Congratulations to Sue Fenstermacher who on Wednesday, February 11, 2026, successfully defended her dissertation proposal.
The title of Sue’s dissertation is "THE ROLE OF DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP IN EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS."
Overview of the Problem: Many U.S. schools still rely on traditional top-down leadership structures that do not match the complex demands of modern educational environments. Although distributed leadership offers a collaborative alternative, there is limited recent U.S.-based evidence on how its key components relate to perceived school effectiveness.
Research Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how distributed leadership, specifically collaboration, shared responsibility, and leadership distribution, is related to decision-making and perceived school effectiveness among PK-12 educators.
Research Design: quantitative study, cross-sectional survey, correlation analysis
Sample: The sample will consist of approximately 300–500 PK–12 educators and school-based staff across the United States, including teachers, instructional coaches, administrators, and support personnel working in public, charter, private, and parochial schools. Participants will represent a range of school levels (elementary, middle, and high school), district sizes (small, medium, and large), and geographic locales (urban, suburban, and rural), with a subgroup analysis focusing on educators in New York State.
Data Collection: Data will be collected using an online survey composed of two validated instruments: the Distributed Leadership Inventory (DLI) and the School Effectiveness Questionnaire (SEQ). Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize participant characteristics and key variables. Pearson correlation and multiple regression analyses will examine relationships between dimensions of distributed leadership (collaboration, shared responsibility, and leadership distribution), decision-making, and perceived school effectiveness. Moderation analyses will be conducted to determine whether school or individual characteristics influence these relationships.
Dissertation Committee Chair:
Dr. Nora C.R. Broege
Dissertation Committee Members:
Dr. Shelley Wepner
Dr. Rob Feirsen
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