Walter L Burt - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Walter L Burt

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter Eleven: Lessons from Eight Schools: Leadership Teams and Direction from a School Renewal Activities Matrix

Learning-Centered School Leadership

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter Twelve: Summaries and Reflections: Toward School Renewal

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter Four: Use Data Notebook for School Renewal

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter Five: School Renewal for Shared Leadership and Improved Student Results in a Persistently Low Achieving School

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter Ten: Learning-Centered Digital Leadership

Research paper thumbnail of Teacher Survey on Learning-Centred Leadership

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter Two: Kindergarten Discovery Center’s School Renewal Activities

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter Three: Urban School Finds Stronger Coherence and Better Understanding about Learning and Leadership via the Renewal Matrix

Research paper thumbnail of Section Three: Summary and Reflection

Research paper thumbnail of Learning Organization Principles

Government is at a crossroads. External and internal pressures mandate government maximizes its h... more Government is at a crossroads. External and internal pressures mandate government maximizes its human resources and collective knowledge to discover long-term strategies for operating more efficiently and meeting the needs of the public. To reinvent itself and create the foundation for future economic prosperity, state government must consider placing an emphasis on learning as an organization and develop its collective learning capacities. This includes discovering new ways of thinking, processing, and viewing its current position and how to serve State residents.This study sought to determine the extent to which learning organization constructs influenced performance in one Midwest state government.

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter Nine: Zilwaukee School Culture Renewal: Implementation of The Leader in Me® Process

Research paper thumbnail of Testing the predictive power of an instrument titled “Orientation to School Renewal”

School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 2020

ABSTRACT Policy makers, school practitioners, and scholars around the world have been searching f... more ABSTRACT Policy makers, school practitioners, and scholars around the world have been searching for better school improvement models. The purpose of this study was to understand how an instrument we developed, Orientation to School Renewal, can be used to predict school-level academic achievement. We used the instrument to predict the academic performance of 83 schools as measured by the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress (M-STEP) and the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) for mathematics and language. We found our instrument was more sensitive to M-STEP. We found that school renewal efforts were able to predict school academic performance with M-STEP in both mathematics and language. The three leading dimensions for predicting achievement on M-STEP were (a) focus on students and their achievement, (b) internal responsibility, and (c) continuous improvement. The renewal model provides a new perspective on school improvement, and future studies in other countries and international settings are recommended.

Research paper thumbnail of A Study of the Effects of Charter Schools on Student Achievement, Attendance, and Selected Mitigating Factors in a Midwestern State’s Midsize Urban School Districts

Education and Urban Society, 2018

Charter schools in urban environments have been scrutinized for their effectiveness. This study a... more Charter schools in urban environments have been scrutinized for their effectiveness. This study attempted to determine whether students attending Midwestern urban charter schools outperformed students in traditional schools on the state’s accountability system over a 5-year time period. Using a quasi-experimental research design, data were collected from 31 Midwestern urban school districts, along with data from 88 adjacent contiguous charter schools during the 2008 to 2012 school years. Findings in this study suggest that students who transferred from traditional public schools to charter schools did not outperform academically as their corresponding counterparts in mathematics and reading, and had lower attendance rates, over the first three consecutive years of their attendance. In the succeeding 2 years, however, charter school students outperformed traditional students in both reading and mathematics, and had greater attendance rates, than students attending traditional public ...

Research paper thumbnail of Measuring Principals’ Data-Informed Decision-Making on High-Impact Strategies

Journal of School Leadership, 2016

We collected data from 691 teachers from 139 schools in Michigan to validate the instrument title... more We collected data from 691 teachers from 139 schools in Michigan to validate the instrument titled Data-informed Decision-making on High-impact Strategies, designed based on Marzano's (2003) 11 high-impact strategies. Results of confirmatory factor analysis strongly supported the 11-factor model as the most valid approach to measure teachers’ perceptions of their principals’ data-informed decision-making on high-impact strategies for the improvement of student achievement. According to Marzano's (2003) framework, the 11 factors fall into three categories of higher-order principal leadership concerning schools, teachers, and students. The higher-order-factor model came quite close to the 11-factor model in terms of model-data-fit so that the instrument could be used with satisfactory construct validity in the research of higher-order principal leadership. The scale property analysis showed favorable results for the 11-factor model and the higher-order-factor model. Implications of the results are discussed.

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter One: Facilitating School Renewal via the Learning-Centered Leadership Development Program: An Introduction

Learning-Centered School Leadership

Research paper thumbnail of Learning-Centered School Leadership

Learning-Centered School Leadership, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Mediating effects of school process on the relationship between principals’ data-informed decision-making and student achievement

International Journal of Leadership in Education, 2015

We examined the path of influence from principals’ data-informed decision-making to school proces... more We examined the path of influence from principals’ data-informed decision-making to school process and then to student achievement, by adopting the model of ‘mediated-effects with antecedent effects’. With samples of principals and teachers from Michigan, we used two different approaches to measure principals’ engagement in data-informed decision-making. Results of structural equation modelling revealed that teachers are in a better position than principals to (a) provide measures of principals’ engagement in data-informed decision-making because teacher measures of this leadership of principals accurately predicted almost all aspects of school process and (b) predict the indirect effects of principal leadership on student achievement via school process (or the direct effects of school process on student achievement). Policy implications were discussed such as the best source for measuring principals’ data-informed decision-making, and the path of influence from principals’ leadership to school process and to student achievement.

Research paper thumbnail of Using data for decision-making: perspectives from 16 principals in Michigan, USA

International Review of Education, 2010

In response to the vast amounts of data associated with the accountability movement and the rheto... more In response to the vast amounts of data associated with the accountability movement and the rhetoric of data-informed decision-making, we interviewed 16 principals to find out what streams of data they used and what decisions they made by using the data. We found that: (a) student achievement data are predominantly used to the extent of neglecting other streams of data such as student and community background data and school process data; (b) student

Research paper thumbnail of Challenges in Data-Based Decision-Making: Voices from Principals

Educational Horizons, 2006

EJ750644 - Challenges in Data-Based Decision-Making: Voices from Principals.

Research paper thumbnail of Using The Kumon Method To Revitalize Mathematics In An Inner Urban School District

2003 Annual Conference Proceedings

It is a compelling challenge to provide inner-urban K-12 students with the skills necessary for a... more It is a compelling challenge to provide inner-urban K-12 students with the skills necessary for a career in engineering. A solid grounding in mathematics is the most valuable such skill and also the most difficult to develop. Many inner-urban programs meant to revitalize or strengthen mathematics education focus on students in middle or high school. At this grade level, many students already feel they have no skill with mathematics; they have a correspondingly poor attitude towards mathematics that makes any attempt to improve the mathematics curriculum more difficult. A more useful, if longer term, approach is to implement change from the bottom (elementary school level) up, rather than middle or high school, where ultimate change is so strongly desired. The authors have introduced a supplemental program in the Pontiac School District in Pontiac, Michigan to revitalize mathematics beginning with the elementary school level (K-5). The supplemental program, Kumon Mathematics, is used by millions of school children in Singapore, Japan, and Korea; countries that score the highest on worldwide mathematics achievement tests. Kumon Mathematics appears to provide an ideal structured support in mathematics for at-risk children who receive little or no help at home, and who present the teacher of any given grade with a great variety of achievement levels. It allows students to achieve frequent and repeated successes. This paper provides details of the Kumon Mathematics methodology as well as a description of the first year's efforts in the program, which currently involves some 1,500 elementary school children in the Pontiac School District.

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter Eleven: Lessons from Eight Schools: Leadership Teams and Direction from a School Renewal Activities Matrix

Learning-Centered School Leadership

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter Twelve: Summaries and Reflections: Toward School Renewal

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter Four: Use Data Notebook for School Renewal

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter Five: School Renewal for Shared Leadership and Improved Student Results in a Persistently Low Achieving School

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter Ten: Learning-Centered Digital Leadership

Research paper thumbnail of Teacher Survey on Learning-Centred Leadership

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter Two: Kindergarten Discovery Center’s School Renewal Activities

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter Three: Urban School Finds Stronger Coherence and Better Understanding about Learning and Leadership via the Renewal Matrix

Research paper thumbnail of Section Three: Summary and Reflection

Research paper thumbnail of Learning Organization Principles

Government is at a crossroads. External and internal pressures mandate government maximizes its h... more Government is at a crossroads. External and internal pressures mandate government maximizes its human resources and collective knowledge to discover long-term strategies for operating more efficiently and meeting the needs of the public. To reinvent itself and create the foundation for future economic prosperity, state government must consider placing an emphasis on learning as an organization and develop its collective learning capacities. This includes discovering new ways of thinking, processing, and viewing its current position and how to serve State residents.This study sought to determine the extent to which learning organization constructs influenced performance in one Midwest state government.

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter Nine: Zilwaukee School Culture Renewal: Implementation of The Leader in Me® Process

Research paper thumbnail of Testing the predictive power of an instrument titled “Orientation to School Renewal”

School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 2020

ABSTRACT Policy makers, school practitioners, and scholars around the world have been searching f... more ABSTRACT Policy makers, school practitioners, and scholars around the world have been searching for better school improvement models. The purpose of this study was to understand how an instrument we developed, Orientation to School Renewal, can be used to predict school-level academic achievement. We used the instrument to predict the academic performance of 83 schools as measured by the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress (M-STEP) and the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) for mathematics and language. We found our instrument was more sensitive to M-STEP. We found that school renewal efforts were able to predict school academic performance with M-STEP in both mathematics and language. The three leading dimensions for predicting achievement on M-STEP were (a) focus on students and their achievement, (b) internal responsibility, and (c) continuous improvement. The renewal model provides a new perspective on school improvement, and future studies in other countries and international settings are recommended.

Research paper thumbnail of A Study of the Effects of Charter Schools on Student Achievement, Attendance, and Selected Mitigating Factors in a Midwestern State’s Midsize Urban School Districts

Education and Urban Society, 2018

Charter schools in urban environments have been scrutinized for their effectiveness. This study a... more Charter schools in urban environments have been scrutinized for their effectiveness. This study attempted to determine whether students attending Midwestern urban charter schools outperformed students in traditional schools on the state’s accountability system over a 5-year time period. Using a quasi-experimental research design, data were collected from 31 Midwestern urban school districts, along with data from 88 adjacent contiguous charter schools during the 2008 to 2012 school years. Findings in this study suggest that students who transferred from traditional public schools to charter schools did not outperform academically as their corresponding counterparts in mathematics and reading, and had lower attendance rates, over the first three consecutive years of their attendance. In the succeeding 2 years, however, charter school students outperformed traditional students in both reading and mathematics, and had greater attendance rates, than students attending traditional public ...

Research paper thumbnail of Measuring Principals’ Data-Informed Decision-Making on High-Impact Strategies

Journal of School Leadership, 2016

We collected data from 691 teachers from 139 schools in Michigan to validate the instrument title... more We collected data from 691 teachers from 139 schools in Michigan to validate the instrument titled Data-informed Decision-making on High-impact Strategies, designed based on Marzano's (2003) 11 high-impact strategies. Results of confirmatory factor analysis strongly supported the 11-factor model as the most valid approach to measure teachers’ perceptions of their principals’ data-informed decision-making on high-impact strategies for the improvement of student achievement. According to Marzano's (2003) framework, the 11 factors fall into three categories of higher-order principal leadership concerning schools, teachers, and students. The higher-order-factor model came quite close to the 11-factor model in terms of model-data-fit so that the instrument could be used with satisfactory construct validity in the research of higher-order principal leadership. The scale property analysis showed favorable results for the 11-factor model and the higher-order-factor model. Implications of the results are discussed.

Research paper thumbnail of Chapter One: Facilitating School Renewal via the Learning-Centered Leadership Development Program: An Introduction

Learning-Centered School Leadership

Research paper thumbnail of Learning-Centered School Leadership

Learning-Centered School Leadership, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Mediating effects of school process on the relationship between principals’ data-informed decision-making and student achievement

International Journal of Leadership in Education, 2015

We examined the path of influence from principals’ data-informed decision-making to school proces... more We examined the path of influence from principals’ data-informed decision-making to school process and then to student achievement, by adopting the model of ‘mediated-effects with antecedent effects’. With samples of principals and teachers from Michigan, we used two different approaches to measure principals’ engagement in data-informed decision-making. Results of structural equation modelling revealed that teachers are in a better position than principals to (a) provide measures of principals’ engagement in data-informed decision-making because teacher measures of this leadership of principals accurately predicted almost all aspects of school process and (b) predict the indirect effects of principal leadership on student achievement via school process (or the direct effects of school process on student achievement). Policy implications were discussed such as the best source for measuring principals’ data-informed decision-making, and the path of influence from principals’ leadership to school process and to student achievement.

Research paper thumbnail of Using data for decision-making: perspectives from 16 principals in Michigan, USA

International Review of Education, 2010

In response to the vast amounts of data associated with the accountability movement and the rheto... more In response to the vast amounts of data associated with the accountability movement and the rhetoric of data-informed decision-making, we interviewed 16 principals to find out what streams of data they used and what decisions they made by using the data. We found that: (a) student achievement data are predominantly used to the extent of neglecting other streams of data such as student and community background data and school process data; (b) student

Research paper thumbnail of Challenges in Data-Based Decision-Making: Voices from Principals

Educational Horizons, 2006

EJ750644 - Challenges in Data-Based Decision-Making: Voices from Principals.

Research paper thumbnail of Using The Kumon Method To Revitalize Mathematics In An Inner Urban School District

2003 Annual Conference Proceedings

It is a compelling challenge to provide inner-urban K-12 students with the skills necessary for a... more It is a compelling challenge to provide inner-urban K-12 students with the skills necessary for a career in engineering. A solid grounding in mathematics is the most valuable such skill and also the most difficult to develop. Many inner-urban programs meant to revitalize or strengthen mathematics education focus on students in middle or high school. At this grade level, many students already feel they have no skill with mathematics; they have a correspondingly poor attitude towards mathematics that makes any attempt to improve the mathematics curriculum more difficult. A more useful, if longer term, approach is to implement change from the bottom (elementary school level) up, rather than middle or high school, where ultimate change is so strongly desired. The authors have introduced a supplemental program in the Pontiac School District in Pontiac, Michigan to revitalize mathematics beginning with the elementary school level (K-5). The supplemental program, Kumon Mathematics, is used by millions of school children in Singapore, Japan, and Korea; countries that score the highest on worldwide mathematics achievement tests. Kumon Mathematics appears to provide an ideal structured support in mathematics for at-risk children who receive little or no help at home, and who present the teacher of any given grade with a great variety of achievement levels. It allows students to achieve frequent and repeated successes. This paper provides details of the Kumon Mathematics methodology as well as a description of the first year's efforts in the program, which currently involves some 1,500 elementary school children in the Pontiac School District.