Date of Award

Fall 12-1-2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Leadership

Abstract

Now more than ever, school principals play a critical role in effective implementation of inclusive education programs in their schools, as inclusive practices are becoming tightly embedded in a school’s culture (Sailor, 2016; Shogren et al., 2015). The success of inclusive education programs has been primarily supported by school principals’ positive attitudes toward inclusion (Romanuck Murphy, 2018; Urton et al., 2014). With increasing pressure to provide legally compliant and quality inclusive special education services in schools, it has become more critical than ever that school principals not only recognize the roles and responsibilities they play in leading inclusive education programs for students with disabilities (Ball & Green, 2014; Praisner, 2003; Williams, 2015) but also have an awareness of the indicators of leadership regarding inclusive education that correlate with increased academic growth outcomes for students with disabilities (Romanuck Murphy, 2018). As schools continue to develop inclusive education programs, research has demonstrated that school principals are essential in making inclusion work in their school (Cruzeiro & Morgan, 2006). Identification of select indicators of instructional and transformational leadership that influence the academic growth of students with disabilities in inclusive educational settings is of great value to principals as schools continue to navigate ESSA and school improvement for students with disabilities (Cruzeiro & Morgan, 2006). This quantitative study examined the influence of select indicators of instructional and transformational leadership of inclusive education on growth model outcomes for students with disabilities, as evidenced by Indiana Growth Model scores in English Language Arts and iv Mathematics. This study further examined the influence of school demographic factors on principal perception of select indicators of instructional and transformational leadership regarding inclusive education. The inferential research questions in this study were found to be not significant and the null hypotheses were retained. However, descriptive analysis revealed several interesting outcomes. First, indicators of instructional leadership yielded slightly higher composite scores than indicators of transformational leadership. Next, the perceived importance level of several indicators of instructional and transformational leadership within the context of inclusive education strengthened as the years of principal experienced increased. The middle school/junior high school respondents also perceived several indicators of instructional and transformational leadership with greater importance than the elementary respondents. Further, middle school/junior high school respondent responses to several indicators of instructional and transformational leadership yielded greater response distributions than elementary responses.

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