Leadership Practices that Affect Student Achievement

Abstract

It is widely accepted that school leadership has both a direct and indirect impact on student achievement. Hitt and Tucker’s (2016) unified leadership framework summarized a decade of work by numerous researchers identifying the five most effective leadership domains that influence student learning. Using that work as a conceptual framework, this qualitative case study analyzed one of the five interdependent leadership domains in an urban elementary school that succeeded in educating traditionally marginalized students and outperformed other schools with similar demographics in the district. This study identified and explored the second leadership domain which is described as building professional capacity, focusing specifically on the principal’s actions. Building professional capacity is defined in this study as developing the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of teachers and is important for expanding leadership responsibility for student learning and increasing student achievement. The study resulted in identifying all seven dimensions of the domain present in practice at the school and explored the actions taken to embed them into the culture. Data were gathered through the review of district and school level documents and open-ended interviews with district leaders and members of school administration, faculty, and staff. Findings indicated that the school principal performed several specific and tangible actions to build professional capacity in the school including implementing professional practice, messaging consistently high expectations with faculty and staff, modeling expected professional behaviors and habits, and coaching faculty and staff. Many staff believed the success of the school was a result of the culture of collaboration, dedication, and high expectations forged by the principal. Recommendations for building upon this work included selecting and hiring teachers who offer evidence of effective instruction despite different philosophical viewpoints, addressing levels of trust with those who express conflicting levels of collaboration and commitment, and expanding the effective leadership practices with other school leaders throughout the district.