A comparison of the leadership styles of administrators in charge of scheduling in Missouri's secondary schools

Abstract

The need for educational leaders who can effectively implement change in their schools has never been greater. Due to No Child Left Behind legislation and other demands for reform and accountability, schools must meet strict educational standards or face serious consequences. Schools must find leaders that are not just willing, but able to face these challenges by successfully initiating change in their schools. Constructs of transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership were essential in identifying and studying various leadership behaviors that would lead to successful and innovative educational change. Both qualitative and quantitative data were obtained from this study regarding both leadership and scheduling systems in Missouri's high schools. Comparisons were made regarding various leaders' willingness to change or not change their school's scheduling system to initiate change. Additionally, informative results were found regarding the rationale or reasons given by educational leaders regarding why they chose to change or not change their school's scheduling system. Finally, various questions were raised regarding the years of experience that scheduling leaders had in their position and whether that amount of experience allowed successful implementation of a new scheduling system.