current Research projects
My research focuses on
School Leadership
Our research on school leadership examines the labor market, pathways, challenges, and strategies for fostering effective and diverse leadership, leveraging unique application and applicant datasets. In particular, we focus on Assistant Principals as a crucial step toward strengthening and diversifying the principalship.
Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander students are often mischaracterized as a homogenous group of high achievers, reinforcing the model minority myth and excluding them from equity conversations.
School Board
We investigate the pivotal role school board members play in shaping local educational policies. Our research delves into their roles, decision-making processes, motivations, and the evolving responsibilities they face, emphasizing their impact on school systems and community trust.
Education Policy
Our research focuses on policies like four-day school weeks, the Rural Education Achievement Program, and the educator labor market’s impact on student outcomes. We aim to provide evidence-based insights to help state and local leaders promote inclusivity and equitable outcomes for all students.
Recent publication
Swimming in the Deep End: School Board Members Making Sense of Their Roles and Responsibilities
This study delves into the unique experiences of Missouri school board members elected during the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, uncovering how their personal and professional backgrounds inspired their candidacy and shaped their initial perceptions of the role. Through interviews and the lens of sense-making theory, the research reveals how their understanding of the position transformed as they navigated unprecedented challenges post-election. Shedding light on these often-overlooked yet critical education policy actors, this study contributes valuable insights to the growing scholarship on the evolving roles of school board members.
Publications
Not all students have equal opportunities to learn from effective teachers, and students from historically disadvantaged backgrounds are disproportionately more likely to be taught by ineffective teachers year after year.The cumulative effects of prolonged exposure to highly effective and ineffective teachers can widen existing disparities in academic achievement.
School principals play an invaluable role in schools’, teachers’, and students’ success; therefore, it is of particular importance that we learn, through empirical research, about the factors related to recruiting and selecting school principals. This study critically reviewed 64 empirical literature studies that were published in the United States over the past 2 decades on the topic of principal recruitment and selection.
Lee, S. W., & Mao, X. (2023). Recruitment and selection of principals: A systematic review. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 51(1), 6-29.
In partnership with the Wisconsin Education Career Access Network, we examine the principal labor dynamics in rural schools using statewide job-openings and application information. Results indicate that all rural communities—rural fringe, rural distant, and rural remote—receive comparable numbers of applications, as compared with urban districts.
sewoonglee.net 