RETA Distributed Leadership for Middle School Mathematics Education: Content Area Leadership Expertise in Practice Series

The Chicago School Staff Social Network Questionnaire Longitudinal Study, 2005-2008 is a part of the RETA Distributed Leadership for Middle School Mathematics Education: Content Area Leadership Expertise in Practice study. The goal of RETA was to design and validate a series of research instruments to identify leadership for mathematics instruction in middle schools and for documenting instructional leadership practice. Adopting a distributed perspective on leadership, this work focused on both formally designated and informal leaders and their leadership routines. The objective was to develop valid and reliable instruments that make the day-to-day practice of school leadership for mathematics instruction more transparent, as well as measure changes in this practice over time. This project utilized Social Network Surveys, Experience Sampling Methods (ESM), and Daily Practice Logs. To validate these instruments, a combination of shadowing, end of day cognitive interviews, and semi-structured interviews was used. These instruments were used to describe and analyze when and how teachers and other educators solicit or provide instructional advice and the degree to which these resources influence their work.

The first component of the Chicago longitudinal study involved the administration of the School Staff Social Network Questionnaire (SSSNQ) to staff in a purposeful sample of 22 schools starting in the Winter of 2005 and continuing through the Spring of 2006. A 23rd school responded, but was dropped from analysis due to a problem with the structure of the survey questions. All teachers and administrators at each school were asked to take the survey online. In January 2007 the Office of Mathematics and Science for Chicago Public Schools, with the support of the Chicago Community Trust, asked for the School Staff Social Network Questionnaire (SSSNQ) to be administered to 23 Chicago public schools (both K-8 and middle schools) as part of the work with these schools around distributed leadership for mathematics and language arts instruction. At the time of the study, all of these schools were participating in a leadership and school-restructuring initiative called the Cluster 4 Middle Grades Program. In May and June 2007, the survey was administered to 19 of the schools (the other four schools declined the invitation). In June of 2008, the SSSNQ was administered again, but this time it was only given to the 12 schools that had a response rate over 70 percent in 2007.

The Chicago School Staff Social Network Questionnaire Qualitative Interviews, 2006, is a part of the RETA: Distributed Leadership for Middle School Mathematics Education: Content Area Leadership Expertise in Practice study. The goal of RETA was to design and validate a series of research instruments to identify leadership for mathematics instruction in middle schools and for documenting instructional leadership practice. Adopting a distributed perspective on leadership, this work focused on both formally designated and informal leaders and their leadership routines. The objective was to develop valid and reliable instruments that make the day-to-day practice of school leadership for mathematics instruction more transparent, as well as measure changes in this practice over time. This project utilized Social Network Surveys, Experience Sampling Methods (ESM), and Daily Practice Logs. To validate these instruments, a combination of shadowing, end of day cognitive interviews, and semi-structured interviews was used. These instruments were used to describe and analyze when and how teachers and other educators solicit or provide instructional advice and the degree to which these resources influence their work.

In order to validate the survey, qualitative interviews were conducted with a subset of teachers at 6 of these 22 schools in early Spring 2006. A purposeful sample of schools was selected to maximize variation so that the sample included two public schools (an elementary and a middle school), two Catholic schools, and two charter schools. The interviewees were selected based on an analysis of the SSSNQ data. Using a purposeful sampling strategy, the following were selected in each school: formal leaders (i.e., Principal, Assistant Principal, Math Specialist, Literacy Specialist), informal leaders (i.e., two teachers who were not formally designated leaders but had more people go to them for math advice relative to other people in their school), and followers (i.e., two to four teachers who were not formal or informal leaders). Interviews with 49 staff members focused mainly on their advice-seeking practices around mathematics instruction. Using a semi-structured protocol, researchers asked interviewees about their advice or knowledge seeking related to mathematics instruction and their views of leadership and change efforts underway at the school.

The Lincoln School Staff Social Network Questionnaire Longitudinal Study, 2007-2008 is a part of the RETA: Distributed Leadership for Middle School Mathematics Education: Content Area Leadership Expertise in Practice study. The goal of RETA was to design and validate a series of research instruments to identify leadership for mathematics instruction in middle schools and for documenting instructional leadership practice. Adopting a distributed perspective on leadership, this work focused on both formally designated and informal leaders and their leadership routines. The objective was to develop valid and reliable instruments that make the day-to-day practice of school leadership for mathematics instruction more transparent, as well as measure changes in this practice over time. This project utilized Social Network Surveys, Experience Sampling Methods (ESM), and Daily Practice Logs. To validate these instruments, a combination of shadowing, end of day cognitive interviews, and semi-structured interviews was used. These instruments were used to describe and analyze when and how teachers and other educators solicit or provide instructional advice and the degree to which these resources influence their work.

For the Lincoln longitudinal study, there was a partnership with the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, as part of the Math in the Middle MSP. In 2007, the School Staff Social Network Survey (SSSNQ) was administered to all 10 middle schools in the Lincoln Public Schools District. In 2008, Math in the Middle was collaborated with to conduct the SSSNQ for a second administration in all 10 middle schools, which provided longitudinal data to analyze changes in formal and informal leadership for mathematics education in these schools. The SSSNQ was administered for the third time to the entire cohort of Math in the Middle Teaching Associates that have undergone training through the Math in the Middle MSP.