Investigating teacher leadership capacity in Catholic National Blue Ribbon schools

Abstract

The United States Department of Education recognizes outstanding non-public and public schools annually with the federal government’s highest accolade, the National Blue Ribbon Award. For this national research study, over 100 Catholic schools awarded from 2015-2018 were vetted, then invited to participate in a research study on investigating teacher leadership capacity in their award-winning schools. This study, a quantitative survey for administrators and teachers with two open-ended questions for administrators, examined leadership qualities as well as the provided and valued professional development for building teacher leadership capacity in their schools. This research study generated 43 significant findings across the independent variables of gender, role in the school (administrator or teacher), setting (suburban, urban, or rural), student population in the school, seniority (in current school), total years of experience, and year of the National Blue Ribbon Award. Some encouraging findings indicated that the most provided and valued professional development activities, which supported strategies to foster teacher leadership capacity, could be readily accessible to teachers in their schools. These professional development activities were mentoring, teacher teams (vertical and horizontal), teacher committees or task forces, and instructional coaching.