Higher Education Managers/Executives/Administrators
OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the school district support structures available for the Project LEAD students on their leadership development.
METHODOLOGY The population of this study consisted of 30 teacher-leaders that participated in the Project LEAD program at the Florida State University. Most of the participants worked in urban schools and only had a bachelor’s degree before they entered the program, with an average of 13 years of teaching experience. Participants completed the LPI and a questionnaire consisting of open and closed-ended questions.
KEY FINDINGS Participants provided 129 responses detailing the transformational leadership skills they had learned during the program and a majority of these reflected new skills in Challenge the Process. Next most frequently mentioned were skills related to Inspire, and then Model. Least mentioned were skills developed relating to Enable and Encourage. Participants who spent the most amount of time with their mentors scored higher on the LPI overall, and specifically on Model, Enable, and Encourage. No relationship between LPI scores and school district support was found, and this was also true for relationships with school climate and the LPI.