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Academic Papers

Year	Publication	Pub Type
2008	Understanding Teacher Leadership in Middle School Mathematics: A Collaborative Research Effort James E. Pustejovsky & James P. Spillane, Northwestern University Ruth Heaton & W. James Lewis, University of Nebraska at Lincoln Abstract: We report findings from a collaborative research effort designed to examine how teachers act as leaders in their schools. We find that teachers educated by the Math in the Middle Institute act as key sources of advice for colleagues within their schools while drawing support from a network consisting of other teachers in the program and University-level advisors. In addition to reporting on our findings, we reflect on our research process, noting some of the practical challenges involved as well as some of the benefits of collaboration.	Working Paper
2008	Question-Order Effects in Social Network Name Generators James E. Pustejovsky & James P. Spillane, Northwestern University Abstract: Social network surveys are an important tool for empirical research in a variety of fields, including the study of social capital and the evaluation of educational and social policy. A growing body of methodological research sheds light on the validity and reliability of uni-dimensional social network survey data, but much less attention has been paid to the measurement of multi-dimensional networks and the validity of dimensional comparisons. In this paper, we identify ways that surveys designed to collect multi-dimensional social network data might be vulnerable to question-order effects, then test several hypotheses using a split-ballot experiment embedded in an online multiple name generator survey of teachers' advice networks. We conclude by discussing implications for the design of multiple-name generator social network surveys. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 28th annual International Sunbelt Social Network Conference, January 22-28, 2008, in St. Petersburg Beach, Florida. Work on this project is supported by a research grant from the National Science Foundation (RETA Grant EHR-0412510).	Working Paper
2008	Investigating the Validity of a Daily Log and its Utility for Assessing the Impact of Programs on Principals Eric M. Camburn, University of Wisconsin-Madison James P. Spillane, Northwestern University James Sebastian, University of Wisconsin-Madison Purpose: This study examines the validity of a daily log for measuring principal practice, and investigates the utility of the log for assessing the program impacts on principals. Setting and Sample: The study was conducted in an urban district in the Southeastern United States. The district has approximately 50 principals nearly all of whom participated in the study. Approach: The viability of the daily log was evaluated using four criteria: 1) Is it feasible to collect logs at scale?, 2) Is the log sensitive to program goals, 3) Is it sensitive to variation in principal practice over time?, and 4) Is it valid? The first two criteria were assessed through a discussion of the instrument design process, the log methodology, and data collection results. The third and fourth criteria were assessed through mixed method analyses examining data from daily logs, observations and an experience sampling instrument. Results: We found that logs can feasibly be collected at a fairly large scale and that the log was sensitive to seasonal fluctuations in principal practice. The accuracy of the log was confirmed through comparisons with an experience sampling instrument indicating that estimates produced by the two instruments were quite similar. Principals’ reports on the daily log slightly overstated their emphasis on student affairs, and modestly understated their emphasis on school finances and building operations. Implications for Research and Practice: Daily logs appear to be a viable means of measuring principal practice that can shed light on program effects and overcome measurement errors associated with one time surveys. Key Words: Principal practice, measurement, logs, program effects
2008	Using Social Network Methods to Study School Leadership Virginia Pitts & James P. Spillane, Northwestern University Abstract: Social network analysis is increasingly used in the study of policy implementation and school leadership. A key question that remains is that of instrument validity - that is, the question of whether these social network survey instruments actually measure what they purport to measure. In this paper, we describe our work to examine the validity of the School Staff Social Network Questionnaire (SSSNQ), an instrument designed to study school leadership practice related to instruction. To examine the validity of the survey, we conducted two studies. The first involved administration of the SSSNQ in 22 schools and interviews with a sub-sample of school staff in six of these schools. The second study involved cognitive interviews in which interviewees were asked to “think aloud” as they completed a revised version of the SSSNQ. Our findings indicate that the SSSNQ did indeed identify leadership operationalized as social influence interactions. Furthermore, the SSSNQ allowed us to move away from an exclusive focus on school principals and other formally designated leaders to include non-positional leaders, and allowed us to capture informal leadership interactions that would have been missed had we focused solely on formal organizational routines. In this respect, the SSSNQ offers an important research instrument for examining school leadership.	Working Paper
Under Review	Spillane, J., Camburn, E., Pustejovsky, J., Stitziel Pareja, A., & Lewis, G. (Under Review). Taking a Distributed Perspective: Epistemological and Methodological Tradeoffs in Operationalizing the Leader Plus Aspect Abstract: Taking a distributed perspective has the potential to offer fresh insights into how school leadership and management contribute to the school improvement process. In this paper the authors examine multiple operationalizations of core aspects of a distributed perspective for studying school leadership and management, comparing and contrasting what is learned from each operationalization. Exploring these different operationalizations we identify two dimensions along which to consider the epistemological challenges raised when studying school leadership with a distributed frame - data source (top down and bottom up) and data focus (the organization as designed or the organization as lived). We also explore whether these approaches capture variation between schools and between activity-types in the distribution of responsibility for leadership work. The primary goal of this paper is to consider different ways of studying how the work of managing and leading schools is distributed among people in schools and the methodological and epistemological trade-offs involved in such research. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, April 7 – 11, 2006. Work on this paper was supported by the Institute for Education Sciences (Grant # R305E040085) and the Distributed Leadership Studies funded by the National Science Foundation (RETA Grant # EHR – 0412510).	Paper
2008	Harris, A. & Spillane, J. (2008). Distributed Leadership Through the Looking Glass. Management in Education, 22(1): 31–34.	Journal Article
2007	Spillane, J. & Diamond, J. Editors (2007). Distributed Leadership in Practice. Critical Issues in Educational Leadership Series. NY: Teachers College Press. Distributed leadership has become an important term for educational policymakers, practitioners, and researchers in the United States and around the world, but there is much diversity in how the term is understood. Some use it as a synonym for democratic or participative leadership. This book examines what it means to take a distributed perspective based on extensive research and a rich theoretical perspective developed by experts in the field. Including numerous case studies of individual schools and providing empirically based accounts of school settings using a distributed perspective, this thorough volume: * Explores how a distributed perspective is different from other frameworks for thinking about leadership. * Provides clear examples of how taking a distributed perspective can help researchers understand and connect more directly to leadership practice. * Illustrates that the day-to-day practice of leadership is an important line of inquiry for scholars and those interested in improving school leadership. http://store.tcpress.com/0807748064.shtml	Book
2007	Coldren, A. & Spillane, J. (2007) Making Connections to Teaching Practice: The Role of Boundary Practices in Instructional Leadership. Educational Policy, Vol. 21, No. 2, 369-396 Abstract: Administrators, particularly those who engage in instructional leadership, play a key role in school improvement. Past research describes the types of activities instructional leaders engage in but has paid little attention to how they do it. The authors use the case of one school to unpack instructional leadership as a practice, paying close attention to the tools that constitute that practice, the contextual factors that help to define it, and how it affects teaching. The authors find that two kinds of tools—boundary practices and boundary spanners—play a significant role in constituting instructional leadership practice. Contextual factors, including student and staff composition and leaders' values and beliefs, define instructional leadership practice in important ways. Finally, policy implications are discussed.	Journal Article
2007	Spillane, J. Camburn, E. & Pareja, A. (2007). Taking a Distributed Perspective to the School Principal’s Work Day. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 6: 103-125. Abstract: Focusing on the school principal's day-to-day work, we examine who leads curriculum and instruction- and administration-related activities when the school principal is not leading but participating in the activity. We also explore the prevalence of coperformance of management and leadership activities in the school principal's workday. Looking across a range of administration-related and curriculum and instruction-related activities school principals participate in, we show that who takes responsibility for leading and managing the schoolhouse varies considerably from activity to activity and from one school to the next.	Journal Article
2007	Spillane, J. & Miele, D. (2007) Evidence in Practice: A Framing of the Terrain. National Society for the Study of Education (NSSE) Yearbook. Vol. 106, Issue 1.	Paper
2006	Resnick, L.B. and Spillane, J. P. (2006) “From Individual Learning to Organizational Designs for Learning.” In Verschaffel, L., Dochy, F., Boekaerts, M., & Vosniadou, S. (Eds). Instructional psychology: Past, present and future trends. Sixteen essays in honor of Erik De Corte (Advances in Learning and Instruction Series). Oxford: Pergamon.	Chapter in book
2006	Spillane, J. and Burch, P. (2006). The Institutional Environment and Instructional Practice: Changing Patterns of Guidance and Control in Public Education. In B. Rowan and H. Meyer, Eds., The New Institutionalism in Education. Albany: SUNY Press.	Chapter in book
2006	Spillane, J.P., Camburn, E. (2006). The Practice of Leading and Managing: The Distribution of Responsibility for Leadership and Management in the Schoolhouse ABSTRACT In this paper, we take a distributed perspective to examine how the work of leading and managing the schoolhouse is distributed across people. Beginning with the leader-plus aspect of a distributed perspective, the paper examines which school actors take on leadership and management work. Comparing and contrasting different types of leadership/management activities, we argue that individuals who take responsibility for the work depends on the activity-type. By examining how leadership is distributed, we show that co-performance of leading and managing activities are not unusual in schools. Paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association San Francisco, April, 2006	Paper
2006	Spillane, J.P., Camburn, E., Lewis, G., Stitziel-Pareja, A. (2006).Taking a Distributed Perspective in Studying School Leadership and Management: Epistemological and Methodological Trade-offs ABSTRACT Taking a distributed perspective has the potential to offer fresh insights into how school leadership and management contributes to the school improvement process. In this paper the authors examine various methodological approaches to studying school leadership and management from a distributed perspective, comparing and contrasting what is learned about school leadership and management from each approach. Exploring these different approaches we identify two dimensions along which to consider the epistemological challenges they raise about measuring how school leadership is distributed across school staff - data source (top down and bottom up) and data focus (the organization as designed or the organization as lived). We also explore whether these approaches capture variation between schools and between activity-types in thedistribution of responsibility for leadership work. The primary goal of this paper is to consider different ways of studying how the work of managing and leading schools is distributed among people in schools and the methodological and epistemological tradeoffs involved in this work. Paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association San Francisco, April, 2006	Paper
2006	Camburn, E., Spillane, J.P., Sebastian, J. (2006). Measuring Principal Practice: Results from Two Promising Measurement Strategies This paper addresses the following questions: • Do the two measurement strategies produce similar estimates of the frequency with which principals engage in particular leadership functions? • Do the two measurement strategies produce similar estimates of between-principal and between-day variation in principals’ engagement in particular leadership functions? • What accounts for differences in the ways principals respond to the two instruments? Paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association San Francisco, April, 2006	Paper
2006	Spillane, J.P. (2006). Distributed Leadership. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco. This publication shows how leadership happens in everyday practices in schools, through formal routines and informal interactions. It examines the distribution of leadership among administrators, specialists, and teachers in the school, and explains the ways in which leadership practice is stretched over leaders, followers, and aspects of the situation, including routines and tools of various sorts in the organization such as memos, scheduling procedures, and evaluation protocols.	Book
2005	Spillane. J.P. (2005). Primary School Leadership: How the Subject Matters. School Leadership and Management. 25(4), 383-397. ABSTRACT Teaching is a critical consideration in investigations of primary school leadership and not just as an outcome variable. Factoring in instruction as an explanatory variable in scholarship on school leadership involves moving away from views of teaching as a monolithic or unitary practice. When it comes to leadership in primary schools, the subject matters. More sophisticated constructions of teaching are necessary that take into account the subject matter (e.g. mathematics or literacy) and the dimension of teaching (e.g. content and teaching strategies). This paper explores how the practice of leadership in primary schools is structured differently depending on the school subject. [pdf]	Journal Article
2004	Spillane. J.P. (2005). Standards Deviation : How Schools Misunderstand Education Policy. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA After intensively studying several school districts' responses to new statewide science and math teaching policies in the early 1990s, Spillane argues that administrators and teachers are inclined to assimilate new policies into current practices. As new programs are communicated through administrative levels, the understanding of them becomes increasingly distorted, no matter how sincerely the new ideas are endorsed. Such patterns of well-intentioned misunderstanding highlight the need for systematic training and continuing support for the local administrators and teachers who are entrusted with carrying out large-scale educational change, classroom by classroom.	Book
2004	Distributed Leadership Practice: The Subject Matters Jennifer Z. Sherer. Northwestern University. Draft paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association San Diego, April, 2004 [ draft pdf ]
2004	A Distributed Perspective on School Leadership: Leadership Practice as Stretched Over People and Place. James P. Spillane & Jennifer Zoltners-Sherer. Northwestern University. Draft paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association San Diego, April, 2004 [ draft pdf ]
2004	The Stories Schools Live By: A Preliminary Exploration of Organizational Identity as Story James P. Spillane, Emily T. Benz, & Elisa Mandel Northwestern University. Draft paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association San Diego, April, 2004 [ draft pdf ]
2004	Instructional Leadership: How Expertise and Subject Matter Influence Problem Solving Strategy Lawrence D. Brenninkmeyer & James P. Spillane Northwestern University. Draft paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association San Diego, April, 2004 [ draft pdf ]
2003	Halverson, R.(2003) Systems of Practice: How Leaders Use Artifacts to Create Professional Community in Schools University of Wisconsin - Madison to be published in Education Policy Analysis Archives ABSTRACT: This article explores how local school leaders construct the conditions for professional community in their schools. This paper argues that professional community is a special form of social capital that results, in part, from the design and implementation of facilitating structural networks by instructional leaders in schools. The structural aspects of a school community can be conceived as a system of practice, that is, a network of structures, tasks and traditions that create and facilitate the complex webs of practice in organizations. Systems of practice are composed of networks of artifacts, such as policies, programs and procedures, which can be seen as powerful tools used by local leaders to influence local instructional practices. The system of practice framework suggests that leaders use artifacts to establish structures that facilitate the closure of professional networks among teachers, which in turns builds professional community. The leadership practices of an urban elementary school are used to illustrate how professional community has been developed through the selective design and implementation of artifacts in order to reshape the local system of practice. Please send all correspondence to the first author at halverson@education.wisc.edu [ pdf ]	Journal Article
2003	Loder, T. (2003) Is a Principal Still a Teacher?: Role Discontinuity in the Lives of Women Administrators Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association ABSTRACT: From a life course perspective, this paper examines role discontinuity as a potential barrier to women aspirants to the principalship. Common barriers to the principalship, such as discrimination in hiring and promotion, lack of mentoring and the entrenchment of the "good old boy network," have been well documented. However, role discontinuity between teaching and administration has been underexplored as a potential barrier, especially for women aspirants who have had long tenures as teachers. On the contrary, prior literature portrays women’s transition from teaching to administration as a continuous (and presumably, harmonious) trajectory. Because scant research exists on within-group differences and barriers among women aspirants, we know very little about their subjective experiences with this dramatic role change. Utilizing personal accounts and surveys, I examined the transition experiences of 31 African American and Caucasian women administrators in the Chicago metropolitan area. On their way to the principalship, these women experienced intense role conflicts which emerged from their movement from the relatively private and intimate domain of the classroom where they focused on instruction and on students, to the public domain of the school where they shifted their focus to managerial and political tasks, and confronted power dynamics with adults both inside and outside of the school. In an attempt to achieve continuity in their lives, these women employed both rhetorical and life course strategies. However, their efforts to achieve continuity were complicated by their strong attachment to teaching, the perception among role partners (i.e., students and teachers) that they were no longer teachers, and the 1988 Chicago School Reform Act, which dramatically redefined power dynamics between principals and their constituencies. Please send all correspondence to the first author at tondral@gse.upenn.edu [ pdf ]	Journal Article
2003	Spillane, J., Halverson, R., Diamond, J. (2003). Towards a Theory of School Leadership Practice: Implications of a Distributed Perspective. Journal of Curriculum Studies. ABSTRACT: School level conditions, and school leadership in particular, are key in efforts to change instruction. While new organizational structures and new leadership roles matter to instructional innovation, what seems most critical is how leadership practice is carried out. Yet, the practice of school leadership has received limited attention in the literature. Building on activity theory and theories of distributed cognition, this paper develops a distributed perspective on school leadership as a frame for studying leadership practice. The goal is to make the "black box" of leadership practice more transparent by revealing and analyzing how leaders think and practice. The authors argue that leadership practice is constituted in the interaction of school leaders, followers, and the situation. Please send all correspondence to the first author at Northwestern University, School of Education and Social Policy, 2120 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208 or to j-spillane@nwu.edu. [ pdf ]	Journal Article (in press '03)
2003	Loder, T.L.(under review 2003). Women School Administrators Life Course Strategies for Managing Work-Family Conflicts: Lortie's Ancillary Rewards Revisited.	Journal Article
2003	Diamond, J., Randolph, A., and Spillane, J. (under review 2003) Teachers' Expectations and Sense of Responsibility for Student Learning: The Implications of School Race and Class Composition. Anthropology in Education Quarterly. [ draft pdf ]	Journal Article (under review)
2003	Diamond, J. & Spillane, J. (2003) High Stakes Accountability in Urban Elementary Schools: Challenging or Reproducing Inequality? Teachers College Record.	Journal Article (in press '03)
2003	Spillane, J., Hallet, T., & Diamond, J. (2003). Forms of Capital and the Construction of Leadership: Leadership in Urban Elementary Schools. Sociology of Education, 76(1) [ pdf ]	Journal Article
2003	Spillane, J., Diamond, J., Jita, L. (2003). Leading Instruction: The Distribution of Leadership for Instruction. Journal of Curriculum Studies. [ pdf ]	Journal Article
2002	Spillane, J., Diamond, J., Burch, P., Hallett, T., Jita, L., & Zoltners, J. (2002). Managing in the Middle: School Leaders and the Enactment of Accountability Policy. Educational Policy. ABSTRACT: This paper investigates how mid-level managers make sense of and mediate district accountability policy. Arguing that teachers' evolving perceptions and understanding of accountability policies are likely to be mediated by school leaders, the authors explore how school managers enact their policy environments focusing chiefly on the ways in which they construct district accountability policies. Adopting a cognitive or interpretive frame on implementation, the authors explore how school leaders made sense of district accountability mechanisms illuminating how their sense-making was situated in their professional biographies, building histories, and their roles as intermediaries between district office and classroom teachers. Please send all correspondence to the first author at Northwestern University, School of Education and Social Policy, 2115 North Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208 or to j-spillane@nwu.edu. [ pdf ]	Professional Report
2002	Burch, Patricia and Spillane, James. 2002. Subject Matter and Elementary School Leadership: How Leaders Views of Mathematics and Literacy Shape and are Shaped by Work on Reform. Revision Under Review, Elementary Schools Journal ABSTRACT: [ pdf ]	Journal Article (in press '03)
2002	Spillane, J. & Seashore-Louis, K. (2002). The Practice of School Improvement. National Society for the Study of Education (NSSE) Yearbook. Chicago: University of Chicago.	Book Chapter
2001	Elementary School Leadership: The Development and Distribution of Knowledge for and about Instruction James P. Spillane Amy Coldren John B. Diamond Northwestern University. Prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association Seattle, April, 2001 [ pdf ]
2001	Spillane, James P., John B. Diamond et al. (2001) "Urban School Leadership and Elementary Science Instruction: Identifying, Mobilizing, and Activating Resources in a Devalued Subject Area." Journal of Research in Science Teaching.38(8): 918- 940. [ pdf ] [ pdf- appendix ]	Journal Article
2001	Spillane, James P., Rich Halverson, & John B. Diamond. (2001). "Investigating School Leadership Practice: A Distributed Perspective." Educational Researcher, 30(3):23-28 [ pdf ]	Journal Article
2001	Spillane, James, P., Tim Hallett, and John B. Diamond. (2001) Exploring the Construction of Instructional Leadership in Urban Elementary Schools: Leadership as Symbolic Power. Institute for Policy Research Working Paper.	Working Paper
2000	Race, Class, and Beliefs about Students in Urban Elementary Schools John B. Diamond, Antonia Randolph, James P. Spillane. Northwestern University. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Washington, D. C., August 2000. Draft: Please do not cite or quote without the first authors permission. ABSTRACT: In this article, the authors use interview and observation data from five urban elementary schools to develop five hypotheses regarding the relationship between the race and class composition of schools' student populations, teachers' beliefs and expectations of students, and the educational implications of these beliefs. The authors show that the race and class composition of schools impacts teachers' beliefs about students' capacity and potential and their subsequent instructional responses. They further argue that organizational context can mediate the impact of teachers' beliefs by shaping their responses to perceived student challenges. The authors draw on Weick's (1979) distinction between perception and enactment of organizational environments and Giddens (1979, 1984) theory of structuration to argue that schools and their employees can shape the implications of certain structural characteristics of their environments, reinforcing, and potentially challenging, reproductive processes. Please send all correspondence to the first author at Northwestern University, School of Education and Social Policy, 2115 North Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208 or to jdiamond@nwu.edu. [ pdf ]

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