Helen M. Marks

Principal Leadership and School Performance: An Integration of Transformational and Instructional Leadership

Focusing on school leadership relations between principals and teachers, this study examines the potential of their active collaboration around instructional matters to enhance the quality of teaching and student performance. The analysis is grounded in two conceptions of leadership—transformational and instructional. The sample comprises 24 nationally selected restructured schools—8elementary, 8middle, and 8high schools. In keeping with the multilevel structure of the data, the primary analytic technique is hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). The study finds that transformational leadership is a necessary but insufficient condition for instructional leadership. 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.

Teachers’ Professional Community in Restructuring Schools

Professional community among teachers, the subject of a number of recent major studies, is regarded as an ingredient that may contribute to the improvement of schools. The research reported in this article is grounded in the assumption that how teachers interact with each other outside of their classrooms may be critical to the effects of restructuring on students. The analysis focuses on the type of professional community that occurs within a school and investigates both the organizational factors that facilitate its development and its consequences for teachers’ sense of responsibility for student learning. The findings suggest that wide variation in professional community exists between schools, much of which is attributable to both structural features and human resources characteristics, as well as school level. Implications for current school reform efforts are discussed.

Does Teacher Empowerment Affect the Classroom? The Implications of Teacher Empowerment for Instructional Practice and Student Academic Performance:

Findings from recent research about the relationship of teacher empowerment to other school reform objectives of interest, such as classroom practices or student academic performance, are mixed. This study investigates teacher empowerment in schools that have at least four years of experience with some form of decentralized or school-based management. Based on the assumption that participation in school decisionmaking can enhance teachers’ commitment, expertise, and, ultimately, student achievement, we hypothesize a positive relationship between empowerment and student performance through the linkages of school organization for instruction and pedagogical quality. The data we use to examine empowerment are drawn from a sample of 24 restructuring elementary, middle, and high schools—8 schools at each grade level. Most of the schools are urban, representing 16 states and 22 school districts. Data sources include teacher surveys, ratings of pedagogical quality, assessments of student academic performance, and case studies based on interviews and observations; the primary method of analysis is hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). The results suggest: (1) Overall, empowerment appears to be an important but not sufficient condition of obtaining real changes in teachers’ ways of working and their instructional practices; (2) The effects of empowerment on classroom practice vary depending on the domain in which teacher influence is focused; (3) Teacher empowerment affects pedagogical quality and student academic performance indirectly through school organization for instruction.

Contexts of Accountability Under Systemic Reform: Implications for Principal Influence on Instruction and Supervision

Purpose: The study investigates how various accountability contexts—including states, local boards, districts, school site councils, parent associations, and teachers—affect the ability of principals to influence instructional and supervisory decisions in their schools. Data: Data for the analysis come from 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey responses of 8,524 elementary, middle, and high school principals in low-, moderate-, and high-control states. Principals responded to queries regarding their personal influence and the influence of various other policy actors on decisions in the instructional and supervisory domains in the principals’ schools. Analysis: To examine variation in principal influence within and between states, the study uses hierarchical linear modeling as its primary analytic technique. Findings: Results indicate that the various accountability contexts differentially affect principals’ influence, which also vary by domain, extent of state control, and region. Implications for Practice: Principals’ influence in both the supervisory and instructional domains is strongly related to that of teachers’ active participation in decision making, suggesting the benefits of mutuality in school leadership. Implications for Research: How do state accountability systems differ in relation to improving student achievement? How has an accountability-influenced learning process led to the reculturing of a school district and its schools?

Community Service in the Transition: Shifts and Continuities in Participation from High School to College

This study investigates shifts in community service participation from high school to college in a sample of 6,491 members of the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) cohort who were surveyed two years out of high school. Two theories informed the inquiry: social participation theory distinguishes between core and segmental volunteers, while transition theory emphasizes the importance of personal, social, and contextual resources in managing change.

Shared Leadership for Teacher and Student Learning.

The article synthesizes research findings from studies examining how principals and teachers contribute to shared instructional leadership and the relationship of shared instructional leadership to teacher and student learning. Principals and teachers contribute to the leadership equation in each school in different ways, according to school context and personnel, but an important finding is that the ways in which teachers and principals lead are in tension. It is this tension, however, that is characteristic of leadership in schools that make steady, incremental, and effective instructional improvement. Teachers learn more when teachers and principals find balance in the gradual movement between the status quo and intentional change. Two other factors enhance teacher learning: the shared belief that teachers can and must educate every student, and respectful and open relationships among colleagues. With these conditions, teachers learn to be better teachers and student achievement increases.

Socialization for Citizenship through Community Service: Disparities in Participation among U.S. High School Students

Abstract This study examines participation in community service among a sample of 16,232 sophomores in 938 U.S. public, Catholic, and private independent high schools in 1990. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), we investigate whether disparities in participation exist and to what extent these disparities reflect social, psychological, and educational differences among the students. The analysis is grounded in a social-psychological model focused on explaining participation among adolescents. We employ a multilevel analytic technique, the Hierarchical Generalized Linear Model (HGLM). According to our estimates, early socialization, track placement, personal and peer values, patterns in the use of discretionary time, and attending a private school strongly influence participation, while psychological attributes are less salient.

School composition and peer effects in distinctive organizational settings

Abstract This chapter reviews the research on school composition and peer effects from three comparative perspectives—Catholic and public schools, single-sex and coeducational schools, and small and large schools. Most of the research is sociological, focuses on high schools, and draws on national samples. The chapter seeks to discern cumulative trends in this research as it has evolved over the past two decades. Catholic schools have consistently edged public schools in achievement, but whether they offer additional benefits to minority and economically disadvantaged students is inconclusive. Although earlier studies suggested a single-sex school advantage, more recent research finds no difference between the two school types. Student achievement is higher in smaller schools, specifically schools in the 600–900 range, and in smaller schools achievement is more equitably distributed. While most of the reviewed research examined compositional rather than peer effects, some studies have offered theoretical perspectives that implicate peer effects. Research on compositional and peer effects would be enhanced by further development of theory, education databases designed to investigate multilevel questions, broader application of multilevel statistical techniques, and a search for the mechanisms through which compositional and peer effects operate.