Our Key Leaders Network is studying a very revealing and helpful book about educational leadership this year. Linking Leadership to Student Learning (Jossey-Bass, 2012) draws on extensive research into the effects of school and district leadership conducted by Kenneth Leithwood, Karen Seashore Louis and other colleagues.
Their study (supported by The Wallace Foundation), stretched from 2004-2010, gathering and analyzing data from 180 elementary, middle and high schools in 43 districts in 9 states.
When I first read through the many “aha” findings produced by this large-scale investigation, I was particularly struck by the strong confirmation that a principal’s sense of professional efficacy – the confidence that his or her school improvement work will have positive effects on school conditions and student achievement – is critical to improved student learning in a school.
So how does that “sense of efficacy” come about? The study found that the conditions that had the greatest impact on improving principals’ sense of efficacy were, in order: (1) district-wide focus on student achievement and instruction; (2) Job-embedded professional development for teachers; (3) Investment in both school- and district-level instructional leadership; and (4) district personnel policies.
❖ Collective leadership has a stronger influence on student achievement than individual leadership.
❖ Almost all people associated with higher-performing schools have greater influence on school decisions than is the case with people in low-performing schools.
❖ Higher-performing schools award greater influence than low-performing schools to teacher teams, parents, and students, in particular.
❖ Principals and district leaders have the most influence on decisions in all schools, and they do not lose influence as others gain influence.
❖ School leaders have an impact on student achievement primarily through their influence on teachers’ motivation and working conditions.
❖ When principals and teachers share leadership, teachers’ working relationships are stronger and student achievement is higher.
❖ Leadership effects on student achievement occur largely because effective leadership strengthens professional community – a special environment within which teachers work together to improve their practice and improve student learning.
You can learn more about the Leithwood/Lewis research and the leadership studies supported by The Wallace Foundation at the School Leadership section of the foundation’s website. Of particular interest is a recent article summarizing a decade of foundation research to identify what it is that effective school principals do: The School Principal as Leader: Guiding Schools to Better Teaching and Learning. Also see this report on a new Wallace initiative to help six urban school districts improve how they train, place and support principals capable of turning around schools.
