Principal’s Decision-Making in Bridging the Student Achievement Gap

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the student achievement-related decision-making processes of eight school principals in Ontario, Canada. First, we describe Ontario’s public education system with respect to neo-liberalism and student achievement. Next, we review general approaches to reducing the achievement gap as it pertains to matters of race. We then show how these eight Ontario school leaders make decisions to reduce the achievement gap within their respective schools. This decision-making process is influenced by considerations such as economic conditions, learning styles and school-based or individual solutions. While it is acknowledged that principals do not operate in isolation, our study focuses on the high level of responsibility principals are vested with in order to provide leadership for student outcomes, while taking other factors into account within the decision-making process.

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Stephanie Chitpin

Stephanie Chitpin is an Associate Professor of Leadership at the Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Canada. Dr. Chitpin’s principal contribution to leadership and to the professional development of principals rests on her rejection of the inductive method. She argues that knowledge is acquired by hypotheses deductively validated as “falsifiability criteria”. Her research funded by The Social Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and The Ontario Ministry of Education, Canada, are international in scope, and includes the analysis of the Objective Knowledge Growth Framework (OKGF) based on Sir Karl Popper’s critical rationalism, as a new tool for understanding principals’ decision-making. Dr. Chitpin’s works include Decision Making in Educational Leadership: Principles, Policies, and Practices (2015), Popper’s Approach to Education: A Cornerstone of Teaching and Learning (2016), Confronting Educational Policy in Neoliberal Times: International Perspectives (2018), Understanding Decision-Making in Educational Contexts: A Case Study Approach (2020). She is also the Series Editor of Educational Leadership and Policy Decision-Making in Neoliberal Times published by Routledge.