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A case study of what really matters: Examining educational leadership and student achievement

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Title	A case study of what really matters: Examining educational leadership and student achievement
Author	Manista, Shannon R.
Author email	smanista@usc.edu; mrsmanista@gmail.com
Degree	Doctor of Education
Document type	Dissertation
Degree program	Education (Leadership)
School	Rossier School of Education
Date defended/completed	2011-03-09
Date submitted	2011
Restricted until	Unrestricted
Date published	2011-04-29
Advisor (committee member)	Picus, Lawrence O. Garcia, Pedro E.
Abstract	Historically, urban schools underperform according to national averages and standards for proficiency, according to years of research. The relationship between leadership and student achievement may provide insight into what really matters in increasing student achievement, especially in high poverty schools.; This study aimed to identify the perceived school-wide systems and structures that contributed to high achievement in a high poverty school; how the organizational systems were implemented and sustained to support higher levels of student achievement; and how the leadership systems and structures built collective efficacy for increasing student achievement. A qualitative case-study was conducted, including eleven semi-structured interviews with principals, faculty, and staff along with five classroom, school, and collaborative meeting observations. School documents were also collected and analyzed to triangulate the data.; This research focused on the three key structures perceived to exist in support of school-wide effective classroom instruction, including a climate of achievement, collective leadership, and collective efficacy. Within those structures, organizational systems were in place to contribute to high achievement, including the promotion of involvement and knowledge of curriculum, alignment of instruction and assessments to the standards; communicating a vision, monitoring and providing feedback, and professional development focused on evaluating instructional methods for improvement, interventions, and teacher collaboration.; Six organized subsystems at the case-study school were found to be implemented and sustained to support higher levels of student achievement, including school-wide expectations for faculty, staff, and students; an emphasis on academics and instruction; systems for regularly assessing individual students; collaborative decision making; a strong work ethic and high faculty morale; and the promotion of caring, respectful relationships.; The leadership systems and structures at the case-study school included parent and community leaders, support staff leaders, and administrator leaders. Together, the various leadership groups formed to comprise collective leadership within the school and developed a shared sense of collective efficacy.; As research suggests, collective efficacy can directly impact student achievement, and it is an essential factor in closing the achievement gap in high poverty areas, especially. While the construct of collective efficacy is relatively young in the field of educational research, it would seem that a foundation of a culture of success would be worthwhile studying in the future as an attribute of increased academic achievement. Implications for practice (academic achievement) and policy (leadership) are discussed.
Keyword	educational leadership; teacher efficacy; collective efficacy; high poverty school; high performing school; student achievement; academic achievement
Geographic subject (city or populated place)	California
Geographic subject (country)	USA
Coverage date	2005/2009
Language	English
Part of collection	University of Southern California dissertations and theses
Publisher (of the original version)	University of Southern California
Place of publication (of the original version)	Los Angeles, California
Publisher (of the digital version)	University of Southern California. Libraries
Provenance	Electronically uploaded by the author
Type	texts
Legacy record ID	usctheses-m3810
Rights	Manista, Shannon R.
Repository name	Libraries, University of Southern California
Repository address	Los Angeles, California
Repository email	http://www.usc.edu/isd/libraries/services/ask_a_librarian/email/
Filename	etd-Manista-4532
Archival file	uscthesesreloadpub_Volume51/etd-Manista-4532.pdf