Leadership behaviors of principals and student achievement

The purpose of this study was to describe the relationships between the gender of the principal, the socioeconomic composition of the school, certain behaviors of elementary school principals, and the academic gains and achievement scores of fourth grade students. A multivariate model approach was used. The intervening principal behaviors were school governance, school climate, and instructional organization. Three-year average student gain and achievement data in reading were used as measures of student outcomes. The study included schools with mid-range scores.

Data were collected for analysis from 96 schools containing the fourth grade. Schools were organized into those with three -year average student outcomes of Low Achievement-High Gain, High Achievement-High Gain, High Achievement-Low Gain, Low Achievement-Low Gain and Mid Achievement-Mid Gain student scores on an annual statewide test.

Six teachers and the principal of the schools were asked to complete the Administrative Leadership Profile (ALP) survey. The survey contained 27 questions that measured the three constructs of School Governance (GO), School Climate (SC), and Instructional Organization (10). A multiple regression, path analysis was used to analyze the data. The grand sum of each of the three constructs was used to calculate the path coefficients for each of the variables.

Major findings of the study were: 1) There was a statistically significant (p<.01) positive causal relationship between the three-year average Achievement (ACH) scores of students and the Instructional Organization (10) of the school; 2) There was a slightly less statistically significant (p<.05) negative causal relationship between the gender of the principal and the instructional organization of the school; 3) There was a statistically significant (p<.01) slightly negative relationship between the three- year average achievement (ACH) scores of students and the school climate; 4) No statistically significant causal relationships (paths) were shown between the gain scores of students and any of the variables included in the model used in the study, and 5) The influence of School Governance (GO) on student Achievement (ACH) was not statistically significant.