Welcome! The purpose of the Leadership for School Improvement Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association is to examine how leadership of teachers, principals and superintendents influences instructional capacity resulting in improved student outcomes and how policy guides this collaborative effort. In addition, the Leadership for School Improvement SIG encourages discussion and development of the philosophical, theoretical and empirical tenets guiding school and system renewal. We invite you to join us as we seek to advance this purpose. If you have any questions or comments, please contact any of our officers.

Message from the LSI SIG Chair Fall 2023

On behalf of the Leadership for School Improvement SIG Executive Committee, we welcome you to the academic year. The LSI SIG continues to emphasize the necessity of community building and growth through community. We are so fortunate to count reflective, equity-focused scholars and practitioners among our members, but we also hope to model improvement through welcoming and embracing new voices and ways of knowing and learning. Whether through scholarly contributions to the 2023 UCEA Annual Convention or 2024 AERA Annual Meeting, our continued emphasis on supporting our emerging scholars through the Researcher Development Program which pairs mentor research faculty with graduate students to engage in impactful research projects in a learning-by-doing model, or through opportunities to engage in deep leadership for school improvement work through member-edited volumes in our LSI book series with IAP, we seek to provide a valuable community for our members regardless of career stage. Our LSI SIG members are innovators in both scholarship and practice.

We hope you will join us!

The LSI SIG continues to have meaningful connection with UCEA, and our members have made insightful contributions to A Call to Action: Imagining A Hard Reset in Educational Leadership. We also view UCEA as a vehicle and opportunity to build our community. We are hosting our third annual LSI lunch event where our members reconnect, build new connections and exchange ideas that strengthen our SIG. We will also continue to build community with other SIGs who have aligned missions, visions and values for educational leadership. We will host our second co-reception with the Educational Change and Organizational Theory SIGs at the 2024 AERA Annual Meeting.

All of our programming is focused on a four-question framework that is informed by our values for school improvement and the research that hopes to inform school improvement practices:

1. How can we diversify the membership and leadership of our LSI SIG?
2. How can we welcome diverse conceptualizations of LSI research in our LSI SIG?
3. How can we support each other in exploring how LSI research can advance social justice and equity?
4. How can we involve graduate students and attend to their needs through the Research Development Program?

To all our current members, we thank you for your continued support and contributions to advancing the work of the LSI SIG through your research and practice. To our LSI SIG fans and seekers, please take advantage of our many networking opportunities to get to know us and become part of our community—we need you to continue to expand the work and reach of justice focused school improvement.

Your LSI SIG Chair

Meredith Wronowski

2024 - 2025 LSI SIG Executive Committee 

Chairperson: DeMarcus Jenkins, University of Pennsylvania

Immediate Past Chairperson: Meredith Wronowski, University of Dayton

Program Chairperson: Alison Wilson, University of Houston

Secretary/Treasurer: Samantha Viano, George Mason University

 Dissertation Award Chairperson: Elizabeth Zumpe , University of Oklahoma

Book Series Editor: Khalid Arar, Texas State University

Newsletter Editor: Matthew Shirrell, The George Washington University

Newsletter Managing Editor: TBD 

Researcher Development Program Faculty Advisor : Craig Devoto, University of Illinois Chicago Learning Sciences Research Institute 

Website Manager: Betsy Kim, Lehman College, CUNY  

The Researcher Development Program (RDP) seeks to expand access to academic networks that dually support graduate students’ personal and professional well-being and scholarly development.

The RDP fulfills its mission by:

• Striving to create accessible, inclusive, and humanizing professional development spaces
• Promoting sustained, professionally enriching collaboration between faculty members and graduate students
• Providing research, writing, presentation, and publication opportunities aligned with participants’ academic and professional goals
• Promoting opportunities for faculty members to hone their mentorship skills.

RDP Call for Mentors: The UCEA Graduate Student Council (GSC), in conjunction with the AERA Leadership for School Improvement Special Interest Group (LSI SIG), is seeking mentors for the Researcher Development Program (RDP) 2025-26 cohort. The Researcher Development Program is an initiative aimed at providing graduate students with research-focused mentorship and networking opportunities with faculty members outside their institution. The deadline is October 15th! Sign up HERE.

Dissertation of Year Recipients

2022: Megan Griffard, Principal Leadership as a Moderator of Teacher Turnover Following Natural Hazard Exposure, Ph.D., The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Advisor, Lora Cohen-Vogel.

2021: Joonkil Ahn, Leadership for Learning and Teacher Self-Efficacy as the Antecedents of Teacher Collaboration, Instructional Quality, Intended Turnover, and Equitable Teaching Practice, Ph.D., University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Advisor, Anjalé D. Welton. 

 2020: Maxwell Yurkofsky, When Reason Confronts Uncertainty: Continuous Improvement, Technical Ceremonies, and the Changing Structure of American Schools, Ed.D., Harvard Graduate School of Education, Advisor, Jal Mehta. 

2019: Bryan VanGronigen, An Examination of the Structures, Functions, and Perceived Effectiveness of School Leadership Teams in Underperforming High Schools, Ph.D., University of Virginia, Advisor, Dan Duke

2018: Mary Bussman, Peer Equity Coaching to Increase Cultural Responsiveness in Teaching and Leading, Ph.D., University of Minnesota- Twin Cities, Advisor, Karen Seashore Louis

2017: Kathryn Wiley, Unfulfilled Promises: Equity & School Discipline Practices in an Innovation School, Ph.D., University of Colorado at Boulder, Advisor, Michele Moses 

2016: Romy DeCristofaro, A Multi-Case Study Reflection within Collaborative Teacher Inquiry, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago, Advisor, Shelby Cosner

2015:Elizabeth Leisy Stosich, Learning to Teach to the Common Core State Standards: Examining the Role of Teachers’ Collaboration, Principals’ Leadership, and Professional Development, Ed.D., Harvard University, Advisor, Susan Moore Johnson

2014: Doug Wieczorek, A Repeated, Cross-sectional Analysis of Principals' Professional Development and Instructional Leadership Behaviors in the First Decade of the Educational Accountability Era, Ph.D., Syracuse University, Advisor, George Theoharis

2013: Emily Palmer, Talking about Race: Overcoming fear in the process of change, Ph.D., University of Minnesota, Advisor, Karen Seashore Louis

2012: Angela Urick, To what extent do typologies of school leaders across the U.S. predict teacher attrition? A multilevel latent class analysis of principals and teachers, Ed.D., University of Texas at San Antonio, Advisor, Alex Bowers

2011: Kerri J. Tobin, Identifying Best Practices for Homeless Students, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University, Advisor, Joseph Murphy

2010: Hans W. Klar, Laying the groundwork for distributed instructional leadership in urban high schools: How principals foster department chair instructional leadership capacity, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, Advisor, Paul V. Bredeson

2009: Jennifer K. Clayton, Changing diversity in U.S. schools: The impact on elementary student performance and achievement, Ph.D., Old Dominion University, Advisor, William Owings