Can You Hear Me Now? An Improvement Science Study on Policy Change in Public Schools

Author

William G. Rhoden Jr., Clemson UniversityFollow

Date of Award

8-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Leadership P-12

Committee Chair/Advisor

Dr. Daniella Hall Sutherland

Committee Member

Dr. Noelle A Paufler

Committee Member

Dr. Sarah E Stokowski

Committee Member

Dr. Anne Marie Rogers

Committee Member

Dr. Alison E Leonard

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to discover what the perceptions of music teachers, specifically high school band directors in upstate South Carolina (S.C.), on their ability to affect meaningful policy change in SC public schools and what roadblocks exist or remain in the way of affecting policy change. Using improvement science as the methodology, this study employed the Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycle to discover the effectiveness of this study, make recommendations for future research, and plan for future PDSA cycles. This study used interviews to collect initial data on the participants’ perceptions on their abilities to affect policy change. Using the interview data, I formed an intervention in the form of an infographic to distribute to the entirety of the upstate SC band directors accompanied with a survey collecting further data on the participants’ perceptions on their ability and data on how effective the infographic was on raising their perceptions on the participants’ ability to affect policy change.

The data showed that the infographic was successful in raising the participants’ perceptions on their ability to affect policy change and a matched pairs t-test showed that the improvement in perception was statistically significant. The data also showed that information on the problem, a positive relationship with administrators, teaching experience, experience in a policy change movement, and school leadership experience were all major factors in improving the participants’ perceptions. Recommendations were made for educational leaders to better involve teachers in the policymaking process and to improve the perceptions of teachers’ ability to affect meaningful policy change in S.C. public schools.

Recommended Citation

Rhoden, William G. Jr., "Can You Hear Me Now? An Improvement Science Study on Policy Change in Public Schools" (2024). All Dissertations. 3743.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/3743