Abstract

This qualitative study was conducted in a suburban intermountain school district. The research purpose was to (a) solicit narratives from principals about the greatest successes and challenges in American education; (b) conduct deep insightful analysis to find emerging themes from the interviews with principals; and (c) to provide important information for policy and law makers. The findings focused on data collected from interviews asking 25 principals to share perspectives and examples from their work in schools and education in general. The principals were asked about educational successes. Those cited regularly highlighted positive cultures, doing tremendous work with minimal funding, and recent academic achievements (not necessarily high test scores). Commonly mentioned challenges were low family commitment to education, low funding, and recruitment of teachers. Additionally, these building level principals thanked their legislature for supporting schools. The findings have powerful implications for policy and law makers. This study also calls on national pollsters to conduct frequent national surveys of principals.

Degree

EdD

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Educational Leadership and Foundations

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2021-08-06

Document Type

Dissertation

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd12531

Keywords

attitudes, opinions, surveys, challenges, successes, principals, legislature

Language

english

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