Christine Moloney presented information on her research evaluating the effectiveness of a P-12 public school district's change to a regional organizational structure model. The presentation covered the problem being studied, research questions, literature review, methodology, coding process for data analysis, and references. Guest researchers attended to gain an understanding of the research process, identify themes in qualitative data coding, and contribute to the validity of the study's data analysis.

1. Guest Researcher
Presentation for WSU
Graduate Students
Christine Moloney
Director of Instructional Leadership
Puyallup School District
molonecn@puyallup.k12.wa.us
molonecn@cityu.edu

2. Introductions
Name
Current Position and Professional Goal
Share with us:
How you spent Memorial Day week-end (optional)
One reason you believe research is important

3. Why Research?
Research allows you to pursue your interests, to learn something
new, to hone your problem-solving skills, to challenge yourself in
new ways and . . .

4. Learning Targets
• Gain an understanding of the process a researcher is taking to address a problem
• Identifying the problem of practice/leadership problem
• Narrowing the topic
• Developing the research questions
• Finding research—where to look and writing the literature review
• Keeping an annotated bibliography
• Determining the data collection and analysis methods
• Presenting the findings
• Discussing the results and implications
• Gain an understanding of the mixed methods data analysis coding process
• Help provide validity and reliability to a data analysis in process (be part of the research
process)
• Know what homework is required for Dr. Malone–check the blog 

5. Evaluation of the
Effectiveness of a P-12
Public School District’s
Organizational Structure
Christine Moloney, Doctoral Student
at City University of Seattle

6. Introduction
• The change in a Washington state P-12 public school district’s
organizational structure from a traditional hierarchical structure to a
regional model structure will be formally evaluated in this study.
• The original goals set forth by the superintendent for the change in the
organizational structure of the district are the basis of this evaluation.
• A mixed methods approach will be conducted to provide more
comprehensive answers to the research questions.
• The results of the study will fill a gap in the literature on public school
district organizational structures and provide research for current and
future school district leaders when seeking possible actions they can take
to support increased achievement for their students.

7. The Problem
• In this study, an evaluation will be conducted of one school district’s change in
its organizational structure to a three-region model. The change in the
traditional organizational structure of this Washington state P-12 school district
was implemented in July of 2008 to better organize professional time of the
employees within the district in an effort to increase student achievement and
efficiency (T. Apostle, personal communication, 2007).
• The superintendent who initiated this change stated that the change in the
district’s organizational structure must do the following: (a) prioritize increased
planning time for staff, b) increase opportunities for collaboration, and (c)
intensify efforts to increase professional learning opportunities for certificated
and classified staff (T. Apostle, personal communication, March 22, 2007).
• The problem is that no formal evaluation of the change in the school district’s
organizational structure was conducted to indicate whether or not the
organizational structural change resulted in the accomplishment of the goals
stated by the superintendent. For this study the researcher proposes to conduct
a formal evaluation of the results of the district’s organizational structure
change according to the original goals set forth by the superintendent.

8. Research Questions/Hypothesis
• The proposed study is focused around the following research questions:
• Did the implementation of a regional model of a district organizational
structure of a P-12 Washington state public school district increase
collaboration among classified staff, certificated staff, principals, and
central office leadership as measured through an online survey?
• Did the implementation of a regional model of a district organizational
structure of a P-12 Washington state public school district increase
planning time for staff as measured by data collected through an online
survey?
• Did the implementation of a regional model of a district organizational
structure of a P-12 Washington state public school district increase
opportunities for professional development for staff as measured by data
collected through an online survey?

9. Research Questions/Hypothesis
• Is there a relationship between the implementation of the regional model
and student achievement as measured by the estimated on-time
graduation rates and the 10th grade reading, writing, and math state
assessments (High School Proficiency Exam (HSPE), Washington
Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), End of Course (EOC) exam)?
• The hypotheses in this mixed methods study that will help answer research
question number four is:
• H1: There is no significant difference between the district’s student
achievement data, measured by the 10th grade reading, writing, and math
state assessments (HSPE/WASL/EOC) and estimated on-time graduation
rates, before and after the implementation of the three-region
organizational structure model.

10. The Literature Review
• Theoretical Frameworks
• Theory Generation
• Punch (2006) defined theory generation as the process of developing a theory to explain
the results of a study.
• Theory generation is typically used in qualitative studies (Punch, 2006).
• Theories of Organizational Change (Blanchard, Blanchard, & Zigarmi, 2007;
Bolman & Deal, 2003; Groşanu, Rachişan, & Berinde, 2011; Kenny, 2006)
• Organizational Structures in Public Education
• Organizational Structures in Business and Other Non-educational
Organizations
• Leadership
• Professional Learning Communities and Collaboration

11. Methodology
Study Setting
• Demographics
• Financial Status
• Regional Model Organizational
Structure Origins
Research Method
• Qualitative and Quantitative
Design Components

12. Methodology cont.
Research Design
• Mixed Methods Convergent Parallel
Design
• Quantitative and qualitative data
collected simultaneously, strands
analyzed separately, and then data
analysis is mixed for the overall
interpretation (Creswell & Clark,
2011)
• Triangulation of data through
qualitative data collected on the
online survey, quantitative data
collected in the online survey, and
quantitative data collected through
OSPI
• Survey Instrument
• Advantages and Disadvantages
• Expert Panel
• Protection of Survey Participants
• Participants

13. Methodology cont.
Research Design cont.
• Data Analysis Methods
• Quantitative Analysis
• Ex post facto design (Leedy & Ormrod,
2010)
• Descriptive statistics
• Wright (2006), Leary (2008), and
Salkind (2011) suggested that a t-test
was appropriate in a situation where the
researcher was more interested in
examining the gain of each group than
looking for the reasons why there are
differences.
• The t-test will allow the researcher to
either accept or reject the null
hypothesis, H1.
• Data Analysis Methods
• Qualitative Analysis
• Constant comparative method (Malone,
2012)
• Substantive categories created through
the coding process
• Substantive categories are descriptive
and are considered “emic” as the
categories are taken from a
participant’s own words or concept
(Maxwell, 2005).
• A joint qualitative and quantitative data
table will provide an overall
interpretation of all of the data
collected.

14. Methodology cont.
Research Design cont.
• Limitations
• Validity
• Reliability
• Ethical and Sampling Issues

15. Coding Process
• What does coding look like?
http://youtu.be/nxIErzX3aQQ
• First, look for themes within each
question within each subgroup
• Record these themes on the overall
organizational category sheet
provided
• Second, look for themes within
each question inclusive of all of
the groups by resorting the
sentence(s)
• Record these themes on the overall
organizational category sheet
provided
Discussion
and
Agreement
on Themes
1. Prepare
Data Sets
2. Watch
Video
3. Sort
Sentences
4. Identify
Themes (use
an ‘emic’
category)

16. Planning Time Coding Process
• First, look for themes within the
classified answers to Question #6
(repeat for each subgroup of
certificated, building administrator,
and central office administrator)
• Record these themes on the overall
organizational category sheet
provided
• Second, look for themes within each
question inclusive of all of the
groups by resorting the sentence(s)
• Record these themes on the overall
organizational category sheet
provided
• At end of process turn in all three
theme sheets to Christine. Thank
you!
Discussion
and
Agreement
on Themes
1. Prepare
Planning
Time Data
Sets
2. Sort
Sentences
within each
subgroup
4. Identify
Themes (use
an ‘emic’
category)
4.
Discussion
and
Agreement
on Themes

17. Sample Table for Recording Themes
Question
Topic
Classified Certificated
Building
Administrator
Central Office
Administrator
All Subgroups
Combined
Other
Comments
Q6 Class
Plan
List themes here List themes here
Q7 Cert
Plan
Q8 BA
Plan
Q9 CA
Plan

18. Planning Themes
Question Topic Classified Certificated
Building
Administrator
Central Office
Administrator
All Subgroups
Combined
Other Comments
Q6 Class Plan
Q7 Cert Plan
Q8 BA Plan
Q9 CA Plan

19. Collaboration Themes
Question Topic Classified Certificated
Building
Administrator
Central Office
Administrator
All Subgroups
Combined
Other Comments
Q11 Class
Collab
Q12 Cert
Collab
Q13 BA Collab
Q14 CA Collab

20. Professional Development Themes
Question Topic Classified Certificated
Building
Administrator
Central Office
Administrator
All Subgroups
Combined
Other Comments
Q16 Class PD
Q17 Cert PD
Q18 BA PD
Q19 CA PD

21. Final Discussion/Reflection
• Did we meet the learning targets?
• What new learning are you taking away with you tonight?
• Share one thing that you learned tonight that you will use in the near future
• Other comments and questions

22. References
• Blanchard, K., Blanchard, S., & Zigarmi, D. (2007). Servant leadership. In K. Blanchard (Ed.), Leading at a higher level: Blanchard on leadership and
creating high performing organizations (pp. 249-276). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
• Bolman, L., & Deal, T. (2003). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
• Creswell, J. & Clark, V. (2011). Designing and conducting mixed methods research. (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
• English, F. W. (2008). The art of leadership: Balancing performance and accountability. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Groşanu, A., Rachişan, R. P., & Berinde, S. R. (2011). Creativity of Romanian restructuring strategies. International Journal of Business Strategy, 11(1),
173-179.
• Kenny, J. (2006). Strategy and the learning organization: A maturity model for the formation of strategy. The Learning Organization, 13(4), 353-368.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09696470610667733
• Leary, M. R. (2008). Introduction to behavioral research methods (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
• Leedy, P. D., & Ormrod, J. E. (2010). Practical research (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. (may be useful)
• Malone, G (2012). Washington State superintendents and K-12 online learning: Leadership perceptions, challenges, & opportunities. Washington State
University. http://gradworks.umi.com/35/17/3517416.html
• Maxwell, J. A. (2005). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
• Punch, K. F. (2006). Developing effective research proposals (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Salkind, N. J. (2011). Statistics for people who think they hate statistics (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Wright, D. B. (2006). Comparing groups in a before--after design: When t test and ANCOVA produce different results. British Journal of Educational
Psychology, 76(3), 663-675. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct =true&db=pbh&AN=22557798&site=ehost-live

23. Thank you!
And best of luck in your future
research endeavors!