| Session Title: Distributed Leadership & Social Network Analysis in K-12 Education |
| Multipaper Session 373 to be held in International Ballroom B on Thursday, November 8, 1:55 PM to 3:25 PM |
| Sponsored by the Pre-K - 12 Educational Evaluation TIG |
| Chair(s): |
| Becky Cocos, Georgia Institute of Technology, becky.cocos@ceismc.gatech.edu |
| Abstract: Social network analysis (SNA) is gaining popularity in K-12 evaluation, and this technique allows us to measure the degree of communication, growth, collaboration, and leadership in and between schools, districts, and partnering organizations. This multi-paper session will review the literature regarding SNA in K-12 education, introduce the steps and preliminary findings involved in using SNA to measure district-wide shared leadership, and present findings discovered through SNA of growth in a K-12 school-university partnership over four years. SNA theory, methodology, survey samples, results, and software tools will be discussed in the context of their use in two specific studies, as well as in other studies being conducted around the nation. SNA has the potential to reveal and document the different types of social networks within schools, districts, and partnerships that either accelerate or block increased student achievement. |
| Social Network Analysis in K-12 Education Literature Review |
| Andrew Kerr, Georgia Institute of Technology, andrew.kerr@ceismc.gatech.edu |
| Becky Cocos, Georgia Institute of Technology, becky.cocos@ceismc.gatech.edu |
| Recent interest in social network analysis (SNA) has been spurred largely by the development of easily available, simple-to-use analysis software, plus a growing awareness of the importance of understanding how ideas are transferred across networks of people. More than ever, evaluators are seeing a need for SNA in schools. This paper will survey the history of SNA through its role in understanding and improving K-12 education. The philosophies and science driving school-based SNA in recent years will be discussed through a review of the related literature. Many evaluators are making great strides using SNA in schools to examine networks of relationships, leadership, and connected ties. This paper will serve as a prelude to a presentation of our own SNA research findings in a Georgia school system as well as in a higher education partnership with a K-12 school. |
| Distributed Leadership and Social Network Analysis at the School District Level |
| Becky Cocos, Georgia Institute of Technology, becky.cocos@ceismc.gatech.edu |
| Andrew Kerr, Georgia Institute of Technology, andrew.kerr@ceismc.gatech.edu |
| Tom McKlin, Georgia Institute of Technology, tom.mcklin@gatech.edu |
| Many educational leadership theorists make the case that shared leadership structures within a school improve student performance. Guided by this philosophy, Georgia's Leadership Institute for School Improvement (GLISI) is piloting a shared leadership program in Georgia's Paulding County school system. Understanding the distribution of leadership across a school system requires understanding the structure of the social network of that system. Social network analysis (SNA) is a method by which GLISI assesses a school's level of shared leadership. SNA reveals not only the structure of a school district's network in terms of relationships and interdepartmental ties, but also which teacher leaders are emerging and what environmental standards need to be implemented to encourage shared leadership. This paper will use GLISI's analysis of Paulding's school system as a dynamic example of how SNA augments our understanding of education, and how that understanding in turn leads to increased student performance. |
| Evaluating University-High Schools Partnerships Using Social Networks and Graph Analysis |
| Marion Usselman, Georgia Institute of Technology, marion.usselman@ceismc.gatech.edu |
| Donna Llewellyn, Georgia Institute of Technology, donna.llewellyn@cetl.gatech.edu |
| Gordon Kingsley, Georgia Institute of Technology, gordon.kingsley@pubpolicy.gatech.edu |
| Educational partnerships created between institutions of higher education and K-12 educational communities are complicated entities that defy easy assessment. Good partnerships have a tendency to grow and develop in wholly unanticipated directions, forming networks and having effects far beyond the scope of the initial project. This growth is the basis for a partnership that can be sustained beyond the time limits of the initial project's external funding. Using mathematical graph analysis and social science network theory Georgia Tech has begun to study the network of interactions that developed as part of one specific university-high school NSF GK-12 partnership program-the Student and Teacher Enhancement Partnership (STEP) program. This paper will analyze the growth from Year 1 to Year 5 of the partnership between Georgia Tech and a 99% African American metro-Atlanta high school to track partnership growth, health, and structure and to correlate this growth to the attainment of educational objectives. |