A study of leadership in the implementation of an online curriculum management system

Researchers have indicated that innovations in schools often do not have the intended impact leaders hope to see when implementation occurs. Reasons cited for this failure include time allotted for the change to occur, failure to implement change based on research, and leadership qualities associated with responsible parties. This study focuses on qualities of leaders who were effective in implementing an innovation in a school district in a midsized Central Texas school district. Participants in the study were technology trainers, principals, and teachers. Two years of usage reports and teachers surveys were used to compare data. Interviews were conducted with trainers, teachers, and principals from high usage campuses. Since the study focused on happenings within a particular context, an action research model was used. This model was built upon principles of naturalistic research and targeted quantitative data. The results of the study indicate that the leaders on these campuses possessed certain leadership characteristics that could be attributed to successful implementation of the online curriculum management system. Successful leaders in this study held certain expectations for their faculty, monitored to see that the expectations were met, and were flexible enough to meet the needs of all of their teachers. These characteristics were consistent with the literature on effective leadership, leadership and professional development, leadership and technology, and leadership through the change process. Information from this study was used by the school district in which the study took place to guide them in making decisions about the current curriculum management system they now have in place.