Session Information
WERA SES 10 D, Global Insights into Supporting Academic Achievement
Paper Session
Contribution
The proposed paper examines the connections between principal leadership activities, school context, and student achievement in Australia, Finland, Latvia, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, and Romania. Data for this quantitative study are from the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) and the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The seven countries participated in both the TALIS and PISA and the researchers merged datasets, yielding a study sample of 1301 schools.
Gaining a better understanding of the specific school leadership practices that best predict student achievement is of international importance, even though the existence of a connection is widely presumed. As Robinson (2010) noted:
There is no doubt that this body of evidence about the links between instructional leadership and student outcomes has been noticed by policymakers. For example, it has informed the development of educational leadership standards in the United States (Council of Chief State School Officers, 2008), the work of the National College of School Leadership in England (Leithwood, Day, Harris, and Hopkins, 2006), and the development of a leadership framework for New Zealand principals (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2008) (p.2.).
As school leaders, principals are often considered central to student success, in terms of both enacting organizational practices and translating external policies into terms and conditions that have the most immediate presence in teachers' and learners' daily lives. How specifically might school leadership practices be connected to teachers and students? A (2012) meta-analysis of research studies on principal effectiveness entitled, Ripple Effect: A Syntheses of Research on Principal Influence to Inform Performance Evaluation Design was conducted by the American Institute for Research. The framework that emerged from the meta-analysis of more than 20 studies provided a framework for understanding principal effectiveness that included direct and indirect effects of principal practices on student achievement.
The base of the ripple effect is principal practice. This is informed by principal knowledge and dispositions and can take different forms including traditional manager, supervisor of standards, adaptive leader, instructional leader, and leader of leaders. This behavior has direct effects upon teacher quality, instructional quality, and student achievement, and can be mediated by school conditions and community contexts. There can also be indirect effects of principal practice, which can include providing feedback to teachers to signal preferred methods of instruction, allocating resources in concert with priorities, or having a role in teacher evaluation based upon student learning.
While ripple effect theory includes school conditions and community contexts that can mediate principal practice quality, it does not identify relevant principal constructs such as the principal’s life experiences. Nor does ripple effect theory identify the practices and school contexts that support principals themselves, and leave them satisfied in their role as school leader. Lastly, the theory has not been adequately tested in contexts outside of the United States.
Thus, while effective school leadership is a common subject of inquiry, researchers have not uncovered the context-specific nature of leadership practices. These practices, in conjunction with information about student achievement, are available using the most recent international datasets from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The research will address this gap in empirical research through the following guiding questions of study:
What are the relationships among principal leadership activities, principal job satisfaction, and student achievement in the countries of Australia, Finland, Latvia, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, and Romania?
In addition to school context data, what principal leadership activities best predict student achievement in mathematics, reading, and science?
To what extent do school context data and principal leadership activities predict principal job satisfaction?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Alig-Mielcarek, J., & Hoy, W. K. (2005). Instructional leadership: Its nature, meaning, and influence. In W. K. Hoy & C. Miskel (Eds.), Educational leadership and an American High School (pp 29-54). Greenwich, CT: Information Age. Chudgar, Amita, T. F. Luschei. 2009. “National Income, Income Inequality, and the Importance of Schools: A Hierarchical Cross-National Comparison” American Educational Research Journal, 46 (3), 626-658 Council of Chief State School Officers. (2008). Educational leadership policy standards: ISLLC 2008. Washington, DC: Council of Chief State School Officers. Gruenert, S. (2005). Correlations of collaborative school cultures with student achievement. NASSP Bulletin, 89(645), 43-55. Hoy, W. K.; & Miskel, C. G. (2005). Educational leadership and reform. Greenwich, Ct: Information Age. Leithwood, K., Day, C., Sammons, P., Harris, A., & Hopkins, D. (2006). Seven strong claims about successful school leadership. Nottingham, U.K.: National College of School Leadership. New Zealand Ministry of Education. (2008). Kiwi leadership for principals: Principals as educational leaders. Wellington: Author. O’Donnell, R. J., & White, G. P. (2005). Within the accountability era: Principals’ instructional leadership behaviors and student achievement. NASSP Journal, 89(645), 56-71. Reeves, D. B. (2004). Accountability for learning: How teachers and school leaders can take charge. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Robinson, V. M.J., & Timperley, H. S. (2007). The leadership of the improvement of teaching and learning: Lessons from initiatives with positive outcomes for students. Australian Journal of Education, 51(3), 247–262. Robinson, V.M.J. (2010). From Instructional Leadership to Leadership Capabilities: Empirical Findings and Methodological Challenges. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 9:1, 1-26. Robinson, V.M.J. (2010). Researching the impact of leadership practices on student outcomes: Progress made and challenges to overcome. Draft for discussion prepared for the Asia Leadership Research and Development Roundtable, January 11th–12th, 2010, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong. http://www.ied.edu.hk/apclc/roundtable2010/paper/paper%20(viviane).pdf Schmoker, M. (2006). Results now: How we could achieve unprecedented improvements in teaching and learning. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Spillane, J., Halverson, R., Diamond, J. B. (2001), Investigating school leadership practice: A distributed perspective. Educational Researcher, 30 (3), 23-28.
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