celebrating staff through positive praise and recognition activities, and allowing uninhibited

conversations to happen. The third area of research depicted the implantation of the Bambrick

model, providing effective professional learning, and developing continual learners. The last

research question suggested the importance of teacher autonomy, weekly reviews of lesson

plans, and implementing effective walkthroughs. Chapter 5 contains a summary of the study and

my conclusions, implications for practice, and suggestions for future studies.

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Chapter 5: Discussion, Conclusions, and Recommendations



retain teachers in Texas high-poverty schools. These principals each served in a Title 1 school

within the state of Texas. The principals brought experiences from elementary, middle, high, and

alternative schools, but they each had been working on their campuses for at least two years and

had retained 75% of their staff members. This chapter includes a discussion section which

encompasses an overview of the problem, the purpose statement and research questions, the

study design, and a summary of the findings. The final section is the conclusion followed by the

recommendations for future practice and research.

Summary of the Study

Principal leadership has been found to have a strong influence on teachers’ decisions to

remain in the teaching profession (Thibodeaux et al., 2015). Transformational leadership

behaviors in principals have a positive effect on teacher retention (Schneider, 2016). One of the

most important foundational components regarding transformational leadership was asserted by

Bambrick-Santoyo (2018) who wrote that “at the heart of a community are the relationships

between people within them” (p. 275). Blane (2017) stated a transformational leader emphasizes

“your priorities are as important to me as they are to you, [thus] the quality of the relationship

increases dramatically and leaves others not only open to what you have to say but hopefully

they can hear from you” (p. 135). The four domains of transformational leadership used in this

study showcased traits under the following categories: idealized influence, inspirational

motivation, individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation (Bass & Riggio, 2014).

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Overview of the problem. Urban school teachers need resilience to remain in the field,

especially minority teachers who need to be retained in the profession to meet the needs of

African American and Hispanic children because they are becoming the majority of students in

Texas school districts (Donaldson, 2012; McKinney et al., 2007; Sass et al., 2012). Between 40%

and 50% of teachers will leave the classroom within their first five years (that includes the 9.5%

who leave before the end of their first year); thus, students in these hard-to-staff schools

disproportionately suffer the consequences of turnover and shortages, substitute teachers,

canceled classes, and inexperienced, underprepared teachers (Riggs, 2013; Strauss, 2017).

Approximately 3.5 million public school teachers in the United States are leaving their schools at

the end of each year (N. Simon & Moore-Johnson, 2015). The percentage of teacher mobility is

higher in schools where 75% or more students are minority or 75% or more participated in the

free or reduced lunch program (Dağli, 2012).

Purpose statement and research questions. The purpose of this qualitative case study

was to describe strategies framed within transformational leadership that exemplary African

American female principals implement to retain teachers in Texas high-poverty schools.

Q1. Idealized Influence–What strategies do principals implement to establish goals and a

shared vision to support teacher retention?

Q2. Inspirational Motivation–What strategies do principals implement to motivate staff


Q3. Individualized Consideration–What strategies do principals implement to provide


Q4. Intellectual Stimulation–What strategies do principals implement to support teacher


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Review of the study design. I designed this study as a case study to describe strategies

that exemplary African American female principals use to retain teachers. Yin (2018) stated that

a case study is the preferred methodology when the relevant behaviors still cannot be

manipulated and when the desire is to study some contemporary event or events. I chose a case

study because as Yin articulated, this type of study takes everyday circumstances that are too

complex for surveys and experimental methods. I utilized the transformational leadership model

to understand what participant principals were doing to retain teachers from various levels of

education across the state of Texas. The participants were 10 African American principals who

self-identified as transformational leaders and whom I interviewed individually. I also used field

notes and artifacts, such as meeting agendas and school websites to gather information to support

the findings. I identified and selected the principals through a snowball process and used the

following criteria to find those eligible for participation:

• Must be female;

• Must be African American;

• Must self-identify as a transformational leader;

• Must be located in Texas;

• Must be the principal of an urban Title 1 school;

• Must have been principal at the current school for two years;

• The school must have a high retention rate of at least 76% for the past two years;

• The principal must hold a principal certification and at least a master’s degree or

higher.

Forty-five African American principals were identified, 32 did not respond to the inquiry

when I reached out, and 13 responded. Of the 13 who responded, three did not fit the criteria

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established, which left 10 who participated. I recorded, transcribed, and member checked all

interviews for accuracy. After a response from all participants from the member check, I used

NVivo (2020) to begin organizing the data to identify themes and patterns in the data to interpret

the findings.

Summary of findings. The following is a summary of the findings in relation to each of

the four research questions. With research question 1, I explored strategies principals implement

to establish goals and a shared vision to support teacher retention. The findings included the

following:

• engaging in effective communication,

• creating campus leadership teams,

• developing positive principal/teacher relationships,

• developing positive relationships with students/parents, and

• having a personal commitment to specific goals.

With research question 2, I delved into strategies principals implemented to motivate

staff to achieve the goals and shared vision of the organization that supports teacher retention.

The findings included the following:

• effectively training staff,

• being attentive to the needs of staff,

• giving staff positive praise and activities, and

• allowing uninhibited conversations.

Research question 3 focused on individualized consideration and what strategies

principals implement to provide teachers with growth opportunities to support teacher retention.

The findings included the following:

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• implementing the Bambrick model,

• providing effective professional development (learning), and

• developing continual learners within the field of education.

Research question 4 focused on individualized stimulation and strategies principals use to

support teacher creativity and any new ideas they use to support teacher retention. The findings

included the following:

• providing teacher autonomy,

• engaging in weekly review of lesson plans, and

• implementing effective walkthroughs.

Interpretation and Discussion of the Findings

The case study described strategies exemplary African American female principals used

to retain teachers in high-poverty schools in the state of Texas. Bambrick-Santoyo (2018) stated,

“Building relationships builds trust, which lays the groundwork for being able to push your staff

in a way that’s loving and fair” (p. 276). An overall conclusion derived from this research is

effective principals have created an environment of building relationships with their teachers on

their campus that makes teachers want to remain on their campuses. Seymour (2016) suggested

the importance of the principal and their role in “leadership has proven vital, if not the most

important aspect of the effective functioning in a school” (p. 22); this is the product of being a

transformational leader. Marzano et al. (2005) believed transformational leaders are charismatic,

brave, and often have to put others before themselves to help as many people as possible. Balyer

(2012) indicated a transformational principal has the ability to frame the attitudes of their staff

and move the school in a progressive manner. All the principals in this study demonstrated

patterns of being transformational leaders and were change agents on their campuses, which was

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suggested through their high retention rate. Bambrick-Santoyo (2018) asserted, “Leading by

example is the right way to start and building a culture of practice will build bonds among the

staff” (p. 275).

Research question 1. Using research question 1, I explored strategies principals

implemented to establish goals and a shared vision to support teacher retention. Blane (2017)

stated “[clarity] is used with respect to expectations, results, value, competencies, accountability,

and what makes us feel alive and vibrant. Without clarity there is little-to-no likelihood that

focus can follow” (p. 31). Based on the findings of the current study, it is important for principals

to share with teachers what their mission and vision is for the campus and make sure the teachers

are in alignment with the vision. It is important to be a leader who people want to follow.

Bambrick-Santoyo (2018) stated “People will do as you do, not as you say” (p. 273).

Also, it was important for the principals to develop relationships with staff members and

get the staff actively involved, which results in a shared vision by just asking teachers what their

expectations are for the school year. Blane (2017) asserted, “Clear communication, especially

around results and expectations requires leaders to understand the communication preferences of

the people they are in communication with and communicate in ways that works best for them,

not in ways that work best for the leaders” (p.72). Evidence from the research in the current

study indicated it was crucial for principals to find creative ways to get to know their teachers

and see what their individual goals were to find ways to support them. However, it was also

important to know how to establish a relationship with the students and parents of their

respective schools. Also, all the principals had established goals for their campuses that allowed

them to know what to focus on for the school year. Lastly, this notion is supported by Sun and

Henderson (2017) who stated, “Transformational leaders may involve employees in collaborate

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organizational goal setting and organizational problem solving” (p. 556). Clearly, there appears

to be a personal touch and good communication that is consistent with the identified goals and

vision.

Research question 2. Employing research question 3, I explored strategies principals

implemented to motivate staff to achieve the goals and shared vision of the organization that

supports teacher retention. The research findings from this question allowed for staff to be

trained according to what they felt they needed. Blane (2017) suggested, “Provide solutions that

help them achieve their priorities” (p. 133). The research supported allowing teachers to foster

internal motivation that gave them opportunities to learn for their own instructional needs.

However, this also proved the importance of teachers having a growth mindset and being able to

adjust with an open mind.

The findings also supported being active on the campus and stepping in when people

would not expect it by such activities as teaching a course or supplying basic teaching supplies

for the teachers at their request. I also found that teachers love praise and it was important to give

them praise when they deserved it, which included free jeans passes or providing lunch to them

on campus.

Also, allowing staff to feel supported and not having to work in isolation by knowing

they could talk to the principal at any time was a strength. Talking to the principal came from

building trust and a relationship that supported a community allowing for transparent

conversations from all parties involved. This is supported by Sun and Henderson (2017), who

stated mutual interaction between leaders and internal and external stakeholders shifts the focus

from self to whole community. Evidence for this in the research was when the principals stated

they asked the teachers what their needs were often in order to plan for meetings or trainings.

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The research findings also showed the importance of teachers knowing they could not

fail, and that it was okay to be the risk-taker because the principal supported thinking “out of the

box” even if it appeared unconventional. The overall conclusion based on the findings for

research question 2 is that when principals are communicative and willing to risk open, candid

communication, they are able to motivate faculty in a positive direction.

Research question 3. Research question 3 focused on individualized consideration and

what strategies principals implemented to provide teacher growth opportunities to support

teacher retention. The findings from this section focused on the Bambrick model that principals

used to master goals they achieved in a space where they were able to collaborate by reminding

teachers of their why. Also, this is the time when principals are allowed to be coaches and

mentors by getting to know their staff and supporting them. Blane (2017) stated, “Leadership is

not a solo activity and leaders must followers in order to be effective” (p. 95). Thus, findings

suggested professional learning communities were essential for reaching the established goals for

the campus, but it allowed the teachers and principals to work in a shared space. Research has

supported the importance of continually growing teachers, which could be done through

mentoring and making sure internally they have a growth mindset. For example, Blane (2017)

argued, “When leaders are not flourishing, they cannot become exemplars and catalyst for those

around them to flourish” (p. 102).

Sun and Henderson (2017) and Garcia-Morales, Jiménez-Barrionuevo, and Gutiérrez-

Gutiérrez (2012) proposed that transformational leaders encouraged employees to share ideas

and gave them the ability to offer different points of view. The findings also supported that

principals gave their teachers surveys to determine the specific trainings they wanted to attend.

These findings suggest an overall conclusion that when principals are intentional with their

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strategies, they are able to provide appropriate training that supports faculty in a positive

direction.

Research question 4. Research question 4 centered on individualized stimulation and

strategies principal use to support teacher creativity and try new ideas to support teacher

retention. Findings suggested that teachers needed to be free in their classroom to use their

imagination to drive their students to success. Blane (2017) asserted credibility and trust are the

components of effective transformational leaders, because this is passed on to their employees.

The findings of this study suggested principals want teachers who can reach their children in a

nontraditional way by stepping “outside the box.” Findings in this study also suggested that

lesson plans were often done in a professional learning community, which made it easier to

check lesson plans, but also ensured teachers could make data driven instruction to support

student excellence.

Findings of this study showed that principals who were out and about in their campuses

produced more effective walkthroughs. Blane (2017) stated, “Persuasion is shaping with full

integrity the thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and behaviors of another” (p. 126). The findings support

the idea that teachers felt less threatened by walkthroughs because they saw their principal

regularly, and that the principal used every opportunity to give informal feedback whether

positive or negative. Sun and Henderson (2017) supported all of these findings “by allowing

employees to express different views and share ideas, and by giving them the discretion to

experiment with new approaches, leaders create a climate where failure and mistakes are part of

the learning process” (p. 557). This suggests an overall conclusion that trust must be reciprocal;

teachers must trust the principal (walkthroughs) and principals must trust the teachers

(autonomy).

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Recommendations for Practice and Future Research

The transformational leadership style encourages members to exceed expectations and

gives them the energy needed to push an organization to excel, while increasing the capacities of

the individual as well as commitment (Lee & Kuo, 2019). Teacher retention is a nationwide

issue, but when principals are transformational leaders, they support teachers to remain in the

teaching field and thus change the narrative on teachers leaving the profession. In this study, I

have examined African American female principals who self-identify as transformational leaders

and strategies they have used to retain teachers in Title 1, urban schools in the state of Texas.

According to Daniëls, Hondeghem, and Dochy (2019), there are seven components of

transformational leadership which could be strengthened to increase teacher retention:

“individualized support, shared vision, individualized stimulation, culture building, rewards, high

expectations, and modelling” (p. 114). Based on the findings from the current study, I suggest

that principals implement the following practices to increase teacher retention:

1. Be intentional about including staff in the vision. Transformational leaders give

employees passion by inspiring hope through inspiration and empowerment of employees, which

helps them foster new ideas (Jeong, Hsaio, Song, Kim, & Bae, 2016).

2. Keep the goals at the forefront for success for students. Transformational leaders

motivate teachers and students by making them aware of the organization’s goals (Daniëls et al.,

2019).

3. Build trust among staff to increase a positive culture. Shaw and Newton (2014) argued

it is the foundation of relationship development between the leader and stakeholders that allows

them the ability to make mistakes and learn from their experiences. Dicke et al. (2019)

81

acknowledged that satisfaction within the school, particularly a supportive social climate, has

proven to have high teacher satisfaction.

4. Be supportive of staff in their personal and professional growth. Transformational

leaders are often supportive, caring, and believe in team building (Jeong et al., 2016). Chao,

Visaria, Mukhopadhay, and Deheija (2017) stated, “A growth mindset orients people to seek

challenges” (p. 1403).

5. Be a leader whom people want to follow. Notice when individual staff members have

potential and give them the opportunity to lead by example. Educate them about what they have

the power to do because they have been mentored and given an opportunity (Shaw & Newton,

2014). As Blane (2017) asserted, “Leaders are role models for change, growth, innovation, and

transformation” (p. 119).

6. Give praise to staff regularly and include fun days, such as jean days. General praise is

defined by “any verbal statement or gesture indicating approval” and does not name a specific

behavior; “behavior-specific praise” is defined as “any verbal statement or gesture indicating

approval” and names a specific behavior (Jenkins, Floress, & Reinke, 2015, p. 466).

7. Positive, open communication is essential. Good communication can improve trust

when leaders choose to be open with employees. Communication also develops trust because

allowing teachers to make decisions, seeking others input, and helping other people learn are

essential (Arneson & Danielson, 2015).

With this study, I examined strategies framed within transformational leadership that

exemplary African American female principals use to retain teachers in Texas high-poverty

schools. Future research recommendations are the following:

1. Research schools not in the state of Texas with African American principals who self-

82

identify as transformational leaders in urban, Title 1 schools, and compare results.

2. Review African American male principals to determine what strategies they are using

to retain teachers.

3. Explore what African American principals are doing in non-Title 1 schools to retain

teachers.

4. Examine what first-year African American principals plan on doing to retain teachers

in Title 1 schools within the state of Texas.

5. Explore if other leadership styles outside of transformational leadership are having

success retaining educators in school districts.

6. Examine schools which do not fall under Title 1, because they are under-identified

and also struggling to retain teachers in their schools.

7. Examine low-poverty schools that are also cycling through principals and investigate

how to retain teachers in schools with high principal turnover.

8. Do a comparative study of the retention rate of educators in a union state versus a

nonunion state.

Reflections and Closing Remarks

With this research, I interviewed 10 African American female principals who are

transformational leaders and who have a 75% or more retention rate of staff over a two-year

period in Title 1, urban schools in Texas. During the research process I was enlightened by the

principals’ transparency and how these principals were eager to share with me the skills that are

transferable to other principals. The principals seemed to be thrilled to share what they had done

to change the culture and climate of their school to retain their teaching staffs. The principals

answered the call to be change agents in the field of education by sharing their experiences to

83

allow more principals to know that retaining teachers in Title 1, urban schools is possible. I have

walked away knowing I have made a conscious effort to strengthen the education system to

retain teachers and thus improve the nationwide shortage of teachers. I intend to share my

research by presenting at several conferences involving principals and continue to grow my

leadership skills in transforming the lives of our youth by recruiting and retaining quality

teachers in the classroom.

84

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Appendix A: Interview Protocol

Background Information on voluntary participant

Name: ____________________________________

Date: _____________________________________

Review of Participation Rights to this interview

Initial statement of inquiry: before the interview begins, I would like to tell you about my study.

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to describe strategies that exemplary African

American female principals implement to retain teachers in Texas high poverty schools framed

within transformational leadership. Teacher retention strategies defined in this study as actions

principals have taken to encourage and support teachers to stay at the same school for at least

two consecutive years. Approximately 3.5 million public school teachers in the United States are

leaving their schools at the end of each year (Simon & Moore-Johnson, 2015). The percentage of

teacher mobility is higher in schools where 75% or more students were minority or 75% or more

participated in the free or reduced lunch program (Dağli, 2012). However, principal leadership

has been found to have a strong influence on teachers’ decision to remain in the teaching

profession (Thibodeaux, Labat, Lee, & Labat, 2015). Transformational leadership behaviors in

principals has a positive effect on teacher retention (Schneider, 2016).

To provide clarity of my topic, I would like to inform you on the four categories associated with

being a transformational leader: Idealized Influence, Inspirational Motivation, Individualized

Consideration, and Intellectual Stimulation.

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Guided Protocol Interview Questions

RQ1: Idealized Influence–What strategies do principals implement to establish goals and a

shared vision to support teacher retention?

a. What do the principals do for individual teachers to bring goals and shared vision to life?

b. What do you foresee as the biggest challenge/demands of this school? Have they

changed under your leadership? Please provide an example.

c. What are the vision and goals of your campus?

RQ2: Inspirational Motivation–What strategies do principals implement to motivate staff to

achieve the goals and shared vision of the organization which supports teacher retention?

a. What do principals do to recognize teachers for quality teaching in the classroom??

b. What initiatives do you have in place to foster motivation and keep the culture positive?

c. What do principals do to ensure the campus provided good working conditions compatible

with the vision of the organization?

RQ3: Individualized Consideration–What strategies do principals implement to provide teachers

growth opportunities that support teacher retention?

a. What does professional development look like for teachers on your campus?

b. In what ways do you schedule professional development to encourage attendance?

c. Describe ways that you encourage mentoring on your campus.

RQ4: Intellectual Stimulation–What strategies do principals implement to support teacher

creativity and try new ideas to support teacher retention?

a. Describe how you support teachers when they want to think outside the box?

b. In what way are lesson plans reviewed and critiqued to offer feedback for creativity?

c. In what way do walkthroughs encourage and provide positive feedback?

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Appendix B: IRB Approval Form

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