An Exploratory Study of the Academic Optimism of Principals Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Amy Schrepfer-Tarter, M.A. Graduate Program in Education: Policy and Leadership The Ohio State University 2013 Dissertation Committee: Wayne K. Hoy, Advisor Anika Anthony Scott Sweetland Copyright by Amy Schrepfer-Tarter 2013 Abstract Academic optimism of the principal is a construct comprised of trust in teachers, self-efficacy of the principal, and principal’s academic emphasis. Academic optimism has been demonstrated at both the organizational and teacher levels, but research concerning principal’s academic optimism is only beginning to be explored. The current inquiry began with a pilot study to develop a usable measure of academic optimism of principals. The pilot study resulted in a preliminary measure, which was further refined to create the scale used in this analysis. Both the validity and predictors of the construct and the scale were examined in this study to confirm the components of academic optimism of the principal. Then the focus shifted to examining what positive predictors contribute to forming principal’s academic optimism. The measure of academic optimism of principals was refined and tested on a national sample of 158 principals. Five predictor variables were examined: dispositional optimism, life satisfaction, grit, zest, and explanatory style. These variables had a strong basis of research in the positive psychology literature and had strong theoretical implications for academic optimism of principals. Of the predictor variables, grit, zest, and explanatory style were found to be significant predictors of principal’s academic optimism. ii Dedication Dedicated to my parents and my students. Vobis nunc et in perpetuum gratias ago. iii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank Wayne K. Hoy for his in-depth mentorship and guidance. Thanks also go to Anita Woolfolk Hoy for her extensive editing and unending kindness. The field of education is profoundly better because of both of you. I would not be writing this today without the unwavering love and support of my parents, Susan Schrepfer and John Tarter. I am who I am today because of you and I will never be able to express my pride and joy in being your daughter. Thank you for your patience and editing, and for taking my calls every day, no matter what. There are many in the profession who have helped me get here. I owe incredible gratitude to Roger Goddard, Patrick B. Forsyth, Curt Adams, Jordan Ware, and Ellen Dollarhide for their assistance with the pilot study. Additionally, thanks to Page Smith, Michael DiPaola, Quint Gage, Angela Nelson, Tim Cybulski, John McIntyre, and Michael Jette for their assistance in sampling. Thanks also to Scott Sweetland and Anika Anthony for their help and support. Lastly, thank you to my amazing friends, editors, and supports, Lauren Bailes, Kristine Kazarian, Michael Williams, Ashley Horn, Marjorie Dorime- Williams, Abigail Crawford, Annmarie Sabovick, Kevin Courchine, and Maureen Greulich. I am forever indebted to all of you and with each of you I share a piece of this joy. iv Vita June 2000 ………………Highland Park High School 2004…………….……….B.A. Classical Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz 2007……………………..M.A. Classical Philology, University of Arizona Publications Bailes, L. and Schrepfer-Tarter, A. (2012). Maximizing the power of decision making: Ten useful concepts for school leaders. In M. DiPaola and P. Forsyth (Eds)., Contemporary challenges facing school leaders: Research and theory in educational administration, (pp. 175-191). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Fields of Study Major Field: Education: Policy and Leadership v Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………...………......ii Dedication…………………………………………………………....…..iii Acknowledgements………………………………………………………iv Vita……………………………………………………………………….v List of Tables…………………………………………………………….vii Chapter 1: Introduction……………………………………………….….1 Chapter 2: Review of the Literature……………………………………..12 Chapter 3: Research Methodology………………………………………52 Chapter 4: The Current Study……………………………………………81 Chapter 5: Discussion of Findings……………………………………….99 References………………………………………………………………..117 Appendix A: Final Questionnaire………………………………………..130 vi List of Tables Table 1. Demographic Characteristics of the Sample…………………..….54 Table 2. Dispositional Optimism Measure………………………………...56 Table 3. Satisfaction with Life Scale………………………………............57 Table 4. Grit Scale………………………………...……………………….58 Table 5. Explanatory Style Pilot Items……………………………….........64 Table 6. Refined Scale of Explanatory Style of Principals………………..66 Table 7. Pilot Measure of Trust in Teachers………………………………67 Table 8. Refined Measure of Trust in Teachers.…………………………..68 Table 9. Deleted Self-Efficacy Items………………………………...........70 Table 10. Pilot Measures of Principal Self-Efficacy………………………71 Table 11. Refined Measure of Principal Self-Efficacy………………….…72 Table 12. Pilot Measure of Academic Emphasis of the Principal………....73 Table 13. Refined Measure of Academic Emphasis of the Principal….….74 Table 14. Number of Items and Reliability Summary of Scales………..…78 Table 15. Factor Loadings of the Nine Best Items of Academic Optimism of the Principal………………………………...………………………………...81 Table 16. Summary Data and Analysis of Variance for the Relationship between Academic Optimism of Principals and Setting…………………………..84 vii Table 17. Summary Data and Analysis of Variance for the Relationship between Academic Optimism of Principals and Level of Education……………………85 Table 18. Summary of the relationships between demographic variables and academic optimism of the principal……………………………………………88 Table 19. Alpha Coefficients for Current and Previous Samples………………90 Table 20. Summary of Variable Descriptives………………………………….91 Table 21. Correlation Matrix…………………………..………………………91 Table 22. Multiple Predictors of Academic Optimism of the Principal……….94 Table 23. Multiple Predictors of Principal Trust in Teachers…………………95 Table 24. Multiple Predictors of Self-Efficacy of the Principal……………….96 Table 25. Multiple Predictors of Academic Emphasis of the Principal……….97 Table 26. Regression Model for Academic Optimism of Principals…………..98 viii Chapter 1: Introduction Overview This study examined administrator level psychological variables and their relationship to the construct academic optimism. First, an exploratory factor analysis tested the new measure for principal academic optimism and confirmed the existence of the variable at the principal level. The second component examined possible psychological variables that contribute to academic optimism. Chapter One provides background for the study, along with the purpose and proposed implications of a successful result. The chapter also outlines preliminary definitions of the concepts involved in the analysis, though Chapter Two elaborates a great deal more on the meaning, measure, and history of the concepts, and culminates with the proposed research questions and a short description of the scope and limitations of the study. Background Educational research tends to focus on the dysfunctional parts of schools, using phrases such as drop out, failing schools, lack of accountability, and resistance to change to describe, quantify, and remedy the ills plaguing schools. However, the singular focus on dysfunction has not led to major improvements in schools, as 1 many of the problems of today seem very much like those of 10, 20, or 30 years ago. Studying dysfunction in schools is not the point of this study. Overview of Positive Psychology Positive psychology changes the focus of theory and research from dysfunction and moves it towards a concept called well-being. Well-being is what makes people, and perhaps by extension organizations, flourish using their current strengths. Using variables such as hope, zest, vigor, and grit (to name just a few), positive psychology looks to quantify, through rigorous scientific method and experimental research, what characteristics help people thrive and how positive interventions can increase thriving. Much of the early research comes out of the University of Pennsylvania and the work of Martin E.P. Seligman, although he claims that the real impetus for this line of inquiry dates back to the 5th century B.C., with the works of Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates, and the ancient concept of eudaemonia (Seligman, 2011). Seligman helped to spearhead the study of well-being during his tenure as the President of the American Psychological Association. He called for an increase in study on what traits make life worth living and then separates the traits into a number of different types of lives. Seligman and Czsikszentmihalyi (2000) describe these lives as the pleasurable life, which comes from the satisfaction of needs, such as hunger, thirst, and comfort, versus the enjoyable life, which comes from things that people accomplish when they go beyond just satisfying needs, such as intellectual pursuits, career ambition, athletic undertakings, and charity works. They 2 contend that the purpose of positive psychology is to help create a matrix, which would “describe…what talents under what enabling conditions lead to what kind of outcomes” (p. 12). The quote nicely sums up one of the goals of this study; to determine what traits in certain administrators lead to the enabling condition of academic optimism, which might lead to an