Purpose: This article presents the design and test of a measure of school leadership as an organizational quality through the interaction of principal and teacher instructional influence. The Organizational Leadership Model hypothesizes four distinct conditions of school leadership, and the analysis investigates the relationship between teacher,…

Over the last two decades, state education agencies (SEAs) have been given considerable responsibilities for improving low-performing schools and for adopting research-based practices in doing so. Yet we know little about how and where these organizations search for, select, and use research and other kinds of evidence. We examined these questions…

In this study, the authors connect 3 streams of literature to develop an instrument for measuring the degree to which principals engage in data-informed decision making on high-impact strategies that are empirically associated with higher student achievement. The 3 literature streams are (a) the importance of data-informed decision making, (b) the…

Why are some schools able to thrive and produce strong student outcomes, while others struggle? To answer this question, researchers have surveyed teachers and students in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) since the 1990s, asking them about their schools' organizational climate and practices. From these data, researchers at the Consortium on Chicago…

This fifth annual "Boston Opportunity Agenda Report Card" provides the most up-to-date information available on Boston's education pipeline, from kindergarten through college graduation, including measures for school readiness, 3rd grade reading proficiency, 10th-grade academic proficiency, high school completion, dropout rates, college…

Recent studies continue to shine light on high-performing charter schools. While Boston-area charter schools--a concentrated group of high-performers--garner more attention than others, many excellent schools outside of Boston have been quietly chipping away at the achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students. One of these schools…

School success is a complex and abstract notion. Asking questions about what is meant by school success is important, since the ways in which educators and administrators define school success tends to guide their practice, and may have implications for current and future policy initiatives. This qualitative case study explores how one publicly…

This article addresses likely error rates for measuring teacher and school performance in the upper elementary grades using value-added models applied to student test score gain data. Using a realistic performance measurement system scheme based on hypothesis testing, the authors develop error rate formulas based on ordinary least squares and…

The current study examines the impact of alternative education on children's early school engagement in terms of school enjoyment and independent participation. A sample of 2,776 children from traditional (e.g., mainstream) and alternative (Freinet and Waldorf) Flemish schools was followed from their 3rd year of kindergarten until 3rd grade. The…

This article compares charter schools and other public schools in New York State. School Report Card (SRC) data measuring student, teacher, and school characteristics from the state's 16 urban school districts with charter schools were examined. Descriptive and multivariate analysis was used. The findings suggest that there are more similarities…

An emerging body of research has underscored the key role of factors other than academic scores, which influence students' learning. Small schools have been championed as a solution to the apparent dichotomy between an academic or non-academic focus. In Chapters 2 and 3, I use a rigorous research design to answer the question of whether small…

This correlational designed study allowed the researcher to examine the relationship between Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) and communication satisfaction on elementary school campuses in one suburban school district in Arizona. Furthermore, this study examined whether differences exists between the level of OCB and communication…

The purpose of this quantitative, nonexperimental study was to determine if and to what extent a difference existed in the percentage of African American students, percentage of economically disadvantaged students, and students' attendance rate in elementary schools that made adequate yearly progress (AYP) and those that did not make AYP in one…

The amount of research on successful Title One Schools is woefully inadequate. Because so much money has been allocated for this program, more in depth research is imperative. A qualitative exploratory case study of one school and eight participants, including a principal, an assistant principal, a math coach and four teachers, focuses on the…

"The commander of our ship knows that the eyes and ears of the shipmates will provide valuable information; that when combined with the experience and knowledge of leadership will navigate the ship to clear waters and bountiful lands" (Intertech, 2011). This analogy is reflective of the critical issue of meeting AYP (Adequate Yearly…