UC San Diego

The purpose of this study was to explore how a district- initiated inquiry process, adopted by the board of education in 1998, affected principal and staff behaviors and whether it was still operative and influencing two schools' practice nine years after it adoption. The first school is designated "Program Improvement" (PI) for failing to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP); and the second is in danger of becoming a PI school. An exploratory and descriptive multiple case study design was used, drawing primarily on interviews of the principals and a purposeful selection of teachers from primary and upper grade level teams and school and district documents. The schools were matched by demographics. Although only one principal was formally trained in the inquiry frame, both principals received support and professional development for themselves and their leadership teams, which enabled them to set in motion the district's student -centered inquiry process. A major finding was that the board adopted inquiry decision-frame seemed to be inculcated into the district's culture. The first question in the inquiry frame, how will this decision improve student learning, seems to have become a core system value, embedded through systematic professional development provided to principals and leadership teams. The findings showed that the principals and teachers at both schools understood how to look at student work and achievement data, examine instructional practices, and improve student learning. Another major finding was that grade level teams use the inquiry to facilitate team learning. The instructional leadership team (ILT) at one school was instrumental in making operational the inquiry process school-wide. The absence of a functioning ILT seemed to have limited the other school's ability to maintain shared goals and foster shared leadership. The findings also showed that both principals exhibited high inquiry with a strong understanding of the necessary decisions that improved student achievement, but one was more skillful in using the leadership team for whole school change and organizational learning. This study documents the importance of board policy supported by systematic professional development and the power of inquiry to promote organizational learning and shape principal leadership behaviors