ADVERSE EMPLOYMENT ACTIONS AND PUBLIC SCHOOL ...

development to support struggling school administrators in successfully carrying out their
functions.
Support Models for Struggling School Administrators
Through the major studies of Davis (1997, 1998) and Sacken (1994, 1996), other themes
in the literature relating to adverse employment action surfaced. Professional development and/or
support models for struggling school administrators was one such theme. Professional
development has been a wildly important facet of school operations over the last 20 years. It, like
many things, has suffered during the economic hardships in the country as of late. However,
many areas have been identified as the “key ingredient” to empowering a school administrator to
becoming a visionary leader, or transformational leader, or any other hallowed type of leader.
Through professional training, school administrators are able to glean the missing component of
their administrative game and become more adept as an administrator. Ironic, but not surprising,
is that little to no attention has been paid to professional development and support models for
administrators who are missing more than just the one “key ingredient.” To paraphrase Mark
Twain, we all love to complain about the weather, but none of us do anything about it (as cited in
Connelly, 2011, 1).
The dearth of literature on professional development is overwhelming, but, like the
literature on the subject of adverse employment actions against school administrators, it is
incomplete. Raisch and Rogus (1995) impart that it “is almost void of a focus on the troubled or
marginal principal, although it is replete with hints for helping teachers who are experiencing
severe problems” (p. 12). To theorize as to why this is would inevitably lead to economics.
Administrators are more easily dismissed than a teacher; therefore, investing substantial funding
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