Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to test the effects of nine district characteristics on student achievement, explored the conditions that mediated the effects of such characteristics and contributed to understandings about the role school-level leaders play in district efforts to improve achievement. Design/methodology/approach: Data for the…

This mixed-methods study inquired about characteristics of districts which influence changes in student achievement and how those characteristics are developed. Staff in 49 Ontario districts were surveyed to estimate the status of nine district characteristics on changes in provincial tests of math and language achievement over five years. A…

There is a significant strand of theory and research about turning around underperforming organizations; however, very little of it speaks to the unique mission and character of schools. This literature is unambiguous in its claim that leadership is the pivotal explanation for success, suggesting that efforts to better understand the nature of…

In a recent 334-page report, "Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning," authors Kyla Walstrom, Karen Seashore Louis, Kenneth Leithwood, and Stephen Anderson discuss findings from the Learning from Leadership study. This study was designed to identify and describe successful educational leadership and to explain how such leadership at…

This study, based on interviews with 31 principals, was undertaken in response to quantitative evidence from a larger mixed-methods project that found school leaders' collective efficacy to be a crucial link joining district leadership and conditions to school conditions and student learning. Results of this study suggest that districts contribute…

Purpose: This study aimed to estimate the impact of collective, or shared, leadership on key teacher variables and on student achievement. As well, it inquired about the relative contribution of different sources of such leadership and whether differences among patterns of collective leadership were related to differences in student achievement.…

Purposes: This study aimed to improve our understanding of the nature, causes and consequence of school leader efficacy, including indirect influences on student learning. We asked about district contributions to school leader efficacy, whether leader self- and collective efficacy responded to the same or different district conditions and the…

"Turnaround Schools and the Leadership They Require" was commissioned by the Canadian Education Association (CEA) in 2006. The research, conducted by Kenneth Leithwood and Tiiu Strauss, was a two-year study of Ontario schools identified as in need of "turnaround" meaning that a significant improvement in school achievement was…

Guided by a synthesis of theory on human motivation and evidence about teachers' motivation to implement school reform, study aims to better understand the responses of teachers and school administrators to government accountability initiatives and to assess the extent to which leadership practices had a bearing on those responses. (Contains 65…

Summarizes a 5-year study using an organization-learning perspective to analyze 72 teachers' and principals' attitudes toward restructuring policies in British Columbia. Describes processes used by teachers to pursue their collective and individual learning. Identifies conditions (related to school vision, culture, structure, strategies, and…

A combination of total quality management and transformational leadership is necessary for successful change in organizations. Data about the thinking and problem solving of nine secondary school principals in Ontario (Canada) demonstrate that one principal displayed high levels of expert thinking and transformational leadership, meeting the…

Examined the influence on schools and classrooms of advisory school councils. Interviews with students, teachers, administrators, and parents from five schools indicated that councils had weak positive to negative influences on schools and classrooms. More influential councils had facilitative principals and used a collaborative team approach.…