Our schools should reflect the needs of the students we serve and provide excellence and equity. My work centers this idea.
Segregating the “gifted” in Charlottesville: The founding of Quest, 1976-1986.
The implementation of gifted programs in the 1970s provided a way for school divisions to circumvent many of the aims of desegregated schooling as called for in Brown v. Board of Education. This study examines the implementation of one such system in a Southern school district that saw schools close rather than integrate in the years preceding the founding of a segregated gifted program known as Quest. Additionally, the study situates the founding of this gifted program in a national social and legal context involving fears of educational stagnation and white flight from public school systems. Using primary and secondary sources, this study highlights the attitudes of national policymakers at work in the 1974 reauthorization of ESEA, which significantly limited school divisions abilities to integrate while also providing funds for gifted classrooms that segregated ‘exceptional’ children using racially and socioeconomically biased measures.
Thornton, M.E. Segregating the “gifted” in Charlottesville: The founding of Quest, 1976-1986. Journal of Educational Administration and History. https://doi.org.10.1080/00220620.2022.2072275
Using Social Justice Leadership Theory to Contextualize Detracking in the COVID-19 Era
Ten years ago, Sunnydale High School leaders worked with teachers and community members to create an international baccalaureate (IB)-for-all model to prevent racially and socioeconomically identifiable class levels. For nearly a decade, the program has been successful with stakeholders largely supporting the model. Following pandemic-related school building closures, faculty at Sunnydale High School are having trouble continuing to support students who had vastly different online school experiences. Some faculty and community members have asked the leadership to reconsider the model because they feel some students need additional support that cannot be provided in pre-IB or IB classes while maintaining high expectations for other students. The author offers learning activities through the lens of social justice leadership.
Thornton, M.E. Using social justice leadership theory to contextualize detracking in the COVID-19 era. Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership. (Online first.) https://doi.org/10.1177/1555458923120293
In this study, we draw on evolving definitions of opportunity to learn (OTL) to conceptualize mathematics OTL has having two main components: structural OTL, defined by gatekeeping access to specific mathematics courses through the process of tracking, and instructional OTL, defined by the learning experiences of students in their mathematics courses. We also conceptualize both of these aspects of OTL as occurring in the current educational milieu, where sociopolitical factors reward or punish specific school strategies.
Wronowski, M. L., Thornton, M., Razavi-Maleki, B., Witcher, A. W., & Duarte, B. J. (2022). Beyond Tracking: The Relationship of Opportunity to Learn and Diminished Math Outcomes for U.S. High School Students. Teachers College Record, 124(6), 196–224. https://doi.org/10.1177/01614681221113473
Revolutionary Perspectives for Leadership Preparation: A Case of a Networked Improvement Community
This qualitative study describes and interprets how two educational leadership programs, participants in the UCEA (University Council for Educational Administration) Program Design Network Improvement Community, identified and responded to a problem of practice by focusing on the needs of each program regarding the recruitment, selection, admission, and retention of candidates from underrepresented groups. Through collaborative learning and research, the programs were able to guide the change processes of their institutional structures to focus on attracting more diverse applicant pools that are more focused on issues of diversity in the schools they will serve.
Thornton, M. E., Barakat, M., Grooms, A. A., Locke, L. A., & Reyes-Guerra, D. (2022). Revolutionary Perspectives for Leadership Preparation: A Case of a Networked Improvement Community. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 17(1), 90–108. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942775120945356
Attributes of Highly Diverse Principal Preparation Programs: Pre-enrollment to Post-completion
To learn how principal preparation programs can diversify their enrollment, thereby diversifying the educational leadership workforce, we conducted in-depth interviews with coordinators from a pre-identified sample of the most racially and ethnically diverse principal preparation programs in the U.S. Based on thematic analysis of these interviews, we theorize how they have been successful recruiting and graduating diverse cohorts of principal candidates and supporting them in school leadership roles. We found that social justice- and equity-focused aims , comprehensive supports, and district partnerships were essential across all stages of program involvement , from recruitment and enrollment to completion and inservice professional development.
Clement, D., Thornton, M.E., Sanzo, K., & Miles Nash, A. Attributes of principal preparation programs that produce highly diverse pools of principal candidates. Leadership & Policy in Schools, 20(4), 64-80. https://doi.org/10.1080/15700763.2021.2022708
Program Capacity for Redesign in Educational Leadership Preparation
Characteristics that contribute to successful redesign and launch of principal preparation programs may be understood collectively as the capacity of those programs. A model of capacity for redesign of principal preparation programs should strike a balance between the technical and professional aspects of teaching and leadership and the cultural and relational aspects of organizations. We surveyed a national sample of program directors and interviewed a purposive sample of those in the midst of redesigning their programs to arrive at a framework of the tools and raw materials programs need to meet the new demands of principal preparation.
Clement, D., Thornton, M. E., Doiron, T., Young, M. D., Eddy-Spicer, D., Perrone, F., & Player, D. (2022). Program Capacity for Redesign in Educational Leadership Preparation. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 17(1), 109–133. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942775120947460