Abstract
Principals of modern Title I elementary schools, where at least half of the student population lives in poverty, must possess a broader set of leadership skills than has been historically necessary. The ability to motivate teachers through effective communication is one such skill set. This dissertation in practice proposes a division-level training program designed to improve communication skills of principals and aspiring principals. Based on the self-reported communication strategies of principals at Distinguished and Highly Distinguished Title I elementary schools, qualitative data was derived from interviews, surveys, and combing of publicly available data. Analysis revealed 11 specific communication strategies were practiced by the principals of these eight high-performing Title I elementary schools. Further realized were 5 themes of communication in leadership which include: a student-centered approach to decision-making; transparency of decision-making; shared decision-making with principal and teachers; the role of faculty trust; and common opportunities in their own leadership preparation. Certain principal communication behaviors were self-reported as critical to motivating teachers toward earning high-performing status. These included frequent face-to-face and personal communications, minimal use of whole-school meetings, and weekly principal participation in grade level meetings. Additionally, principal certification programs were reported to have had little impact on the participants in this study in the area of communication. Finally, the critical importance of mentoring and school-division based training for communication development was revealed. |Keywords: Communication, Principal, Title I, Leadership, Training