Doctoral Research Update – Working Title and Progress on Chapters 1, 2, and 3.

Chapter 1, 2, and 3 of my dissertation are coming along very well. While revision and editing are needed for each chapter, major progress has been made this summer!

The working title for my dissertation is “Educational Leadership Efficacy: The Relationship Between Data Use, Data Use Confidence, Leadership Efficacy, and School Performance.” The goal of the dissertation is to determine the relationship between the variables of data use, data use confidence, leadership efficacy, and school performance. This will allow us to understand current data practices amongst K-12 educational leaders as well as how these relationships may affect the student achievement of the students they serve in their leadership capacity.

Chapter 3 is by far the most difficult chapter to outline and write. Understanding quantitative and qualitative research design and how it pertains to what you want to do with your study is key to ensuring everything fits together for your study to work once it is conducted. This fall I have two research design classes in qualitative and quantitative methods. During these classes, I will refine Chapter 3 along with my dissertation chair while incorporation what I learn in these two courses to complete and refine my Chapter 3. My goal is to have Chapter 3 completely done by November as the academic coursework winds down.

Once Chapter’s 1, 2, and 3 are complete, I will defend my preliminary dissertation and then begin collecting data thereafter. I plan on updating progress on this blog after I have defended the preliminary dissertation this winter. Going forward, the plan is that in the early spring data collection and data analysis will occur along with writing the final two chapters of the dissertation. I am hoping to defend my dissertation next summer or during the early fall in order to graduate in December of 2019!

I am beginning to see how everything is coming together for this study. I am excited to see where it is going!

If you have any questions regarding educational data use/practices, leadership efficacy, leadership efficacy in terms of data use/confidence, educational data mining, and data-driven decision making in education, please let me know. I am more than happy to answer your questions. Email: mattrhoads1990@gmail.com