A CASE STUDY OF THE TRANSFORMATION OF A LOW-PERFORMING SCHOOL INTO A HIGH PERFORMING SCHOOL

A critical issue for school administrators is low-performing schools. The enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 and the resulting emphasis on school accountability ratings and high-stakes achievement testing have increased the pressure on school leaders to effectively deal with issues that interfere with students’ academic success. Principals of low-performing schools need a different kind of leadership based on proven knowledge, skills, and attributes that bring about the changes required to make the schools high performing. This thesis case study focuses on the factors and strategies that lead to the transformation of Plainville Elementary in the Plains Independent School District (PISD), a large, fast-growing, suburban/urban school district in southeast Texas, from a low-performing school into a high-performing school within a three-year period. Plainville Elementary, referred to as “Painville Elementary” by some employees, was assigned a technical assistance team (TAT) by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) in 2006 due to the school’s poor academic performance on the 2005-2006 state assessment instrument. The “Case of Painville Elementary” was explored through interviews with the district superintendent and campus principal and through a series of focus groups with teachers, campus administrators, district superintendents, and district administrators who worked at, or were involved with, the campus during the time frame studied (2006-2007 to 2008-2009). The thesis research was guided by the following research questions:

1. What factors contributed to the changes in student achievement?
2. What changes in the leadership influenced student achievement?
3. What changes in the climate influenced student achievement?
4. What changes in teacher expectations influenced student achievement?
   The triangulation of the data provided the researcher with 10 factors that led to the transformation of Plainville Elementary from a low-performing school into a high-performing school. The data further supported that school transformation was guided by an effective leader.