The Impact of Leadership on Student Outcomes

Abstract

Purpose: This article illustrates how successful leaders combine the too often dichotomized practices of transformational and instructional leadership in different ways across different phases of their schools’ development in order to progressively shape and “layer” the improvement culture in improving students’ outcomes. Research Methods: Empirical data were drawn from a 3-year mixed-methods national study (“Impact Study”) that investigated associations between the work of principals in effective and improving primary and secondary schools in England and student outcomes as defined (but not confined) by their national examination and assessment results over 3 years. The research began with a critical survey of the extant literature, followed by a national survey that explored principals’ and key staff’s perceptions of school improvement strategies and actions that they believed had helped foster better student attainment. This was complemented by multiperspective in-depth case studies of a subsample of 20 schools. Findings: The research provides new empirical evidence of how successful principals directly and indirectly achieve and sustain improvement over time through combining both transformational and instructional leadership strategies. The findings show that schools’ abilities to improve and sustain effectiveness over the long term are not primarily the result of the principals’ leadership style but of their understanding and diagnosis of the school’s needs and their application of clearly articulated, organizationally shared educational values through multiple combinations and accumulations of time and context-sensitive strategies that are “layered” and progressively embedded in the school’s work, culture, and achievements. Implications: Mixed-methods research designs are likely to provide finer grained, more nuanced evidence-based understandings of the leadership roles and behaviors of principals who achieve and sustain educational outcomes in schools than single lens quantitative analyses, meta-analyses, or purely qualitative approaches. The findings themselves provide support for more differentiated, context sensitive training and development for aspiring and serving principals.

The Influence of School Leadership on Student Outcomes

“…They concluded that "when transformational and shared instructional leadership coexist in an integrated form of leadership, the influence on school performance, measured by the quality of its pedagogy and the achievement of its students, is substantial" (p. 370). This view is supported by other researchers who have used terms such as "leadership for learning" (Heck & Hallinger, 2014) [3] and leadership "layering" (Day et al, 2016) [1]. Despite using different terminology, this research concurs that effective leadership should include both the teaching and learning foci of instructional leadership, and the capacity-building [5].…”

“…These foci include the value of creating clear educational goals, planning the curriculum, and evaluating the quality of teachers and their teaching. This model infers that a principals' efforts should be concentrated on the promotion of better outcomes for students, and the importance of improving the quality of classroom teaching and learning (Day et al, 2016) [1]. More specifically, Hallinger (2003) [10] conceptualized instructional leadership as involving three key goals: 1) defining the school's goals, 2) supervising the delivery of the curriculum, and 3) encouraging a positive school learning environment.…”

“…Numerous school variables can affect student learning and schools need to create synergy across these variables in order to make strong positive changes (Day et al, 2016) [1]. As school leaders are uniquely positioned to facilitate this synergy, determining the best leadership styles and strategies for different contexts should be a key priority for future research.…”

“…As a result of the complexity and constantly evolving school setting these reforms have created, school leadership becomes of great interest in international education as it is increasingly recognized as having a key role in improving student outcomes (Day, Gu & Sammons, 2016 [1]; Mulford, 2008 [2]). Relevant literature (e.g., Heck & Hallinger, 2014 [3]; Dhuey & Smith, 2014 [4]) has demonstrated the influence of teacher quality on student [7] has suggested that leadership style is the second biggest influence on student learning, just behind classroom teaching.…”

Lecciones aprendidas del estudio del liderazgo escolar exitoso. Los casos de España en el Proyecto Internacional ISSPP

“…En concreto, existe una línea de investigación sobre cómo son los líderes de las escuelas exitosas (Day, 2016b(Day, , 2017Day, Gu, & Sammons, 2016; Moos, Johansson, & Day, 2011 …”