Close
About
FAQ
Home
Collections
Login
USC Login
Register
0
Selected
Invert selection
Deselect all
Deselect all
Click here to refresh results
Click here to refresh results
USC
/
Digital Library
/
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
/
Effective school leadership: practices that promote a culture of high student achievement
(USC Thesis Other)
Effective school leadership: practices that promote a culture of high student achievement
PDF
Download
Share
Open document
Flip pages
Contact Us
Contact Us
Copy asset link
Request this asset
Transcript (if available)
Content
Effective School Leadership: Practices That Promote a Culture of High Student
Achievement
Brad Meckley
Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
A dissertation submitted to the faculty
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Education
December 2024
© Copyright by Brad Meckley 2024
All Rights Reserved
The Committee for Brad Meckley certifies the approval of this Dissertation
Maria Ott
Courtney Malloy
Kathy Stowe, Committee Chair
Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
2024
iv
Abstract
There has been a historical gap and underperformance with academic achievement in schools in
the United States that has only become more severe with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, there have been some schools that have been able to promote and sustain high student
outcomes persevering through challenges such as the pandemic. This research study sought to
identify school leadership practices that promote and sustain high student achievement overtime
enduring through inhibiting factors to high student outcomes. This study gathered data on
transformative leadership practices that leaders use to guide a school to reach high outcomes
across multiple student success measures. A literature review was conducted identifying school
leadership practices that promote and sustain high student outcomes informed by
transformational leadership theory (Kouzes & Posner, 2012) as the theoretical framework. A
qualitative research methodology was implemented for the study conducting semi-structured
interviews with ten middle school principals in the Pacific Northwest and using document
analysis for data collection. Data from the study yielded findings of school leadership practices
that promote and sustain high student achievement including meeting the needs of the whole
child, using data to drive high student achievement, building strong stakeholder relationships,
and collective determination. School leaders that implement these transformational leadership
practices can promote a culture of sustaining high student learning outcomes. Recommendations
for school leadership praxis were provided for school leaders to pragmatically implement steps
to improve student learning at their schools.
v
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank all of the faculty of the University of Southern California’s Rossier
School of Education for their support for training future school leaders in public education. I
specifically would like to thank Dr. Kathy Stowe for her patience and exceptional support
through this process. She has provided professional knowledge, guidance, and positive
encouragement toward the completion of this study.
I would also like to thank Dr. Maria Ott and Dr. Courtney Malloy for their professional
input and guidance on the refining and improvement of this study. They have also provided
valuable feedback, critical analysis, and encouragement toward completing this study with
utmost quality. Their guidance and professional input have challenged me to think more
critically about my research and ways to make meaningful contributions.
I want to thank all of the participants that offered their time and professional insights into
their school leadership practices at their local sites. They willingly offered their time and
resources to make contributions to this research study. Their professional input provided
meaningful contribution toward understanding effective leadership praxis for sustaining high
student achievement.
Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends who have provided support along the
way toward the completion of this study. They have been encouraging and sacrificial with their
time and understanding in their support. Members from my cohort have also provided
unwavering encouragement through this process and provided strength toward its completion.
Thank you to the USC Rossier community for everything in this process.
vi
Table of Contents
Abstract.......................................................................................................................................... iv
Acknowledgments........................................................................................................................... v
List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. ix
List of Figures................................................................................................................................. x
Chapter One: Overview of the Study.............................................................................................. 1
Background of the Problem ................................................................................................ 3
Statement of the Problem.................................................................................................... 5
Purpose of the Study ........................................................................................................... 6
Research Questions............................................................................................................. 7
Significance of the Study .................................................................................................... 7
Overview of Theoretical Framework and Methodology .................................................... 9
Definitions......................................................................................................................... 10
Organization of the Study ................................................................................................. 11
Chapter Two: Literature Review .................................................................................................. 13
Historical Context ............................................................................................................. 14
Creating a Learning Vision With Goals............................................................................ 17
Facilitating Rigorous Instruction and Evaluating Teacher Performance.......................... 22
Establishing Supportive Learning Environments With Teacher Professional
Development..................................................................................................................... 28
Sustaining High Achievement .......................................................................................... 34
Transformational Leadership Theory ............................................................................... 36
Conceptual Framework..................................................................................................... 39
Summary........................................................................................................................... 41
Chapter Three: Methodology........................................................................................................ 42
Research Questions........................................................................................................... 42
vii
Overview of the Design .................................................................................................... 43
Research Context .............................................................................................................. 44
The Researcher.................................................................................................................. 45
Data Sources ..................................................................................................................... 46
Data Collection Procedures............................................................................................... 49
Data Analysis.................................................................................................................... 49
Credibility and Trustworthiness........................................................................................ 51
Ethics................................................................................................................................. 52
Summary........................................................................................................................... 53
Chapter Four: Results ................................................................................................................... 54
Participants........................................................................................................................ 56
Findings for Research Question 1..................................................................................... 58
Findings for Research Question 2..................................................................................... 70
Theme 3: Building Strong Relationships.......................................................................... 71
Theme 4: Collective Determination.................................................................................. 78
Summary of Results and Findings.................................................................................... 83
Chapter Five: Discussion .............................................................................................................. 85
Discussion of Findings...................................................................................................... 85
Recommendations For Practice ........................................................................................ 89
Limitations and Delimitations........................................................................................... 93
Recommendations for Future Research ............................................................................ 94
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 96
References..................................................................................................................................... 99
Appendix A: Participant Recruitment Letter.............................................................................. 112
Consent ........................................................................................................................... 113
viii
Appendix B: Study Information Sheet........................................................................................ 114
Appendix C: Interview Protocol ................................................................................................. 117
Concepts From the Conceptual Framework That Are Addressed in This Interview...... 117
Introduction..................................................................................................................... 117
Questions......................................................................................................................... 119
Closing Comments.......................................................................................................... 122
ix
List of Tables
Table 1: Research Questions and Instrumentation 44
Table 2: Participant’s Backgrounds 58
Table 3: Research Findings Alignment to the Conceptual Framework 89
x
List of Figures
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework, EdD 40
Figure 2: Tesh’s Eight Steps for Qualitative Data Analysis 50
1
Chapter One: Overview of the Study
Educational leadership has been an increased focus of research inquiry for improving
student achievement and the school-level mechanisms that achieve high outcomes (Gordon &
Hart, 2021; Leithwood et al., 2020; Park et al., 2019; Robinson et al., 2008). Educational
leadership’s influence on student achievement has been investigated at both the district-
(Grissom et al., 2018) and school-level (Gordon & Hart, 2021) for identifying leadership
practices that contribute to increasing student achievement. Moreover, educational leadership is
imperative not merely for short academic gains, but for sustainability (Jacobson, 2011).
Effective school leadership requires an understanding of cultural contextualization and
proficiency within local school settings (Klar & Brewer, 2013; Love, 2019; Person et al., 2021
Terrell et al., 2018). Klar and Brewer (2013) describe it as the need for school leaders to have
“practical wisdom” to know how to employ leadership practices in concert with the local
learning context as a determinate of successful principal efforts (p. 801). This beckons a
continuity of need for successful principal leadership in our schools to provide exceptional
learning opportunities for all students. The American society recognizes the imperative for
improving learning opportunities for students to support their quality of life and facilitate a better
future for other generations. This study seeks to investigate principal practices that promote and
sustain high student achievement in schools.
Strong school leadership has the potential to produce high student achievement when
implemented strategically to meet contextualized student learning needs (Franco et al., 2011;
Klar & Brewer, 2013). Steele et al. (2021) found that school leadership explains 3%–5% of
variation in student performance between schools and about 25% of the variance attributable to
individual school-site variables. This statistic is further supported by the research findings of
2
Marzano et al. (2005) that found a correlation between leadership behavior and student
achievement to be 0.25. This can have a significant impact depending on the capacity of the
school leader and the learning needs of the students at the school (Marzano et al., 2005).
Moreover, Steele et al. (2021) found from various studies that between-principal variance in a
single year can account for estimated effects of 7% in reading and math achievement (Chiang et
al., 2016); 8% in reading and 11% in math achievement (Grissom et al., 2015); and 10% in
reading and 14% in math achievement (Dhuey & Smith, 2014). A potential lesson is that the
variation of school leader effects on student achievement may be nearly as large as teacher
effects (Steele et al., 2021). Evidence demonstrates that principals have a significant influence on
student outcomes. The significance of these findings prompts the need to synthesize a cohesive
and coherent system of practices that can pragmatically be implemented by school leaders
statistically resulting in increased student achievement. There are complex variables within
existing leadership frameworks, but further research is needed to successfully standardize
leadership praxis into a robust corroboration of findings.
The imperative to have a robust, comprehensive, and standardized framework that
corroborates effective school leadership praxis is necessary to facilitate leadership behaviors that
statistically align with increasing student achievement (Marks & Printy, 2003). More research is
needed to identify empirically linked leadership practices to student achievement directly and
indirectly. Siloed comparison leadership model research studies limit the potentiality of
integrating the strongest components of leadership into a cohesive framework. The limited
research investigating the integration of coexisting leadership models as recommended praxis is
an area that researchers can contribute to the field of school leadership literature. This study
3
seeks to investigate principal practices that contribute to a more robust standardization of
leadership praxis that produces and sustains high student achievement.
Background of the Problem
The role of the principal has increased in complexity, accountability, and capacity as the
demands of society, politics, and school organization have changed over time (Valentine &
Prater, 2011). The primary role of principals from the 1920s to the 1970s was mainly an
administrative manager (Valentine & Prater, 2011). During this time period, there was a
movement to consolidate schools imitating a corporate management model. School leaders
maintained daily operations, tasks, and behaviors that managed the school competently
(Leithwood & Duke, 1999; Valentine & Prater, 2011). School principals also maintained the
responsibility to supervise learning, manage personnel, and budget finances. Principals
eventually began to protect the instructional core of teaching and learning from distractions or
interruptions (Rossmiller, 1992; Valentine & Prater, 2011). Additional perceptions of principal
responsibility were to be an assertive disciplinarian ensuring that schools simply ran smoothly
(Valentine & Prater, 2011). Effective principal praxis merged into managing school spaces,
upholding strict discipline, and managing behavioral problems in their office as a methodology
to protect the instructional core of the school (Valentine & Prater, 2011).
As schools began to transition into the 1980s and 1990s, instructional leadership was a
factor for successfully leading schools. Research began to report evidence that high-achieving
schools have principals that lead academic programming, establish goals, monitor curriculum,
supervise teachers, and assess outcomes (Lashway, 1995; Valentine & Prater, 2011). Blasé and
Blasé (1999) and Leithwood (1992) defined instructional leadership during this era as
supervising instruction, providing professional development, and monitoring the quality of
4
student learning. Toward the latter part of the 1990s, instructional leadership was insufficient for
describing the principal’s role and transformational leadership emerged (Valentine & Prater,
2011).
The principalship in the 21st century continues to grow more complex with factors
including socioeconomic conditions, race, standardized testing, school funding and other
conditions that school leadership must integrate into praxis for successful school outcomes (Reed
& Swaminathan, 2016). School leaders are responsible for sustainable improvement (Jacobson,
2011), collective efficacy (Goddard et al., 2015), rigorous instruction (Gordon & Hart, 2021),
teacher professional development (Hitt & Tucker, 2016; Robinson et al., 2008), and maintain a
positive school climate (Hitt & Tucker, 2016; Mendoza et al., 2022; Robinson et al., 2008; Smith
et al., 2020). The spectrum of school performance in America from low- to high-performing
schools further illustrates the responsibility school leaders have to improve student learning
(Bloom & Owens, 2011; Knoeppel & Rinehart, 2010). While most of the extant of current
literature proposes findings from studies on separate individual leadership frameworks, few have
integrated leadership theories to find the impact coexisting frameworks have on increasing
student achievement. There is a gap in the literature on investigating the integration of
instructional, transformational, and other leadership theories to measure leadership behaviors on
student outcomes. Promising leadership praxis has emerged from limited studies on integrated
leadership theory finding substantial impact on student achievement with transformational
leadership theory at the foundation (Marks & Printy, 2003, Kwan, 2020). Further contributions
to school leadership research are required though to develop robust data on the outcomes
transformational leadership can have when integrated with traditional leadership praxis.
5
Statement of the Problem
Research on school leadership has found that leadership behaviors and practices
positively influence student achievement (Goddard et al., 2015; Gordon & Hart, 2021; Grissom
& Loeb, 2011; Hitt & Tucker, 2016; Jang & Alexander, 2022; Leithwood et al., 2020; Park et al.,
2019; Valentine & Prater, 2011). Effective leadership is essential for success in many industries
including finance, medicine, corporate business, and others (Bolman & Deal, 2017; Collins,
2001; Fife, 2016; Northouse, 2019; Schein, 2010). Strong school leaders are needed to face the
changes and challenges that schools must embrace to provide rigorous teaching and learning for
the 21st century (Fullan, 2020). There continues to be the imperative to improve the quality of
learning environments for increasing student achievement. School leadership has significant
impact on these outcomes (Goddard et al., 2015; Grissom & Loeb, 2011; Rigby, 2014; Robinson
et al., 2008; Valentine & Prater, 2011).
The United States continues to face inequity in education with achievement gaps by race,
socioeconomic status, and other factors galvanizing an imperative for educational leaders to
facilitate high achievement (Heise, 2024; Hitt & Tucker, 2016; Klar & Brewer, 2013; Knoeppel
& Rinehart, 2010). There has been an overall national underachievement with less than 50% of
current students meeting the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) proficient
learning standards (Nation’s Report Card, 2022). The mathematics achievement gap in 2019 was
a 25-point standard score gap for Grade 4 and 32-point standard score gap for Grade 8 (Nation’s
Report Card, 2022). Moreover, there was a reading achievement gap in 2019 with a 26-point
standard score difference in Grade 4 and 27-point standard score difference for Grade 8
(Nation’s Report Card, 2022). These pose differences in student achievement where strong
leadership praxis can contribute toward closing this gap. Although the instructional role of
6
teachers has the most significant impact on student learning, school leaders have influence
through the capacity building of teacher praxis to improve teaching and learning (Hitt & Tucker,
2016).
The current corpus of research had indicated that school leadership can influence student
achievement (Gordon & Hart, 2021; Kwan, 2020; Marks & Printy, 2003; Robinson et al., 2008;
Silva et al., 2011). Most of the research links individual siloed leadership theory to student
outcomes (Hitt & Tucker, et al., 2016; Robinson et al., 2008). There is limited research on the
impact integrated leadership theories have on student outcomes. Mark and Printy (2003) found
the integration of transformational leadership and instructional leadership to have substantial
potential to positively affect student achievement. Robust and comprehensive data is needed to
unify a standardized framework that integrates transformational leadership theory with other
traditional leadership theories to establish practices that produce high student achievement. A
robust framework that statistically links integrated leadership practices to student achievement
can serve as an instrument to increase achievement at lower performing schools. This study is an
inquiry into potential solutions through identifying evidence-based practices of school principals
that produce high achievement. The salient learning gaps in our nation galvanize a sobriety for
action toward empirically identifying school leadership practices that produce and sustain high
achievement over time.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study is to investigate school leadership practices that promote high
student achievement and factors that facilitate or inhibit sustainability. The study is designed to
identify specific leadership behaviors and actions that middle school principals make that
empirically link to student learning and achievement. Moreover, this study will investigate
7
factors that further facilitate or inhibit school leaders’ capacity and agency to sustain high
achievement over time (Jacobson, 2011). The purpose is to identify salient leadership practices
that consistently influence student learning and high achievement over sustained periods of time.
Research Questions
This study will investigate principal practices that promote high student achievement and
the factors that both facilitate and inhibit sustainability. This study will concentrate research
inquiry to middle school leadership practices that promote high student achievement and
sustainability. As a result, this study intends to answer the following research questions:
1. In what ways do middle school principals work to promote high student achievement?
2. What are the factors that both facilitate and inhibit sustaining high student
achievement?
Significance of the Study
The United States faces national underachievement outcomes with less than 50% of
students meeting the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) learning standards
(Nation’s Report Card, 2022). Moreover, there persists an achievement gap by race,
socioeconomic status, and other factors perpetuating inequity in public school systems. This
study seeks to investigate leadership practices that will help narrow and clarify the ambiguity of
leadership behaviors that are most important for promoting high student achievement.
Investigating the impact that transformational leadership has on student achievement when
implemented by school leaders in their local contexts will contribute to collective knowledge for
promoting and sustaining high outcomes (Marks & Printy, 2003; Kwan, 2020). School leaders
need to be equipped and empowered to drive extraordinary student learning and performance
results that will reform current educational praxis (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). Strong school
8
leadership has the potential to reverse school underperformance in disinvested communities of
poverty closing historic achievement gaps and increasing the opportunity for educational
mobility for all students (Gordon & Hart, 2021). This creates an educational impact that transfers
economically and civically. Transformational leadership has been found to be a catalyst for
galvanizing the impact of traditional leadership praxis and a promising solution for school
leaders to promote high achievement (Kwan, 2020; Makgato & Mudzanani, 2018).
Through investigating school leadership practices that promote high student achievement,
further empirical data can be collected to produce robust findings for successful principal praxis
that contribute to high outcomes. This can increase knowledge for current school principals to
inform actions and behaviors that can directly and indirectly influence student learning. Strong
school leadership is needed to improve outcomes and successful school leadership is most
impactful in schools that need reform (Gordon & Hart, 2021). School leaders equipped with the
knowledge and praxis to improve student achievement will have agency and influence to enact
bold and dynamic change at their local sites (Kouzes & Posner, 1995). Therefore, there is an
imperative to continue the collection of data that links school leadership actions to high student
achievement.
Additionally, this study will investigate factors that facilitate and inhibit sustaining high
student achievement over time (Jacobson, 2011). This can inform the identification of systemic
or praxis-centered factors that help facilitate or potentially inhibit high achievement including
resources, policy, data-management, localized learning initiatives, and other factors. There may
be school and district programmatic models that accelerate responsiveness to student learning
needs that increase student achievement. There can also be the potential for inhibiting factors
such as policy guidelines or resourcing formulas that lower the effectiveness of school leaders to
9
support high student achievement. Robinson et al. (2008) emphasizes the need for school leaders
to be strategic in their efforts to positively influence student outcomes. Through effectively
identifying and managing school leadership related factors that facilitate or inhibit high student
achievement, school leaders will be able to better implement actions and behaviors that promote
student achievement.
The implications of the data from this study will have significance not only for
practitioners but also for principal preparation programs. Universities and colleges that train
administrators can benefit from the findings to corroborate leadership praxis that aligns the
findings from this study to other empirical research. School leader preparation programs can
inform their andragogy, curricula, and practicums around practices that effectively promote high
achievement in schools.
The greatest benefactors of this study will be students. As this study continues to
investigate leadership practices that influence student learning, generations of students will
benefit from practitioners that implement evidence-based leadership behaviors that help students
learn. This will contribute to school leadership praxis that can improve student achievement
across districts in the nation and support reform efforts to close historic achievement gaps
(Gordon & Hart, 2021).
Overview of Theoretical Framework and Methodology
The theoretical framework this study will use as a lens to conduct the study is Kouzes and
Posner’s (1987, 1988, 1993) transformational leadership theory. This leadership theory aligns
with this study because transformational leadership in an evidence-based praxis for
organizational leaders to improve targeted outcomes. Transformational leadership originated
from Burns’ (1978) work on various leadership theories that leaders can implement for reaching
10
organizational goals and improving leadership skillsets. Kouzes and Posner (1993, 2012) posit
from their research that transformational leadership has five core components of effective
leadership and include challenge the process, inspire a shared vision, enable others to act, model
the way, and encourage the heart. This research study will focus on three of the five core
components of the theory because they best align with school leadership praxis and the purpose
of this research study. The three components of transformational leadership theory that will be
used for this study include model the way, inspire a shared vision, and enable others to act
(Kouzes & Posner, 1993, 2012).
The methodology for the study is qualitative inquiry and will utilize semi-structured
interviews and document analysis for data collection. School leaders that are able to produce a
culture of consistent high student achievement will be identified for interviews. Data will be
collected through a semi-structured interview protocol to collect data on practices school leaders
implement that produce high student outcomes. Public provided data and documents will be
utilized to identify the schools and school leaders that produce high achievement for the
interview process and data collection measures. Interview data collection and document analysis
data will be utilized in the qualitative inquiry to identify school leader practices that result in
high student achievement.
Definitions
The study includes many academic terms that are used to explain and inform the
constructs and theories in the research. The following terms have been provided an
operationalized definition for the purpose of aligning to the theorical and conceptual frameworks
of the study:
11
• High achievement: Washington State’s school recognition methodology identifies
high achieving schools as meeting two criteria applicable for middle schools and
include first that schools perform in the top 20% of schools for 3-year proficiency
rates in math and ELA and second that schools perform in the top 20% of schools on
separate school quality and student success (SQSS) measures aggregated over 3 years
(Washington SBE, 2022).
• Leadership practices: the direct and indirect actions and behaviors that principals
implement that influence student achievement (Robinson et al., 2008).
• Leadership praxis: the ethical implementation of leadership theory, legal standards,
leadership practices, and leadership values as a holistic approach (Tenuto & Gardiner,
2017).
• Theory integration: when transformational leadership and other traditional
instructional leadership theories coexist in an integrated form of leadership (Marks &
Printy, 2003).
• Transformational leadership: a relationship between the leader and the followers
(Burns, 1978; Marks & Printy, 2003) where the leader challenges the process,
inspires a vision, enables others to act, models the way, and encourages the heart
(Posner & Kouzes, 1993).
Organization of the Study
The research study will investigate the principal practices that produce high student
achievement in schools. Chapter One provided an introduction and overview of the problem of a
lack of ubiquitous implementation of successful principal practices that produce high student
achievement and the specific needs that school leaders have to holistically implement praxis that
12
attains high achieving goals. Chapter Two surveys the current extant of literature on school
leadership practices that contribute to high student achievement and emergent themes. Moreover,
Chapter Two describes the theoretical framework that informed the study. Chapter Three
explains the research methodology, criteria for research analysis, and the conceptual framework
for the study. Chapter Four reports the findings and results of the data collection in alignment
with the research questions. Chapter Five provides an analysis and synthesis of the research
findings and data. Moreover, implications of the research results and recommendations for future
research are provided.
13
Chapter Two: Literature Review
This study seeks to identify school leadership practices that substantively link to
improving student achievement. School leadership practices have a direct and indirect effect on
student achievement signifying the importance of empirically understanding praxis frameworks
that promote positive outcomes (Jacobson, 2011; Park et al., 2019; Robinson et al., 2008). The
importance of understanding a systematic set of educational leadership actions and behaviors that
support student learning can inform practitioners of empirically supported steps they can take to
increase achievement at their schools.
The current extant literature was reviewed resulting in salient leadership practices that
promote and sustain high student achievement (Hitt & Tucker, 2016; Robinson et al., 2008).
These salient leadership practices emerged out of topical groupings of leadership actions directly
and indirectly influencing student achievement. In this review I begin by describing the historical
context of school leadership practices that promote student achievement. Next, I discuss each
common topic and subtopic that correlate to specific leadership practices. The first topic
reviewed is how school leaders create a learning vision with goals for student achievement. The
second topic is the facilitation of rigorous instruction and evaluating teacher performance. The
third topic is the establishment of a supportive learning environment with teacher professional
development. Finally, transformational leadership theory is discussed and the framework lens
that is used to investigate effective leadership praxis that contributes to high student
achievement. This chapter concludes with the conceptual framework as a guide for the research
and linking the significance of the current literature to this study.
14
Historical Context
The role of the principal has changed with the increase of societal, political, and
demographic requirements upon schools to meet the complex learning needs of students facing
our educational system (Kafka, 2009). Contemporary competing learning demands, policies, and
initiatives have convoluted the precision of a school leader’s responsibility and purpose. Legally,
the governance of education policy defaults to state power according to the constitution because
it is not a power given to the federal government, but federal education policy has been passed
through other federal powers such as civil rights to promote equality (Cross, 2014). The political
and societal demands upon education have changed the role and responsibilities of school leaders
to prepare student citizenry for post-secondary settings.
During the 1920s to the 1970s, the principal’s role was managerial and less instructional
as a school leader (Valentine & Prater, 2011). A corporate management approach was
implemented to maintain effective functionality and operationality of basic school functions to
achieve student learning (Valentine & Prater, 2011). If these functions, behaviors, and simple
school tasks were achieved competently, then the school would produce intended outcomes
(Leithwood & Duke, 1999). School managerial mechanisms for principals included supervision,
hiring, budgeting, curriculum adoption, student testing, buffering learning distractions, and
school discipline (Valentine & Prater, 2011). A shift began to emerge from this corporate
managerial style during the 1950s with the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) desegregation
ruling and the civil rights movement of the 1960s with the passing of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 (Cross, 2014). The U.S. Supreme Court desegregation
ruling that separate but equal schools was unconstitutional integrated students of all races into
schools. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act included provisions for driving
15
instructional equity with Title 1 funding to low-income families, Title 2 provisions for increased
professional capacity for teachers and principals, Title 3 provisions for education improvement,
Title 7 bilingual education initiatives, and provisions for students having special needs.
Moreover, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 included section 504 to prevent discrimination and
provide action plans to accommodate students with disabilities to receive a free appropriate
public education. These policies changed the responsibilities principals had regarding
educational leadership.
In the 1980s, the U.S. Secretary of Education Terrell H. Bell formed the National
Commission on Excellence in Education to report on the quality of education in the United
States. The report named A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform
recommended five solutions including educational content, high standards and expectations,
effective use of instructional time, improvement of teaching, and accountability for outcomes
with fiscal support. Consequently, during this time period an effective school movement began
with a call for an instructional leader model (Kafka, 2009). Instructional leadership included
responsibilities of establishing school goals, defining school purpose, utilizing resources for
student learning, supervising teachers, providing professional development, and facilitating
collegiality among staff (Valentine & Prater, 2011). As research and development of
instructional leadership increased in the 1990s, Blasé and Blasé (1999, 2003) proposed
instructional leadership as an integration of supervising classroom instruction, professional
development, and reflective practice. The progression of school leaders changed from mere
managerial functions and responsibilities to professional instructional leadership.
In the 1990s, the federal legislation Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA)
of 1975 was reauthorized in 1990 as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
16
States began to increase standardization of teaching, learning, and assessment from the Nation at
Risk report recommendations and culminated in 2001 with the reauthorization of ESEA as the
No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). ESEA and NCLB were later reauthorized in 2015 as the
Every Student Succeeds Act. These policies linked federal funding for schools to student
performance, school outcomes, closing achievement gaps, and driving equity. The complexity of
responsibilities and requirements for school leaders now includes standardization of effective
instruction, high achievement benchmarks, equity for students having special needs, equity for
bilingual education, and proportional learning outcomes for diverse student populations.
Instructional leadership began to become insufficient for the comprehensive integration of
political and societal demands on principals resulting in the proposal for transformational
leadership (Valentine & Prater, 2011).
Transformational leadership originated from James M. Burns’ (1978) book on leadership
as he outlines various approaches of transforming and transactional leadership. Leithwood
(1994) proposed that transformational leadership would be beneficial in meeting the changing
demands for schools and education in the 21st century. As more contemporary research has been
conducted on school leadership, additional models have been proposed both in siloed contexts
(Goddard et al., 2020; Kwan, 2020; Leithwood & Mascall, 2008; Leithwood & Sun, 2012;
Leithwood et al., 2020; Robinson et al., 2008; Urick et al., 2018) and within integrated contexts
(Kwan, 2020; Marks & Printy, 2003; Valentine & Prater, 2011). There is limited research that
effectively corroborates leadership practices that promote and sustain high student achievement.
Most studies have independent or siloed frameworks that are not comprehensively linked to
previous literature. This creates sporadic leadership praxis recommendations that do not have
17
precedent from previous studies. As a result, a standardization of best practices for school
leadership is lacking.
In the following section of this literature review, I will critically review salient leadership
practices that emerged from the literature as effective praxis. The implementation of empirically
supported leadership actions and behaviors will establish robust practices that principals can
confidently use to facilitate high student achievement. The integration of comprehensive
leadership practices will improve the professionalization of school leadership and the rigor of
teaching and learning in schools (Marks & Printy, 2003). This study builds upon empirical
research that seeks to identify school leadership practices that promote and sustain high
achievement in schools. Previous research on principal praxis that promotes high achievement
aligns with the purpose of this study to identify leadership practices that promote and sustain
high student outcomes. This study will seek to identify leadership actions and behaviors that
contribute to increasing student learning.
Creating a Learning Vision With Goals
Research has provided many principal leadership practices that have empirical evidence
of increasing student achievement (Hitt & Tucker, 2016; Jacobson, 2011; Marzano et al., 2005;
Robinson et al., 2008). One salient practice that emerged from the literature is the creation of a
learning vision with targeted learning goals (Hitt & Tucker, 2016; Jacobson, 2011; Marzano et
al., 2005; Robinson et al., 2008). In this section of the literature review, I will discuss the
significance of creating a learning vision and the components related to effective leadership
praxis. The literature emphasizes that learning visions need to be comprehensive and integrated
with pragmatic measurable goals that help achieve the vision. Successful school leaders create
learning visions for schools that have actionable steps toward achievement.
18
Comprehensive Vision
The vision must be centered on learning and high achievement for students (Young et al.,
2017). It is important that the school leader is able to create, communicate, and implement the
vision (Hitt & Tucker, 2016). Simply establishing a vision without practical steps toward
attaining the outcome of the vision is not realistic. Historically, school leaders create a vision, but
it is more idealistic than pragmatic. There lacks the connection between daily actions in the
school and the global vision for educating students. The literature expresses the need for there to
be a comprehensive integration of actions connected to the vision including articulation,
implementation, modeling, communication of the vision, and accountability with achieving the
vision (Hitt & Tucker, 2016). Programming, instruction, professional development,
accountability, and future planning all need to integrate with the vision (Hitt & Tucker, 2016;
Robinson et al., 2008). According to the literature, there are two key-ways to integrate a
comprehensive vision into the holistic structure of learning at the school which are
communicating expectations related to the vision (Marzano et al., 2005; Robinson et al., 2008)
and modeling successful practices related to achieving the vision (Hitt & Tucker et al., 2016).
Communicating Expectations
The school leader needs to be able to communicate the vision and the expectations of
how to achieve the vision (Gordon & Hart, 2021; Jacobson, 2011). The school leader makes
explicit that student achievement is a top priority for the school (Robinson et al., 2008).
Moreover, the school leader is able to coordinate daily instructional mechanisms embedded in
classroom routines and procedures that align with the vision of high achievement (Robinson et
al., 2008). When a vision is integrated with instructional and learning expectations, there will be
an indirect influence on the face-to-face interactions teachers have with students (Robinson et al.,
19
2008). Higher achieving schools have more of a regular emphasis on communicating the goals
and expectations of student learning targets (Marzano et al., 2005; Robinson et al., 2008). The
research emphasizes that it is important that there is an identifiable connection between
leadership indicators for expectations and strategic outcome variables (Robinson et al., 2008).
The emphasis and imperative for school leadership to make explicit the expectations of the
vision and align pragmatic actions to it will result in higher student achievement.
Modeling Successful Praxis
Modeling successful praxis by school leaders is leading by example (Hitt & Tucker,
2016). Pragmatic attitudes, actions, and practices must be demonstrated daily for teachers to see
what they should be doing (Hitt & Tucker, 2016; Klar & Brewer, 2013). It is less effective for
school leaders to lean and rely merely on verbal or written communication. High achieving
school leaders deliberately embed effective praxis into their daily actions (Jacobson, 2011; Klar
& Brewer, 2013). School leaders will communicate the change effort of the vision and allow
teachers to see and experience the changed actions toward the vision (Hitt & Tucker, 2016).
Modeling and providing guidance encourage people and the organization as a whole toward
improvement (Park et al., 2019). Momentum and agency toward change increases as leaders
display the espoused values of the organization through behaviors that are aligned with the vision
(Hitt & Tucker, 2016; Park et al., 2019). Teachers, students, and other stakeholders watch to see
what leaders do. The literature stresses the need for school leaders to model successful praxis,
but there is limited evidence of how leaders build capacity in others to reach the vision.
Moreover, there is limited discussion about creating a long-term vision for sustained success.
Measurable Attainment
20
The learning vision for the school is effectively implemented when aligned with
attainable goals and objectives (Leithwood et al., 2020; Young et al., 2017). The learning vision
becomes an abstract ideal without the grounding of pragmatic action to achieve targeted
outcomes. The establishment of goals helps coordinate an indirect effect on student achievement
through guiding the work and actions of teachers and staff (Robinson et al., 2008). School
leaders can have an impact on student outcomes through clear academic and learning goals
(Robinson et al., 2008). The content of the learning goals should sync with the school-wide
vision and be challenging toward reaching high outcomes (Marzano et al., 2005; Robinson et al.,
2008). Moreover, the goals need to be specific and directional rather than generic (Robinson et
al., 2008). There needs to be a strong alignment between the vision, behavior expectations,
learning goals, and measurable outcomes (Robinsons et al., 2008). There are two specific ways
that school leaders can implement measurable attainment of goals, and they include datamonitoring systems and feedback procedures. This will help put in place a holistic connection
between the overarching school learning vision to specific student achievement outcomes
(Marzano et al., 2005).
In the literature, the goals listed for attainment for student achievement are mentioned as
short term (Leithwood et al., 2020) or do not mention any timeframe linked to student outcomes
(Leithwood et al., 2010; Robinson et al, 2008; Urick et al., 2018). There is an emphasis of shared
goals that are purposeful, but limited evidence of promoting long-term student success. There
continues to be a responsiveness to immediate learning needs.
Data-Monitoring Systems
The school leader has the responsibility to inform the community of academic
accomplishments and recognize the academic achievements that have been made at the school
21
(Robinson et al., 2008). This communication from the principal to the community and
stakeholders is evidence that the school is achieving the proposed vision. It is necessary for the
school and organization to have practical and attainable steps that reach the learning goal for
students. The evidence of this attainment is through data collection (Marzano et al., 2005;
Schildkamp, 2019; Urick et al., 2018). For example, if a school leader communicates a vision for
literacy or numeracy reform, there needs to be data that corroborates that the vision was achieved
(Robinson et al., 2008; Young et al., 2017). Clear goals with tangible outcomes can help provide
a sense of purpose and priority. Data collection measures can include progress monitoring data,
intervention learning data, assessments, grades, student work samples, and other data collection
instruments. Clear goals with data-monitoring systems focus effort and attention to outcomes
allowing feedback to guide praxis (Robinson et al., 2008; Young et al., 2017).
Data-monitoring systems are implicitly recommended in the literature, but do not explain
how it contributes to sustained long-term achievement. Research on how data helps school
leaders promote and sustain high student achievement could benefit practitioners.
Feedback Procedures
Once the vision has been created, communicated, and implemented, there needs to be
feedback procedures to modify actions toward attaining the vision (Hitt & Tucker, 2016;
Marzano et al., 2005; Robinson et al., 2008). Feedback procedures linked to the vision and data
collection measures help inform improved praxis toward high achievement. Progress monitoring
data is used to guide professional reflection and modification of teaching, learning, and
leadership practices. Feedback installs accountability to stakeholders toward behaviors and
actions that drive continual improvement (Grissom et al., 2013; Hitt & Tucker, 2016). Feedback
is the leader’s ability to use the data that has been collected and measure it to the vision and
22
goals (Marzano et al., 2005). The school leaders collect and analyze data to provide informed
instructional recommendations for improvement to reach the school vision. Feedback drives
professional reflection and collective agency to improve teaching, learning, and student
achievement. Regular feedback procedures can be implemented through instructional
programming, teacher evaluations, department meetings, professional learning communities, and
individual coaching (Park et al., 2019).
Feedback supports continual improvement and indirectly supports high student
achievement through teacher support (Park et al., 2019; Robinson et al., 2008). Further research
can contribute to how leader feedback builds teacher efficacy for promoting high achievement.
Facilitating Rigorous Instruction and Evaluating Teacher Performance
A second school leadership practice from the literature that promotes high student
achievement is facilitating rigorous instruction and evaluating teacher performance (Goddard et
al., 2015; Grissom et al., 2018; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2008; Leithwood et al., 2010; Leithwood et
al., 2020; Park et al., 2019; Urick et al., 2018; Young et al., 2017). Effectively implementing a
rigorous instructional program must include system wide expectations (Norqvist & Arlestig,
2021) and foster teacher efficacy (Goddard et al., 2017, 2020). Leaders can align a systems
approach to facilitating instructional effectiveness with federal legislation including the Every
Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to promote high achievement (Young et al., 2017; Urick et al.,
2018). As school leaders are able to facilitate this holistic approach to effective instruction, they
additionally provide training to staff, support instructional growth, monitor student improvement,
and maintain school focus on instructional work (Leithwood et al., 2020). All staff in the school
will begin to merge into a mindset of collective collaboration on instructional improvement
(Goddard et al., 2015). These components all corroborate a leadership praxis that facilitates
23
rigorous instruction and teacher accountability through student improvement data collection.
Leaders need to be able to monitor student growth through data pipelines and provide
instructional support, development, and evaluation to teachers for continual improvement. There
are two key practices that school leaders can do to facilitate this process and include focusing on
the instructional core and facilitating teacher growth.
Facilitating rigorous instruction and evaluating teacher performance are leadership
practices that have stronger effect sizes than setting the learning vision (Robinson et al., 2008;
Kwan, 2020). The literature emphasizes the importance of facilitating high expectations for
teaching and learning with long-term continual improvement.
Instructional Core
Leithwood et al. (2020) propose multiple paths that school leaders can practice to
influence student achievement. The first path focuses on the instructional core which includes
classroom instruction, academic press, disciplinary climate, and the teachers’ use of instructional
time (Leithwood et al., 2020). Strong leadership efficacy to support strong instructional
programming can positively impact teacher efficacy and student outcomes (Goddard et al., 2015;
Leithwood & Jantzi, 2008). Leaders need to be specific about the content of instructional rigor
and pragmatic implementation of the strategies that can be implemented school wide to drive
achievement (Knoeppel & Rinehart, 2010). A school leader has the ability to create an
instructional program that implements high-yield instructional strategies, data to inform
interventions, academic press for rigor, goal setting, and resource provision (Leithwood et al.,
2020). Essentially, there are two ways that principals can effectively support the instructional
core, and they include providing a program for teacher implementation of evidence-based
instructional strategies and resourcing materials for quality learning.
24
School leaders have the ability to influence teaching and learning in the classroom
through facilitating rigorous instruction expectations for teachers. The context in the literature
does not use evidence or language that emphasizes high achievement or sustaining high
outcomes. The literature frames leader facilitation of teaching and learning for interventions or
short-term gains.
Evidence-Based Instructional Strategies
Federal legislation including the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and other previous
legislation outlined standards for high achievement in schools (Urick et al., 2018). There is an
imperative by law (Urick et al., 2018) and through empirical research to implement instructional
practices that produce high-yield outcomes (Leithwood et al., 2020). The principal facilitates the
adoption of effective instructional programming in classrooms and the monitoring of student
progress through evidence-based strategies (Grissom et al., 2018; Leithwood et al., 2020; Urick
et al., 2018). Principals use data to assess the effectiveness of instructional programming and
modify strategies based on student performance to achieve targeted outcomes (Leithwood et al.,
2020). The principal adopts a holistic understanding of the school’s program for instructional
growth and knows how to change it according to student learning needs, performance, and goals.
Principals create programming that uses instructional strategies that teachers implement
to promote high student achievement (Kwan, 2020). What is not mentioned is how school
leaders facilitate sustained growth for high outcomes. The instructional strategies seem to be
described for attaining immediate returns on short-term goals and objectives rather than
sustained efforts for growth.
Strategic Resourcing
25
Facilitating a rigorous program not only includes driving instructional programming but
also resourcing curriculum and materials for content in learning (Goddard et al., 2015;
Leithwood et al., 2020; Urick et al., 2018). The principal provides the content, materials, and
curriculum that facilitate rigorous instruction that increases cognitive demand and academic
press (Leithwood et al., 2020; Urick et al., 2018). Teachers benefit from access to curricular
resources and instructional direction for implementation. The school leader integrates the
instructional program and materials into a coherent delivery (Urick et al., 2018). The principal
has the responsibility to be collaborative and strategic with resource selection and material
provision to ensure successful adoption (Leithwood et al., 2020; Park et al., 2019; Urick et al.,
2018). School leaders, teachers, and other school staff collaborate, build instructional efficacy,
and effectively use resources in a way that strategically increases student outcomes (Goddard et
al., 2015; Heck et al., 2009). Principals will be successful with integrating learning resources
when they align material content with instructional programming and rigorous instruction.
Providing resources for teaching and learning are necessary for promoting high
achievement (Leithwood et al., 2020). The literature links strategy with resources to achieve
instructional programming and student achievement outcomes. High expectations are
emphasized, but principals work with limited budgets requiring them to be strategic.
Teacher Growth
It is imperative that school leaders have a strong efficacy to facilitate instruction and
teacher growth (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2008). School leaders can build teacher efficacy and
professional growth through facilitating meaningful feedback on instruction (Goddard et al.,
2015; Leithwood et al., 2020; Urick et al., 2018). It is important that school leaders evaluate
teacher performance and utilize data to facilitate recommendations for teachers to improve their
26
educational practice. Comprehensive and systematic feedback for teacher growth increases when
there is a school-wide instructional program that integrates purposeful curriculum toward a
learning goal. School leaders that are able to utilize this systematic approach for teacher growth
and school improvement will have potential higher student achievement outcomes (Grissom et
al., 2018; Urick et al., 2018). Systemic academic programming fosters teacher collaboration,
collective assessment monitoring on student progress, shared decision making, and sharing
evidence-based practices (Leithwood et al., 2020). Effective, positive, and systematic feedback
to teachers on professional growth can increase academic scores (Leithwood et al., 2020). In
order for school leaders to pragmatically approach feedback to teachers for growth, the literature
shows two specific approaches that can be successful. The approaches include using data to
support feedback and provide systematic instructional recommendations.
Data-Supported Feedback
School leaders need to have a mastery of instructional experience to inform feedback to
teachers (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2008). Effective feedback from leaders to teachers is influenced
by the quality of the interactions (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2008). Moreover, feedback should be
intellectually challenging, individualized, and follow an appropriate instructional model
(Leithwood & Jantzi, 2008). The school leaders should integrate student performance data
(Leithwood & Jantzi, 2008) to provide feedback that encourages and empowers teachers to take
risks to increase student achievement with a trusting tone (Young et al., 2017). The data for
feedback can focus on the curricular and instructional program as well as specific teacher praxis
(Young et al., 2017). Data on student performance can reveal student learning needs, areas for
instructional growth, and recommendations for effective praxis toward continual improvement
(Young et al., 2017). Additionally, Goddard et al. (2015) posits the importance of principal
27
feedback to be frequent in occurrence to influence high achievement. The increased presence of
the principal to teachers for monitoring instructional programming and providing
recommendations leads to increased teacher collaboration for improvement (Goddard et al.,
2015). Data-supported, specific, and strategic recommendations for instructional improvement
from principals to teachers leads to a holistic school perspective of high achievement and leads
to increased student outcomes.
Teacher growth is achieved through leader feedback and professional improvement
training. The literature supports teacher growth for promoting high student achievement with
specific feedback, but the framework of the feedback is limited in defining how schools
comprehensively attain long-term high achievement. Feedback to teachers is emphasized as
short-term immediate fixes to praxis.
Systematic Instructional Recommendations
Leithwood and Jantzi (2008) recommend that leadership feedback needs to be
intellectually robust, individualized, and follow a programmatic system. School leaders need to
be aware of empirically supported instructional frameworks that posit effective teaching and
learning. These instructional frameworks provide a conceptual approach to high-yield praxis
recommended by ESSA and have data to support improvement in student learning (Urick et al.,
2018). A framework or systematic instructional program to support distinguished teaching is
vital for informed school leadership teacher growth recommendations. There needs to be a
collectively agreed upon standard for effective teaching that the school agrees upon as a guide to
holistically facilitate continuous improvement. Goddard et al. (2015) proposes that the
systematic recommendations be embedded in a collaborative social cognitive approach. The
school leader encourages open communication, critical reflexivity, and works routinely with
28
teachers to improve instructional programming (Goddard et al., 2015). Shatzer et al. (2014) also
recommends that principals need to discuss specific student learning needs with teachers
utilizing student performance data. The literature is clear that principals need to have a holistic
expertise on the instructional program, student performance data, student learning needs, and a
systematic approach to recommend improved teacher praxis based on a teaching model. The
literature frames school leaders as masters of the school program with the ability to provide
recommendations for helping teachers increase student achievement.
Establishing Supportive Learning Environments With Teacher Professional Development
Salient in the literature is the establishment of a supportive learning environment that
presses for continual professional development (Leithwood & Sun, 2012; Tschannen-Moran &
Gareis, 2015). Facilitating and maintaining supportive learning environments that are safe and
press for continual professional improvement for teachers results in higher student achievement
(Leithwood & Sun, 2012; Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015). School leaders have the
responsibility to provide care (Bass, 2020; Louis et al., 2016; Thomas et al., 2019) and high
efficacy to produce a learning environment that focuses on rigorous instruction for student
achievement. In the literature there is not a dichotomous relationship between safe learning
environments and academic press for high student outcomes (Tschannen-Moran & Gareis,
2015). Rather, there is a coexisting relationship between safe learning environments,
professionalism, and academic press (Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015.) School leadership that
produces supportive, positive, and safe learning environments also integrate high levels of
professional improvement and academic rigor for student learning.
Positive School Climate
29
School leaders produce a positive school climate through developing interrelationships
between school members (Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015), effective communication (Crum
& Sherman, 2008), rapport building (Crum & Sherman, 2008), create trust among staff
(Handford & Leithwood, 2013), showing care (Louis et al., 2016; Thomas et al., 2019), and
holding high educational expectations (Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015). These leadership
practices are interrelated and integrate together to form a culture or climate that tangibly
produces safety, professional improvement, trust, organizational support, and rigor. Schools are
learning communities with a goal of helping students learn and leaders that can establish an
environment where students feel supported and motivated to learn will reach higher levels of
achievement.
The literature does not have a robust collection of leadership practices that directly
influence student achievement through positive school climates. Most of the data and empirical
studies provide evidence to support the indirect effects school leaders have on student
achievement through positive school climates (Louis et al., 2016; Thomas et al., 2019;
Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015). Research has data to support that school leaders have a more
indirect impact on improving student achievement through creating a positive school climate that
improves teacher efficacy with instruction and leads to higher student outcomes (Mendoza et al.,
2022). There is also limited mention of sustaining high student achievement over longer periods
of time. There are two salient leadership practices that principals can make toward creating a
positive school climate which include establishing safety and trust as well as building rapport.
Safety and Trust
Students and staff will perform better when they are able to work in an environment
where they feel safe (Bastian & Henry, 2015; Koslouski, 2022; Louis et al., 2016). Research has
30
shown that a student that has the potential to be at-risk can increase social-emotional growth and
academic achievement through one caring adult in a school (Louis et al., 2016). School
environments that have systematic caring built into the program from leadership to teachers can
result in improving students’ social-emotional health and motivation to learn (Louis et al., 2016;
Thomas et al., 2019). School leaders need to build teacher-principal trust through collegiality,
respect, and relationships (Handford & Leithwood, 2013). When teachers feel trust in their
school leaders, they sense that their principal respects them as a professional and intentionally
establishes a trusting relationship built upon professional improvement (Handford & Leithwood,
2013). This safety, trust, and care must not only be expressed by the principal to staff, but also
must be expressed through the whole school through a cultivation of membership and belonging
(Louis et al., 2016). This cultivation of care must be authentic, situational, mutual, and
continuous (Louis et al., 2016; Thomas et al., 2019). The producing of a safe and trusting school
environment is very intentional by all members of the school community and results in a tangible
climate that improves staff and students’ social-emotional health to perform at their highest
capacity.
Safety and trust in a positive school climate links educational practices to long-term
outcomes (Louis et al., 2016; Thomas et al., 2019). The climate of a school is more frequently
described in language that positively affects student outcomes in long-term time frames.
Discussion about successful post-secondary transitions is more frequently linked to students
feeling social-emotional wellbeing. Moreover, high student achievement is linked to greater
improvement when delivered in a supported professional environment (Kwan, 2020). The
literature discusses greater long-term language toward positive student outcomes in positive
school climates.
31
Building Rapport
School leaders must be proactive to communicate effectively with all staff and develop a
positive rapport with stakeholders (Crum & Sherman, 2008). Principals can establish
communication and rapport to build positive relationships with stakeholders to achieve initiatives
that result in higher student achievement. Effective rapport building is established not just by
verbal communication of expectations toward positive learning climates, but non-verbal actions
that produce the results you expect others to do as well (Crum & Sherman, 2008; Louis et al.,
2016; Mendoza et al., 2022). The willingness of a school leader to do the brunt work alongside
colleagues and staff demonstrates the authenticity and grit school leaders need to show that
builds collegial rapport with all school members to strive toward a common goal (Crum &
Sherman, 2008; Leithwood & Sun, 2012). Positive working relationships affect instruction and
public opinion which influence the climate of the school (Crum & Sherman, 2008). Lack of
leadership with building rapport and positive working relationships will produce petty arguments
and misunderstanding among staff (Crum & Sherman, 2008).
The literature emphasizes the intentionality that school leaders must have in building
positive climates, rapport, and relationships (Crum & Sherman, 2008; Louis et al., 2016; Thomas
et al., 2019). There are again limitations to robust specificity with actions and behaviors that
leaders can take toward this outcome. I believe the literature would benefit from itemized actions
that data can elicit from stakeholders on the specific actions of school leaders that produce
positive school climates of rapport, safety, and trust. Practitioners can benefit from data that is
able to show actions that leaders can make in categories of communication, relationship building,
trust, safety, and other school climate criteria that help bring more clarity to leaders for
32
actionable steps with improving learning environments. This data would be beneficial in helping
inform school leader practices that promote and sustain high student achievement overtime.
Professionalism
Professionalism is an important factor identified from the literature when discussing
school climate (Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015). Educational professionalism is related to
members of a professional community with expert knowledge that have the primary
responsibility of serving the academic needs of students (Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015).
Moreover, educational professionals continually seek to improve their knowledge of practice
through professional development (Handford & Leithwood, 2013; Leithwood & Sun, 2012;
Taylor et al., 2019; Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015). Professionalism refers to behaviors that
demonstrate teacher commitment to their work and cooperate with others toward improving
student learning (Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015). Principals have the significant role of
establishing the norms and structures that promote teacher professionalism through collective
inquiry, collaborative planning, shared decision making, and improving instructional practice
(Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015). A school leader’s capacity to support teacher professional
improvement increases teacher instructional efficacy and student learning performance. There
are two categories of leadership practices influencing teacher professionalism in supportive
learning environments that include teacher praxis improvement and coherent academic press.
These will be discussed next.
Praxis Improvement
School leaders have an impact and agency to support teacher professional growth which
is inherent in supportive learning environments (Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015). Positive and
supportive learning environments meet the professional needs of the teacher practitioner for
33
intrinsic motivation for praxis improvement (Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015). In addition to
natural intrinsic motivation for professionals to improve (Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015),
there are extrinsic motivators that leaders can facilitate to further inspire educational
exceptionalism (Kwan, 2020; Leithwood & Sun, 2012). Leadership facilitated professional
growth practices can include providing individualized teacher support, intellectual stimulation,
modeling of valued behaviors, instructional development, and enabling collaboration (Leithwood
& Sun, 2012). Westover (2020) recommended that professional development have coherent
programming and visionary purpose. School leaders strategically connect the components of the
learning program together cohesively working toward improving student learning. Leader
actions and initiatives should not seem incoherent or done in isolation. Westover’s (2020)
recommendation for school programming coherence is essential and more research on leadership
practices that produce program coherence with professional development, instruction, vision, and
goals would benefit school leaders. Additional research is needed for investigating how school
leaders can facilitate coherent praxis toward promoting high student achievement.
Coherent Academic Press
Supportive school environments focus on academics, high expectations, and excellence
with learning (Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015). School leaders promote confidence in
students’ abilities to learn and that all students can achieve at high standards (Boberg &
Bourgeois, 2016; Kwan, 2020; Leithwood & Sun, 2012; Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015). The
result of believing that all students can achieve at high standards is the creation of learning
environments that are orderly, serious, and have academic press for success (Tschannen-Moran
& Gareis, 2015). High academic standards and rigorous instruction have consistently been linked
with producing high achievement beyond socioeconomic status (SES) factors (Tschannen-Moran
34
& Gareis, 2015). Academic press has been associated with families’ perception of increased trust
in teachers and increased work ethic at school (Adams, 2010; Tschannen-Moran & Gareis,
2015). Increasing academic rigor and press with instruction toward high expectations increases
faculty trust with school leadership and produces positive climate attitudes (Christophersen et al.,
2011; Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015). Integrating the cultural components of academic press
within supportive learning environments results in promoting high student achievement. In the
literature academic press is related to improved student outcomes, but not in long-term contexts.
Research linking how school leaders can create academic press that promotes high student
achievement in both short- and long-term contexts would benefit school leader praxis.
Sustaining High Achievement
School leadership has the ability to influence high student achievement but sustaining
high outcomes overtime requires professional self-renewal (Jacobson, 2011) and self-regulating
perseverance (Yeager et al., 2014). These leadership qualities are able to promote and sustain a
culture of high achievement and staff retention (Hollingworth et al., 2017). Sustaining practices
that continue to produce high student achievement over time must renew teacher ability and
endure challenges (Jacobson, 2011; Okilwa & Barnett, 2017). When effective school leadership
practices are implemented successfully, it can result in consistently promoting high student
achievement even with the change of local school leaders (Okilwa & Barnett, 2017). There are
two salient leadership factors in the literature that promote sustaining high student achievement
over time. They include promoting the self-renewal well-being of teachers for effective practice
and the creation of a transcendent purpose for learning.
Teacher Self-Renewal
35
Challenges can arise when promoting high student achievement requiring the need for
school leaders to be able to help staff persist in implementing rigorous teaching and learning
(Jacobson, 2011; Okilwa & Barnett, 2017). Teacher self-renewal is attained through school
leaders that create a culture of care, trust, relationships, and support (Ernst & Fothergill, 2021;
Hollingworth et al., 2017, Jacobson, 2011). The culture of care, trust, and professional support
enables teachers to implement effective instructional practices consistently over the long-term
creating high student achievement for sustained timeframes (Ernst & Fothergill, 2021;
Hollingworth et al., 2017). Leaders that create a positive school culture of teacher self-renewal
and well-being establish sustainable teacher efficacy that results in long-term high outcomes.
This reduces teacher attrition, high turnover, and burnout. Teachers and staff must have the
ability to renew their health, vision, and commitment for supporting high student achievement.
Transcendent Purpose
Intrinsic motivation and purpose in learning have an impact on self-regulation and
perseverance in achievement (Yeager et al., 2014). School leaders can create a purpose for
promoting high student achievement that can transcend challenges schools may face when
implementing rigorous teaching and learning (Hollingworth et al., 2017; Yeager et al., 2014). A
transcending purpose reaches to achieve outcomes that are greater than simple self-interest
(Yeager et al., 2014). Sustainability in high student achievement and rigorous instruction
increases when the outcomes produce greater rewards beyond the enjoyment of learning or
personal fulfillment leading to a contribution to serving others, social justice, or contributing to a
moral cause (Yeager et al., 2014). School leaders can create a learning vision and school culture
that empowers teachers to have an inner drive for promoting student achievement that is greater
than self-centered ends (Ernst & Fothergill, 2021). The ability of school leaders to infuse into
36
staff a greater good moral perspective to become academically effective for all students
establishes a purpose for being educationally just for student learning (Bevan et al., 2014;
Gentry, 2014; Paris & Alim, 2014). This transcendent purpose can lead to schools contributing to
home-based learning programs that directly impact sustained student learning (Han et al., 2020).
School leaders have the onus to communicate and promote a purpose for high achievement that
can transcend potential challenges to student learning.
Transformational Leadership Theory
Transformational leadership has origins in James M. Burns’ (1978) book Leadership that
provides a historical survey of leadership practices with some that have transforming effects
upon people, society, and other factors. James Kouzes and Barry Posner (1993) conducted a
research study with leaders from various industries about their practices when they are at their
best. Their data collection and analysis revealed five common themes that embodied
Transformational leadership theory (Kouzes & Posner, 1993). These themes were not the result
of leadership actions that followed routine management practices but were the results of
leadership behaviors that created dynamic change and bold action transforming organizations
(Kouzes & Posner, 1995). Three of the five transformational leadership practice categories will
be used for this study and include model the way, inspire a shared vision, and enable others to act
(Kouzes & Posner, 1993, 2012). The three practices selected from transformational leadership
theory used for this study were chosen because they best align with school leadership praxis and
the purpose of this research study. Moreover, these three themes of leadership behavior are
designed to be implemented to mobilize organizational members to achieve extraordinary results
(Kouzes & Posner, 2012). As a result, this study will use transformational leadership theory as a
lens to examine school leadership practices that promote high student achievement.
37
This study will investigate school leadership behaviors that promote high student
achievement through three of the five transformational leadership theory practices (Kouzes &
Posner, 2012). I will describe each of the three practices in more detail in the following sections.
Model the Way
Leaders have positions that are granted to them, but it is their behavior that earns them
respect in that position (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). Titles for a position do not make you a leader,
it is the behavior that you exhibit in your role that makes you a leader (Kouzes & Posner, 2012).
In order to get extraordinary results in the position that a leader holds, they must model the
behaviors they expect others to practice (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). Transformational leaders must
effectively model the way and be clear about their guiding values and principles (Kouzes &
Posner, 2012). These principles are shared with others and together with a team, the group
establishes shared values that everyone can affirm (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). Finally, leaders
model the way, by consistently aligning their words and deeds to the team’s shared values
(Kouzes & Posner, 2012). School leaders must be able to communicate the vision, priorities,
values, and goals of the school while also practicing them collectively with staff (Sun &
Leithwood, 2012). This study seeks to identify school leadership practices of principals that
model the way toward producing high student achievement.
Inspire a Shared Vision
Transformational leaders envision the best personal leadership experiences in what could
be possible for the future (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). Leaders have faith in that vision and are
confident in their ability to make extraordinary things happen (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). Great
changes and movements begin with a dream, that turns into a force for actualizing that dream in
the future (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). The vision must be exciting and inspiring for all members
38
of the organization to act upon (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). Leaders must enlist others toward a
common vision that aligns with shared aspirations (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). A passion must be
kindled in all members of the organization to strive toward achieving the vision. School leaders
have the responsibility to inspire a common learning vision with stakeholders to initiate
collective agreement toward achieving that goal (Leithwood & Sun, 2012). School leaders are
able to enlist the support of staff for the shared vision by showing the purpose it has for
increasing student learning and achievement. The study will investigate how school leaders that
produce high student achievement cast an effective learning vision and enlist staff to support the
vision.
Enable Others to Act
Leaders can cast a vision that a team can work together to achieve. A team thrives and
succeeds with trust, relationships, efficacy, collaboration, and accountability (Kouzes & Posner,
2012). Leaders are not able to achieve anything great by themselves, they need others to work
along with them. Leaders must be able to share responsibilities and tasks with others trusting
they are able to complete the work successfully (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). Leaders increase their
own capacity while strengthening others to do their best. It is imperative for transformational
leaders to serve the needs of others above their own, for this will build team member trust in the
leader (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). Moreover, trust is built through developing relationships,
treating others with respect, and communicating with them about what is happening in the
organization (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). When leaders develop strong relationships with
constituents, they turn them into leaders themselves (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). School leaders
have the need to invest in the professional growth of teachers and staff to enable them to improve
student learning (Leithwood & Sun, 2012; Marks & Printy, 2003). This study seeks to identify
39
how school leaders enable others to act in the school to produce cultures of high student
achievement.
Kouzes and Posner’s (2012) transformational leadership theory serves as a framework
that school leaders can implement to achieve great outcomes. It guides leaders to cast a shared
vision, model expectations, and enable others to act toward reaching shared goals. Leaders have
the ability to enlist the support of a team to reach extraordinary results (Kouzes & Posner, 2012).
This study will use transformational leadership theory as a lens to investigate the practices of
school leaders that produce high student achievement.
Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework diagram was designed based on the themes that emerged from
the literature review (Figure 1). There has been a historical progression of the school leadership
role from the administrative-manager to the instructional and transformational leader (Valentine
& Prater, 2011). Federal and state legislation has increased the responsibility, complexity,
contextual responsiveness, and accountability of school leaders and educators to meet the
academic needs of students in the 21st century (Urick et al., 2018; Young et al., 2017). The press
for increased legislative intervention with public education has been an effort to close historical
achievement gaps and increase educational equity (Gordan & Hart, 2022). Even with educational
policy change and adoption, there remains underperformance among schools and gaps in
academic performance (Nation’s Report Card, 2022). Valentine and Prater (2011) mention
Leithwood’s (1994) research on transformational leadership that it may be appropriate for facing
the challenges schools face in the 21st century. Empirical evidence shows that transformational
leadership can improve the school climate, instructional capacity of teachers, and other factors
that result in higher student achievement (Kwan, 2020; Leithwood & Sun, 2012; Marks & Printy,
40
2003; Robinson et al., 2008). Though there remains a national underperformance in student
achievement on NAEP learning standards and a historical achievement gap (Nation’s Report
Card, 2022), transformational leadership theory remains a leadership praxis that can promote
high student achievement when implemented by principals at local school sites (Kwan, 2020;
Leithwood & Sun, 2012; Robinson et al., 2008).
Figure 1
Conceptual Framework, EdD
41
Summary
This review examined literature on school leadership practices that promote high student
achievement. Creating a learning vision with goals (Hitt & Tucker, 2016), facilitating rigorous
instruction with teacher evaluation (Leithwood et al., 2010; Park et al., 2019), and establishing
supportive learning environments with teacher professional development (Leithwood & Sun,
2012; Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2015) are salient practices that emerged from the literature.
School leadership topics including the creation a school vision, and facilitating rigorous
instruction are statistically linked to promoting high student achievement but not in the context
of sustained long-term outcomes.
42
Chapter Three: Methodology
There is a need for robust and effective leadership practices that contribute to consistently
producing high student achievement in schools over time. Strong school leadership can
contribute to efforts that close historical achievement gaps and increase student achievement in
underperforming schools (Gordon & Hart, 2021). The purpose of this qualitative study was to
identify school leadership practices that principals implement that promote and sustain high
student achievement. The leadership practices that contribute to high student achievement were
viewed through the transformational leadership theory lens of modeling the way, inspiring a
shared vision, and enabling others to act. The results of this study will contribute to the
knowledge and behaviors school leaders can implement to promote high student achievement
over sustained periods of time.
This chapter will describe the research questions addressed in the study and an overview
of the research design. The research context, a description of the researcher, and data sources
will be reviewed. Moreover, research participants and instrumentation for the study will be
described. The qualitative data collection procedures, data analysis approach, and the steps taken
to ensure the study is credible and trustworthy will be discussed. Finally, the chapter will
conclude with reviewing ethics.
Research Questions
This study investigated principal practices that promote high student achievement and the
factors that both facilitate and inhibit sustainability. This study concentrated research inquiry to
middle school leadership practices that promote high student achievement and sustainability. As
a result, the study answered the following research questions:
1. In what ways do middle school principals work to promote high student achievement?
43
2. What are factors that both facilitate and inhibit sustaining high student achievement?
Overview of the Design
This research study utilized qualitative inquiry approach to identify leadership practices
that promote high student achievement and the factors that both facilitate and inhibit
sustainability. The study allowed for rich and thorough data collection to provide a thick
description of the phenomenon (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017). Qualitative data were collected
through semi-structured interviews with school leaders and document analysis were implemented
for each school site. This allowed for researcher-generated data through interviews to gather
information about school leader praxis in school cultures that consistently produce high student
achievement (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017). Moreover, public-domain extant data was collected
through document analysis to collect information on school performance and other factors
related to high student achievement at the schools (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017). Qualitative
research seeks to understand how a phenomenon occurs in a particular setting (Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016). Thick and rich data collection is needed to comprehensively understand the
phenomenon. A qualitative research approach met the needs of this study to answer the research
questions for understanding principals’ leadership practices that consistently promote high
student achievement at their schools and the factors that facilitate and inhibit sustainability.
44
Table 1
Research Questions and Instrumentation
Research question Interviews Document analysis
1. In what ways do middle
school principals work to
promote high student
achievement?
X X
2. What are the factors that
both facilitate and inhibit
sustaining high student
achievement?
X X
Research Context
The context for the research in this qualitative study was Washington State middle
schools where the phenomena of principals promoting high student achievement was occurring
according to Washington State’s school recognition program criteria. Middle schools where
principals promote high student achievement that meet the two criteria for being a recognized
Washington State school were selected to investigate how sustained academic performance is
attained. Schools are selected for the recognition program according to academic performance
and school quality measures.
45
The Researcher
The researcher was the primary instrument and has characteristics, knowledge, and
experiences that connected with the data (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
It is important to practice reflexivity to account for potential assumptions, biases, and
experiences that may impact the study (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017). Reflexivity is important to
limit the perspectives and beliefs of the researcher in expanding or limiting the study (Lochmiller
& Lester, 2017). Accounting for researcher bias and experiences contributed to the credibility
and trustworthiness of the research.
The researcher is a Caucasian male with previous education experience as a teacher and
previous training in education for teaching and school leadership. I practiced teaching in the
state that the research was conducted, but not at the research sites where data was collected. I
maintained low-inference data collection procedures to ensure data was authentically gathered
from participants and document analysis.
This study was important because I recognized the importance of providing quality
educational services to students to help them reach post-secondary transitions for career and
college. Students in public education need school leaders that can facilitate and promote
academic settings where they are challenged, supported, and guided to high achievement. In the
United States, there is a consistent underperformance of public education students in reading and
math (Nation’s Report Card, 2022). Strong school leadership is needed to support high
expectations and sustained high student achievement over time. This will close learning gaps and
increase the post-secondary opportunities for students. As an educator, I know this requires a
commitment and devotion to help all students succeed. This study helped contribute to this
46
conviction that school leaders need to help promote and sustain high achievement for all
students.
Data Sources
The data sources for this study included interviews and document analysis. The
participants for the interviews were school leaders that promote and sustain high student
achievement at Washington State recognized middle schools. I will discuss the participants that
served as informants for the semi-structured interviews, the interview processes, and document
analysis for gathering data in this study.
Participants
The participants for the study were principals that implemented leadership practices
consistently that promoted high student achievement at their local school site. Purposeful
sampling was used to select principals that promoted high student outcomes that could provide
data that could answer the research questions (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017; Maxwell, 2013).
Principals that contributed to high student achievement were identified through document
analysis of extant data in the public domain for their school regarding student performance,
demographics, socioeconomics, leadership tenure, and other factors relevant to the purpose of
the study. Principals were not isolated to a geographical region, but spanned across a state in the
Pacific Northwest that were identified and selected as participants for the study that could most
effectively meet the participant selection criteria. A total of 10 principals were selected from a
state in the Pacific Northwest that participated in the semi-structured interviews for data
collection on how their praxis drives high student achievement. A participant recruitment letter
was provided to each potential participant with a Study Information Sheet and voluntary consent
47
to participate in the study that was gained from each principal prior to beginning research
(Appendices A, B).
Interviews
A semi-structured interview protocol was created as a data collection instrument for
interviewee responses to be honest, authentic, and comprehensive in answering questions related
to leadership praxis that promotes high student achievement (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017). This
approach allowed for flexibility with questioning to include clarifying and probing questions to
elicit unexpected understandings and emergent themes (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017). Appendix C
provides the interview protocol with the research questions, interview introduction, questions,
and closing comments. The integration of semi-structured, open-ended, clarifying, and probing
questions facilitated a more in-depth data collection, and a richer description of the phenomena
that occurs at these school sites (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017). Each interview question was
aligned with one of the research questions, a concept from the leadership conceptual framework,
and with a recommended research-based question format from Merriam and Tisdell’s (2016)
proposed interview question types. All interviews were electronically recorded through an online
video conferencing platform and professionally transcribed to maintain accuracy with capturing
the participants’ responses, and experiences with school leadership.
Document Analysis
Document analysis was conducted through a review of public-domain extant data on
evidence of school performance for selecting principals that promote and sustain high student
achievement in multiple academic areas including math, language arts, and other success
measures. Washington State’s school recognition methodology was utilized according to two
criteria applicable for middle schools that integrate academic performance and an aggregate
48
assessment of SQSS measures (Washington SBE, 2022). This allowed for the identification of
principal tenure at local school sites for the purpose of selecting interview participants that
sustained high achievement over time. Principals were selected that were able to sustain high
student achievement for a minimum of 3 years at their local site in accordance with Washington
State’s school recognition methodology.
Moreover, document analysis allowed for a rich description of student academic
performance at the local school site for each principal to help inform the identification of an
overall academic profile for the school. Data were collected on school demographics,
socioeconomics, academic performance in core content areas, and other academic quality
measures to facilitate consistency in principal performance for producing high student
achievement. Document analysis with public-domain extant data also helped align comparable
school populations, grade levels, teacher faculty tenure, teacher faculty education, and other
factors between all interview participants to help eliminate confounding factors that contribute to
high student achievement apart from principal leadership (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017).
Collecting data through document analysis helped provide information about leadership practices
that promoted and sustained high student achievement.
Instrumentation
A semi-structured interview protocol was developed utilizing Patton’s (2015)
recommended interview question types (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). This interview protocol
contained both semi-structured and open-ended questions to elicit information regarding school
leadership practices that promote high student achievement and sustain long-term outcomes. The
protocol also included probing and clarifying questions to further gather information about
unexpected understandings that may emerge (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017). The semi-structured
49
protocol helped facilitate flexibility and a conversational style discourse for the interview to
encourage authenticity and honesty with participant responses (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017).
Data Collection Procedures
Research participants in the study were provided with an introductory letter describing
the purpose of the study and how they would be providing data for the research (Appendix A).
Public-domain extant data was used for document analysis on multiple student achievement
measures including math, language arts, and other success measures to identify schools with
continual growth and sustainability of achievement (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017). Washington
State’s school recognition methodology identifies high achieving schools as meeting two criteria
applicable for middle schools (Washington SBE, 2022). Semi-structured interviews were
conducted for approximately 45 minutes to one hour in length. Each interview was conducted
through a synchronous online conferencing platform that has audio and video recording
capability. The recorded interview data was professionally transcribed through a transcription
service provider. The transcribed data was then analyzed through a qualitative data analysis
approach.
Data Analysis
Data collected from interviews and documents were analyzed following Creswell and
Creswell’s (2018) recommendation for Tesch’s eight steps for qualitative data analysis. After all
of the data was collected, it was organized, and coded. Figure 2 provides a visual representation
of Creswell and Creswell’s (2018) recommendation for Tesch’s eight steps for organizing and
analyzing data.
50
Figure 2
Tesch’s Eight Steps for Qualitative Data Analysis
Note. Adapted from Research and Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods
Approaches (5th ed.; p. 271), by J. W. Creswell and J. D. Creswell, 2018, Sage.
Tesch’s eight steps in the data coding and analyzing process begins with reviewing the
transcriptions and documents as a whole (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). As the transcriptions and
documents were initially reviewed, ideas were written down that came to mind (Creswell &
Creswell, 2018). Next, each document was read again and underlying meanings that emerged
51
were written in the margins (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). This process was repeated for all of the
documents and a list of all the topics were created clustered by similar topics in the form of a
table (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). Then the list of topics was taken, and the data was reviewed
again using abbreviations of the topics as codes for segments of the texts (Creswell & Creswell,
2018). This preliminary coding process was used to see if new categories or codes emerged
(Creswell & Creswell, 2018). Next, descriptive wording was used for the topics for turning them
into categories and to reduce the number of topics through grouping them as possible (Creswell
& Creswell, 2018). Final categories and codes were created, assembled, and a preliminary
analysis began (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). The last step was to recode any existing data, then
to re-analyze it. Interpretation of the data was completed after that to make meaning of the
results.
Credibility and Trustworthiness
Strategies were implemented to establish credibility and trustworthiness in the study. In
order to maintain credibility, thick description, detailed notes, audio recording, memberchecking, and transcription of data was implemented (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017; Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016). This ensured that specific and accurate details were collected on data provided by
participants in the interviews. Moreover, validation of member perspectives, experiences, and
responses were authenticated through member checking and reflection (Lockmiller & Lester,
2017). A semi-structured pilot tested interview protocol was used to ensure that interview
questions align with the theoretical and conceptual frameworks to accurately answer the research
questions (Maxwell, 2013). Finally, interview data was triangulated with document analysis data
to ensure findings were corroborated.
52
There were actions taken to ensure the study was trustworthy as well. A sufficient
number of participants were selected for interviews to gather thick and rich data on the
phenomena that was investigated. Also, adequate time was allocated for each interview to collect
sufficient data to answer the research questions (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017). Member-checking
and respondent validation was implemented to ensure accuracy and plausibility of findings
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Audit trails were recorded on decision-making, data collection, and
data analysis for trustworthiness and transparency of the study (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017). A
maximum of variation was implemented for participant selection to allow for greater
applicability of findings to consumers of the research (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Continual
reflexivity of the researcher was implemented, and a peer review of the study was utilized for
accuracy with data collection, findings, and interpretations (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Reflexivity and peer review helped mitigate potential bias increasing the trustworthiness of the
study. Triangulation of interview data, document analysis, and other forms of data were
implemented to ensure all data corroborated for the conclusions of the study (Lochmiller &
Lester, 2017; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Ethics
Ethical considerations were taken and upheld throughout the study. The University of
Southern California Institutional Review Board (IRB) examined the research proposal and gave
approval for the study prior to data collection. All research participants provided informed
consent to voluntarily participate in the study (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017). Participant
information and the data provided were kept confidential through secure record keeping and the
use of pseudonyms for any identifiable characteristics of participants (Lochmiller & Lester,
53
2017). When the research study has been completed for the dissertation, all data, information,
documents, and records will be securely discarded.
Summary
This chapter described the research methods used for conducting the qualitative study.
The research was implemented to identify school leadership practices that promote high student
achievement. The study also identified factors that facilitate and inhibit sustaining high
achievement over time. This chapter covered the research questions this study investigated, the
research context, and information regarding the researcher. Chapter Four will discuss the results
of the data collected during the research study and the qualitative analysis that facilitated the
findings.
54
Chapter Four: Results
This qualitative study focused on identifying leadership practices that promote and
sustain high student achievement. Data were collected for this study through document analysis
of public domain extant data for the identification of school leaders that were able to sustain high
academic achievement over time and to inform a rich description of academic performance for
each school site to ensure consistency of high outcomes aligned with Washington State’s school
recognition methodology. Moreover, semi-structured interviews were conducted using an
interview protocol to identify school leadership practices that promote and sustain high
achievement. Data were first reviewed through document analysis of public domain databases
including the Washington State Department of Education and the Office of Superintendent of
Public Instruction websites to identify school leaders that promote and sustain high student
achievement over time at their school sites. School leaders at local middle school sites that met
Washington State’s school recognition criteria were identified for potential participation in the
study.
Document analysis provided robust performance data on school leadership that promoted
and sustained high student achievement through multiple performance metrics. The recognized
schools had to perform within the top 20% of schools in Washington State for math and language
arts state assessment scores, perform within the top 20% of schools on separate SQSS measures
aggregated over 3 years (Washington SBE, 2022). Among the eligible schools on this list, the
highest performing middle schools were selected with a majority of them having state
assessment scores higher than 90% proficiency for both math and language arts for more than 3
years. Additionally, these schools attained high SQSS measures including attendance and other
measures. The schools chosen for the study were comparable with academic performance in core
55
content areas, grade level populations, teacher faculty tenure, teacher faculty education, principal
tenure, and other factors. However, the school demographics were not all similar with regard to
socioeconomics, diversity, and other measures. The unique factor with regard to the schools
chosen for the study is that all high performance measures were consistent but these high
achieving results were found among Title 1, urban, rural, low socioeconomic, high
socioeconomic, high diverse, and high homogeneous school populations. The diversity of student
populations all attaining sustained high academic achievement provided evidence that leadership
praxis can promote high outcomes regardless of student demographics. These data showed that
all students of all backgrounds are capable of high achievement and that demographics are not an
inhibiting factor.
The school leaders identified to participate in the study were able to consistently sustain
high achievement over multiple years and across various school climate conditions implementing
a leadership praxis that maintains high achievement through challenges. The data collected in
this study was intended to identify school leadership practices that promote and sustain
achievement over multiple years. The findings are designed to provide understanding of
leadership praxis that other school leaders can implement to increase student outcomes and
sustain high academic performance.
Once all of the data collection for the study was complete, all of the documents, interview
transcripts, and notes were reviewed to identify frequent topics. These topics were grouped
together and coded according to similarities in the data responses. These codes were then further
grouped into descriptive worded categories. These categories were then analyzed to determine
themes that emerged from a majority of the documents. These themes had to emerge from codes
56
and categories from at least 70% of the respondents to be considered as a final theme. The
themes were aligned toward answering the two research questions for the study which include:
1. In what ways do middle school principals work to promote high student achievement?
2. What are factors that both facilitate and inhibit sustaining high student achievement?
Participants
The participants selected for the study were identified through document analysis of
public-domain school performance data for leaders at middle schools serving as a principal or
administrator over a middle school program. These school leaders implement leadership
practices that promote high student achievement in the top 20% of Washington State schools and
on student success measures over a minimum of three consecutive years. Moreover, these
schools’ performances were corroborated with public-domain performance data in math, English
language arts, and other measures through the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction’s
website for academic performance. Purposeful sampling for 10 school leader participants were
conducted to select 10 school leaders that participated in the study. The participants in the study
were not isolated to a specific geographical region but span across the state of Washington.
The 10 study participants are school leaders at among the highest performing middle
schools in Washington State. They have served in various teacher and administrator roles prior to
becoming principals and school leaders. These school administrators have been able to sustain
consistent high student achievement through the COVID pandemic, budget cuts, staff shortages,
and other challenging circumstances. The leadership practices and strategies implemented by
these school leaders have been able to assist them in enduring circumstances that could have
inhibited student performance. The participants in this study have demonstrated a record of
success, achievement, and sustained effort to promote high student performance. There were five
57
participants that were male and five participants that were female. Some of the participants had
worked in multiple school districts, schools, and leadership positions prior to their current
position. Two of the participants had doctoral degrees in the field of education and eight of the
participants had master level degrees. One of the doctoral participants had higher education
experience working as an educational researcher for 13 years at a university. This participant
recognized the impact K–12 education practitioners have on student outcomes and this inspired
the leader to work as a public education principal. All of these school leaders were passionate
about student success and driven to promote sustained high student achievement. Pseudonyms
were assigned to each participant to maintain confidentiality of the participants in the study.
Table 2 provides background information for the 10 participants in the study.
58
Table 2
Participants’ Backgrounds
Participant Gender Education experience Years in leadership
Participant 1 Female • Assistant principal
• Athletic director
• Principal
12
Participant 2 Female • Teacher
• Assistant principal
• Principal
17
Participant 3 Male • Teacher (Gen. ed. and Sp. ed.)
• Teacher on special assignment
(TOSA)
• Principal
7
Participant 4 Female • Teacher
• Counselor
• School administrator
4
Participant 5 Male • Assistant principal
• Principal
9
Participant 6 Female • Assistant principal
• Principal
4
Participant 7 Male • Teacher
• Assistant principal
• Principal
5
Participant 8 Male • Teacher
• Assistant principal
• Principal
14
Participant 9 Male • Teacher (Sp. ed.)
• Dean of students
• Assistant principal
• Principal
19
Participant 10 Female • Assistant principal
• Principal
15
Findings for Research Question 1
The first research question focused on identifying middle school leadership practices that
promote high student achievement in schools. Data collected in the study for the first research
question generated two themes after qualitative data analysis. The first theme is that school
59
leaders create and design educational programming that comprehensively strives to meet the
needs of the whole child in supporting their learning growth. School leaders implemented
programming that included supporting students’ social, emotional, behavioral, and academic
needs when facilitating student learning growth. These leaders recognized that all of the needs of
a child must be considered when supporting a productive learning environment because every
need of a student is imperative for their wellbeing and cognitive capacity to learn at their full
potential. The second theme is that school leaders competently use multiple sources of
achievement data to drive instructional decision-making to improve learning. Participants
strategically utilized databases and data platforms to identify students’ areas of growth and
improvement toward reaching high achievement goals. Leaders used these data sources to inform
constructive instructional responses that effectively yielded high student learning outcomes. The
findings for these themes will be further presented in this chapter.
Theme 1: Meeting the Needs of the Whole Child for Learning Growth
The first theme of meeting the needs of the whole child for learning growth was the most
frequently identified theme through coding and categorization. It was referenced by all 10
participants during the semi-structured interviews. There were two main sub-themes that
emerged from data collection. The first sub-theme was meeting the students’ academic needs for
high achievement. The second sub-theme was meeting students’ social, emotional, and wellbeing needs. Participants expressed that meeting all of students’ needs are imperative to ensure
that they are functioning at their highest capacity to learn and limiting any factors that would
contribute to cognitive load. This theme will be further developed in the following sections.
Interview Findings
60
The interview questions in the protocol were designed to first answer ways that school
leaders promote high student achievement. All 10 participants consistently responded with
practices that meet the holistic needs of the student toward facilitating their learning growth.
Each participant expressed individualized approaches they implement appropriate to their local
school context, but every participant emphasized the importance of identifying and meeting
every student learning need. Participant 1 expressed this clearly by stating, “We really look at the
whole child and their background. We look at all their testing scores.” This participant expressed
clearly that their school intentionally looks at data sources holistically for the needs of the child
including background factors and academics to ensure needs are identified and supported. It was
clear from the data that the participants understood that promoting high academic achievement
with students is optimized when the holistic needs of the student are met.
Meeting Student Academic Needs. Participants communicated the importance of being
able to identify and strategically meet the individualized academic needs of students. These
school leaders purposefully use systematic approaches such as corroborating data to address
student learning needs including praxis mentioned by Participant 1, “We look at all their testing
scores. We do something called a social assessment, where we look at what their background is
because we’re a title one school.” Participant 2 further emphasized a systematic approach by
expressing they have a “MTSS intervention team to really talk about the academic … supports
that students might need.” The participants were very purposeful in using testing data, math
performance measures, reading performance measures, and other data sources to identify student
learning needs with precision. Once the leaders are able to specifically target student learning
needs, they are able to create programming that closes the achievement gap.
61
The school leaders also inspire the support of all stakeholders in this unified effort to
optimize outcomes as Participant 9 stated, “The whole community is pushing forward.” The
participants did not isolate the effort of school programming only to administrators and teachers.
These school leaders make an intentional effort to include all stakeholders in the effort of
supporting student learning needs. All school stakeholders work together to create a learning
environment that supports high student achievement for all students. These school leaders
understand the importance of identifying the academic learning needs of their students and how
to strategically create instructional programming for promoting high academic achievement.
The effort of these school leaders is pro-active toward supporting student academic needs
as Participant 8 communicated that he organized staff to “reach out to the kids that need more
support. … It allows us to take the pressure off.” It was apparent that these participants were not
passive in their leadership praxis, but rather highly driven to inspire staff to be at their best to
help students. Participant 10 stated, “We look at specific needs of students and the potential
barriers” in order that they may be able to create “more robust supports for students.” Participant
10 further stated that they “drive everything for everyone” to be able to “increase access while
not lessening rigor.” The key to this success is building strong relationships with students to
effectively identify and intervene with student academic needs. This builds the trust and rapport
teachers need with students to drive rigorous instruction toward learning growth. Participant 8
communicated the importance of “developing relationships with kids. This is first and foremost.
… We preach a lot of relationship building with kids.” Strong student-teacher relationships can
decrease student learning anxiety and help students learn to manage their emotions toward higher
achievement. These school leaders understood the importance of systematically identifying
62
student learning needs and effectively implementing student-centered interventions that
increased student achievement.
Meeting Student Social, Emotional, and Well-Being Needs. When meeting the needs
of the whole child, participants communicated meeting social, emotional, and well-being needs
of students in addition to their academic needs. Participant 5 emphasized the importance of
supporting students with special needs by stating he communicates with staff “about special
education stuff. How do we support kids? How do we do accommodations, modifications?”
Participant 5 understands having a holistic approach to student learning needs by stating that
there are “students we are seeing regularly for academics and behavior needs.” During and after
the pandemic, school leaders were frequently having to provide instruction and inventions
regarding academic, social, and emotional needs. Participant 7 implemented a social and
emotional learning curriculum to help support the diverse learning needs of students and to
support staff making an effort to “set people up for being caring, compassionate educators in the
school.” The identification of student social and emotional learning needs was exceptionally
important to these school leaders. They knew that maximizing student learning potential required
meeting additional student needs such as mental health, social, emotional, and health related
needs. Students would not be able to focus and decrease their cognitive load without having
these additional needs met by educators.
Participant 4 further supports the need for social and emotional learning with regard to
monitoring attendance by stating, “We look at attendance, we are trying to modify our
attendance practices to support our students. … Mental health absences are excused.” Each of
these participants shared various student multi-need circumstances that must be addressed as part
of supporting learning growth. All of these learning need factors have an impact on student
63
achievement. These school leaders were proactive to create instructional programming and
interventions to successfully support high student achievement through meeting social,
emotional, behavioral, and health related student needs.
Moreover, the school leaders were optimistic and driven to ensure the learning needs of
their students were met regardless of the type or severity. Participant 1 explained:
We have generational poverty, and we have a lot of kids coming in and families with
trauma and crisis. Not acute crisis, but chronic crisis. Really staying on top of what that is
and being able to use our district resources.
Participant 7 also explained how students can have trauma in their lives from “ACES” and the
importance of implementing a social and emotional curriculum to support them. Participant 7
created a wellness tracker to help monitor the diverse needs of students in the school by stating,
“Every year I create a spreadsheet of every single student. It’s a wellness tracker, basically. So,
for every student, what kind of services they receive. … We have observational notes for family,
academics, and health.” Through identifying the various learning needs that students have,
school leaders are able to allocate staffing and resources to help bridge gaps. These school
leaders understand the importance of effectively identifying all of the holistic academic, social,
emotional, and well-being needs of students to effectively support them so they can learn at a
higher cognitive capacity.
Summary
Data collected through the semi-structured interviews yielded evidence supporting the
theme of meeting the needs of the whole child. Two sub-themes emerged during the data
analysis. The first sub-theme was meeting the academic needs of students, and the second subtheme was meeting the social, emotional, and well-being needs of students at their schools. All
64
of the participants communicated the imperative to ensure academic, social, emotional, and wellbeing needs of students are comprehensively supported in the learning environment. Removing
barriers, reallocating resources, assignment of staff, and strategic instructional interventions were
some of the efforts these school leaders made to holistically support the students at their school
toward reaching high student achievement. Moreover, the collective agreement of the school
mission, unification of staff action, and consistent implementation of student support resources
resulted in high student achievement, improved student mental health, social/emotional growth,
and caring learning environments. Each participant had a unique strategy and approach to the
individualized needs of students at their site, but the common theme through them all was a
holistic approach to meeting all student learning needs toward sustained high student
achievement. All stakeholders in the organizations believed in the mission and purpose for
helping students attain high achievement over time as a norm.
Theme 2: Use of Data to Inform and Drive High Student Achievement
The second theme of using data to drive high student achievement identified during the
data analysis was also referenced by all 10 participants in the semi-structured interviews. Though
the frequency of words and coding were less frequent than the first theme, it still yielded strong
data supporting practices that promote high student achievement. There were two main subthemes that emerged for the use of data to drive student achievement. The first sub-theme is
standard academic performance data, and the second sub-theme is supplemental school data.
Participants communicated consistently using academic data to inform instruction, programming,
and other instructional practices to promote high student achievement. Academic data was not
the only source that school leaders use to inform praxis. Multiple sources of supplemental data
65
are also used for informing instructional programming to ensure students reach high
achievement. This theme will be further developed in the following sections.
Interview Findings
All of the participants communicated consistently using data to inform instructional
decision-making toward promoting high student achievement. The participants expressed using
multiple sources of data for identifying student learning needs and strategically creating
interventions to improve outcomes. Data sources that participants use include academic data,
standardized assessments, grades, attendance, discipline, behavior, health, disability, and other
data sources to identify gaps, areas of growth, and programming to improve student
achievement. The use of data was a critical and consistent practice for all of the school leaders.
Participant 2 communicated the need for the use of data clearly by stating:
Well, I think, it goes back to the data points. What is the data we need to look at and what
data do we need to find? So, there’s the standard. What’s the academic data? What are
the grades? What is attendance? What is discipline?
This participant highly prioritizes multiple sources of data to understand the students’ level of
performance and how to bring them to a high standard of achievement. All ten participants stated
the frequent use of data to understand their students’ academic levels and to inform instructional
programming to increase student outcomes.
Two specific sub-themes emerged from the participants responses related to the use of
data to promote high student achievement. The first sub-theme is standard academic performance
data, and the second sub-theme is supplemental school data. All of the participants used multiple
sources of data to inform decision-making for driving high student achievement. The participants
used both academic sources of data and supplemental sources to comprehensively create a
66
learning program that benefits all of their students for improving student learning. These subthemes will be further developed in the following sections.
Standard Academic Performance Data. One of the main sources of data that the
participants used for promoting high student achievement is academic performance data. This
data includes state assessment data, grades, interim standardized assessments, and other
academic sources. Participant 3 stated that their school takes benchmark assessments three times
a year to monitor student performance in reading and math by saying, “Students complete
reading and math assessments in the fall, winter, and spring.” The participant further explained
that these assessments inform “lessons that target student learning needs.” Participant 5
expresses the purpose for using academic data by stating, “We use a lot of data, and we try to
disaggregate that data as much as possible.” This school leader uses the data to know where
opportunities for student improvement can occur by stating, “We take a look at where those
opportunity gaps are, and we focus our attention solely on where those pieces are.” The school
leaders use data very specifically and strategically to target specific learning skills that students
need to improve. These school leaders did not approach instructional programming casually or
broadly. They were very intentional about specifically identifying math and reading academic
measures where students were struggling. The participants would then strategically work with
teachers to create interventions and instructional programming to increase student knowledge
where gaps existed for pragmatically increasing student achievement. They were very precise
with their use of data and responsive instructional interventions.
The school leaders used the data to help practically answer questions they had regarding
student learning growth. Participant 7 communicated that the academic data helps them answer
questions they have for tangibly measuring student outcomes through stating, “What do students
67
need to learn? How are we going to know when they’ve learned it?” The participants are very
purposeful with wanting to know if students are actually learning the academic content. They
would use data to identify concepts that students needed to learn and used targeted assessments
to ensure they were able to know if students learned the material where there was a gap.
The precision in the participants’ use of data was implemented in a cohesive and
collaborative context. Participant 1 stated that, “We set the stage right away with high
expectations. It’s a big deal. We talk about it; we get excited about it.” Moreover, this participant
stated, “None of our staff ever say anything negative about testing. We get excited to show
growth with the kids. We chart it out, we do smart goals afterwards, and it just kind of becomes
their norm.” These school leaders create an educational culture where high expectations and high
student achievement are embedded into the everyday practices of learning. The leaders were
purposeful about establishing a learning context that was positive and inspiriting toward reaching
high student achievement. It was imperative for them to create a positive culture around high
expectations to build momentum toward success. This increased excitement, buy-in, and a norm
for reaching high student achievement at the schools.
Participant 8 embeds data into the norm of instructional practice through reviewing
academic data during professional learning communities through stating, “It allows us to see
what kind of growth they’ve made with our interventions and what that looks like.” This helps
school leaders plan long-term high achievement through the school’s improvement plan.
Participant 9 stated, “We look at our school improvement plan and who are our kids who are not
making it? What’s our gap?” This participant uses the data with teachers to identify specific
measures where students need to grow and how to plan interventions for improved academic
learning. The purpose for these school leaders in using academic data is to continually help
68
students improve their learning to reach high achievement. Participant 10 stated that school
programming informed by academic data helps them ensure that “students stay on track” and that
is presses everyone to “have high standards and always reaching for more.” Embedding the
review of academic data into regular professional development and strategic planning
communicates a school-wide commitment to promoting high student achievement. High
expectations are a part of all aspects of the school community and reinforce the goal of
promoting high student outcomes. This establishes a norm that all stakeholders are a part of this
unified effort. The participants purposefully and strategically used academic data to identify
student areas of growth, inform instructional programming, and to drive high student
achievement.
Supplemental School Data. Participants also used other supplemental data sources to
help inform instructional decision-making and promoting high student achievement. Participant
2 consistently uses various sources of data to help understand the current level of performance
for students at the school by stating:
We are focused on who are the kids that we have in front of us. So, what does our data
say about what is, and then what does the data not say? What is the missing data? …
What is attendance? What is discipline?
This participant utilizes multiple sources of data to get a comprehensive understanding of the
students’ learning profile and performance. Participant 3 also looks at multiple sources of data
including surveys from parents about student learning needs by stating they gather “feedback
about academics, safety, and social/emotional well-being” to assist with school programming.
The participants used data sources including attendance, discipline, health, and other measures to
have a more comprehensive understanding of the factors that impact student learning. Absences,
69
mental health, social factors, and behaviors can all impact student outcomes. These factors need
to be addressed in addition to instructional academic programming. Behaviors, health, or
emotional factors may not directly impact specific academic programming but may need social
and emotional programming to supplement academic instruction. These school leaders knew that
the students would need multiple sources of educational support to increase their ability to learn
effectively.
The school leaders would help organize and facilitate the implementation of data schoolwide to help ensure fidelity with instruction. Participant 4 used school data to help teachers with
instructional planning by stating, “We try to look at data as an administrative team and we try to
look at different types of data. We try to communicate that data to our building leadership and
then … with the whole school.” This participant was purposeful about helping guide teachers
and the whole school to be unified in their effort with academic instruction. This school leader
wanted to facilitate cohesion with instructional efforts informed by multiple data sources. This
would help ensure precision and effectiveness with implementing rigorous teaching for reaching
high achievement. The participants use attendance, discipline, health, and other data sources to
supplement instructional decision-making along with the academic data. The participants were
very strategic in using multiple sources of data to comprehensively address student learning gaps
and promote high student achievement.
Summary
Data collected through the semi-structured interviews yielded evidence supporting the
theme of using data to inform and drive high student achievement. All of the participants
communicated the importance of using multiple sources of data to identify students’ current
achievement levels, identify gaps in performance, and inform high-yield interventions to
70
improve student learning. Two sub-themes emerged from the data analysis. The first sub-theme
was standard academic performance data, and the second sub-theme was supplemental school
data. School leaders used both academic and supplemental data sources to comprehensively
create academic programming that met all of the students’ learning needs. The participants
analyzed data and strategically implemented learning interventions addressing identified learning
gaps. School leaders were able to effectively establish a learning environment and culture
centered around using data to promote high student achievement. Participants consistently
communicated that their schools analyzed data, collaborated about data, and used it to improve
instructional programming. Professional development and school improvement plans were
centered around student performance data. The school leaders were able to create a culture and
norm for using data school-wide to promote student learning and sustain high achievement over
time.
Findings for Research Question 2
The second research question focused on factors that both facilitate and inhibit sustaining
high student achievement over time. Data collected in the study for the second research question
generated two themes after qualitative data analysis. The first theme is that school leaders build
strong relationships with staff, students, families, and community members for sustaining high
achievement. School leaders built relationships with all stakeholders in the school community to
help facilitate the mission for all students to reach high academic achievement. Participants were
purposeful in building relationships with students that promoted high learning growth and with
staff to create a unified team that implemented a rigorous learning program. Strong relationships
helped these school leaders establish a learning environment of high expectations where all
stakeholders were committed for the long-term toward reaching this goal. Relationship building
71
was a vital part of these school leaders’ efforts to sustain high achievement. The second theme is
that school leaders help drive a collective determination with stakeholders that students can
sustain high student achievement over time. School leaders had to inspire all staff to collectively
agree and be determined to work toward achieving the mission that all students can reach high
academic achievement. The participants and their staff all worked with resilient effort to drive
sustained high achievement over time. The school leaders and staff were honest with one another
about the investment it would take to reach the mission.
Moreover, participants overcame inhibiting factors toward reaching high student
achievement including COVID-related illnesses, budget decreases, declining enrollment, and
understaffing. Though these school leaders faced inhibitors to high achievement, they were able
to mitigate their effects and sustain high outcomes. All of the stakeholders were in agreement to
implement the practices and strategies required to support students’ learning at high levels of
performance. These school leaders were able to inspire and lead a school team to actually reach
those high-performance standards. The findings for these themes will be further presented in this
chapter.
Theme 3: Building Strong Relationships
The third theme of building strong relationships with staff, students, families, and the
community was referenced by all ten participants in the study during the semi-structured
interviews. There were two main sub-themes that emerged from the data analysis. The first subtheme was building student academic relationships, and the second sub-theme was building
stakeholder relationships. The participants emphasized the importance of building relationships
with students and all stakeholders as foundational for sustaining high student achievement over
time. These relationships help establish trust, communication, and commitment toward working
72
together to achieve a common goal. This theme will be further developed in the following
sections.
Interview Findings
The interview questions in the second part of the protocol were designed to identify
factors that both facilitate and inhibit sustaining high student achievement over time. All 10
participants stated that building relationships with students, staff, families, and community
members helped sustain high achievement. The school leaders had to build relationships with
students and stakeholders to establish trust, and commitment toward reaching high academic
outcomes. The cultivation of a belief toward attaining high achievement was accomplished
through consistent relationship building with students and stakeholders. This continual
investment into the students’ lives through relationships assisted students and staff with
overcoming inhibiting factors to learning growth. Social and emotional fortitude was created
through connections with leaders that were able to equip students with the resilience to endure
challenges. The school leaders had the ability to create a learning context that was studentcentered informed by student voice. Building relationships with students and stakeholders helps
develop an effective individualized instructional program that best supports the students’
learning needs. Participant 8 emphasized clearly to staff the importance of building relationships
by stating, “The other thing that we really focus on is developing relationships with kids. That is
first and foremost, I will say that all the time, is relationships, relationships, relationships.” These
school leaders understood that a school community is built upon relationships, helping one
another, and working together toward a common goal. These leaders were able to effectively
promote strong relationships at their school sites to sustain high student achievement.
73
Two sub-themes emerged from the participants’ responses in the semi-structured
interviews regarding building relationships. The first sub-theme is building student academic
relationships, and the second sub-theme is building stakeholder relationships. The participants
explained the importance of building relationships with students that facilitate a caring
environment that is student-centered for their learning. Moreover, these school leaders
understood the importance of building relationships with all school stakeholders to create a
cohesive instructional program that all staff buy-in to the mission of facilitating high student
achievement. Through expressing care, honesty, and commitment, these leaders were able to
build strong relationships with students and staff that resulted in sustaining high academic
outcomes.
Building Student Academic Relationships. Participants communicated the need to
build relationships with students to show that staff care about them and want to ensure they learn
to the best of their ability. One way to ensure that academic programming is effective for
students it to include their input with teaching as Participant 1 stated, “The biggest thing is it’s
got to be student-centered and there needs to be a lot of student voice.” Participant 1 further
stated, “Whatever is engaging to the students, I need to bring my staff on board. … Then it keeps
their interest there and it kind of works out to a respect both ways.” This school leader
recognized that the inclusion and participation of students into their own learning program
increases their interest and resilience. This is imperative for driving student engagement because
they begin to have ownership over their learning. Participant 5 further emphasized the impact
and effectiveness of knowing your students by stating, “It’s not about what I want, but is it best
for kids?” These school leaders know that the engagement and interest of students in their
learning optimizes their potential for learning growth. These school leaders build relationships
74
with students and use their input to drive instructional programming that is individualized to their
needs. The participants in the study built relationships with students to help them understand
what the students’ needs are and be able to build instruction centered on those needs. This
cultivates trust between the educators and the students, increasing their interest in participating in
learning activities because student voice was included in the lessons. This resulted in higher
participation and learning growth overtime with higher student achievement.
The participants also realized that they must be pro-active in developing these
relationships with intentionality. Participant 10 expressed, “Students do not always let you know
that they are not doing well. It is important to drop in and connect with them about their needs.”
The school leaders have an intuitive understanding of their students’ social abilities, and they
work to bridge the gap of communication with students to ensure they know their learning needs.
Students can be reserved or hesitant to communicate all of their learning needs in the classroom,
and as a result these leaders take the initiative to communicate to them first to build relationships
toward understanding their learning needs. Relationship building increased student social and
emotional intelligence where leaders were able to teach them the skills needed to focus on a
learning goal and navigate challenges toward overcoming. Students learned the mental acuity
and emotional resolve to drive toward learning success. Building these relationships also helped
the leaders guide students to mitigate social or emotional inhibitors to success from illness,
anxiety, and stress caused from the COVID-19 pandemic. The leaders were able to build trusting
relationships with students to bridge communication gaps for understanding their learning needs.
Moreover, Participant 3 works with his teachers to create an “agreement with learning”
with the students so they have a commitment to owning their learning. This helps create
responsibility and engagement with academic learning, so students have a common
75
understanding with staff to reach high expectations. The participants took pro-active steps to
communicate and build relationships with students. These school leaders showed care and high
expectations for student achievement by challenging them to do their best. They helped students
gain ownership of their learning and a sense of responsibility. This helped build buy-in with
students to reach high standards of learning and sustain high achievement.
Building Stakeholder Relationships. The participants consistently stated that building
relationships with staff and stakeholders was also important for facilitating sustained high
student achievement. The school leaders stated that they wanted to create an enjoyable
workplace where everyone wants to come and be a part of. These school leaders work to invest
in their staff professionally and socially. It is important to them that trust is built, they are able to
build buy-in for the mission and celebrate with staff on the successes they have with student
learning. Participant 8 makes an effort to build relationships with staff by creating a “social
committee and their charge is to make sure that we’re doing as many things together as a staff as
we can.” Moreover, Participant 8 coordinates “staff recognition awards that we give out in our
staff meetings.” This school leader purposefully creates events and activities where the staff can
build relationships with one another. They spend time getting to know each other, build trust,
celebrate successes, and have fun. This creates a strong camaraderie and unity toward working
together as a cohesive team toward their mission even when things get challenging.
Participants communicated being very intentional about building relationships with staff
and stakeholders as Participant 5 states, “I put a lot of time and effort into building relationships
with my staff, and I put a lot of trust back into what they’re doing.” Participant 4 communicated
activities she organizes to invest in staff by stating they have “wellness sessions” where “we’ve
had yoga. We’ve done paint and snack sessions where teachers can just sit, paint, and eat.” This
76
provides the leaders with the opportunity to build strong rapport and relationships with staff in an
informal setting where trust can be built. These leaders purposefully want to establish strong
interpersonal relationships founded on transparency and honesty so they can endure inhibiting
circumstances. Participant 4 also stated that they will “fill a cart with sodas and snacks to walk
around the school with a big boom box on Fridays and we play music. … We call the teachers
out while we go in so teachers can have a treat.” These school leaders also create activities and
celebrations that recognize staff for their efforts to help students succeed. The participants know
that it is essential to build sincere strong relationships with the staff and reward them for helping
students learn at high expectations. The leaders emphasized the importance of teacher renewal so
they are able to maintain strong mental and emotional health to perform at their best for students.
Leaders and teachers need to be able to have time for renewing themselves to have the resilience
to endure inhibitors to success. These school leaders know the work can get challenging, and
they make every effort they can to support their staff to be resilient in the work.
The participants also build relationships with parents, families, and community members.
Participant 1 stated that it helps by having “the PTO group coming in and bring little things here
and there, and helping alleviate the heavy lift off the teachers.” Participant 4 stated that their
vision for the building is that “families feel welcome, students feel good, and staff feel good.”
The school leaders also make an effort to include all stakeholders in the schools’ mission toward
high student achievement. They build relationships with families and community members to
include them in school activities and events. Participant 7 stated, “If the families don’t feel they
are a part of the community, I think their children are going to have a harder time feeling like
they are a part of the community and getting support, so that’s really important.” The participants
understand the need to create a welcoming and supportive environment for all stakeholders so
77
they feel a part of the community. This builds the opportunity for relationships and mutual
support for helping students learn. When all stakeholders believe in the mission of the school,
they will work together in a unified effort to achieve high outcomes.
The participants expressed that communication is essential to have with stakeholders
when building relationships as Participant 9 stated, “So it’s how you communicate with the
families, it’s how you communicate with the kids, that we believe in you, we believe you can
learn.” As this communication and relationship building increases with all stakeholders, all
members of the school community believe and work toward sustaining high achievement. This
creates an accountability that all community members will work toward the common goal. In
order to maintain this effort with all stakeholders, Participant 10 stated that it is important to
keep “the vision at the center of everything they do” to sustain high achievement. The school
leaders make an effort to build strong relationships with all stakeholders that center on sustaining
high achievement as its goal.
Summary
Data collected through the semi-structured interviews yielded evidence supporting the
theme of building relationships with students, staff, parents, and the community. Two subthemes emerged from the data analysis. The first sub-theme was building student academic
relationships, and the second sub-theme was building stakeholder relationships. All of the
participants communicated the importance of intentionally building relationships with students
that creates a student-centered instructional program that effectively meets their learning needs.
Building relationships with students also helped the school leaders build student interest in
learning and establish student ownership for learning growth. This helps increase student
engagement and resilience toward sustaining high outcomes. Moreover, participants made an
78
intentional effort to build relationships with stakeholders centered around the vision of the
school. The school leaders expressed the impact building relationships with students, staff, and
families have on building the collective belief that students can reach high learning expectations.
When all stakeholders support the purpose of the school to reach high achievement, there
develops a mutual accountability to learning. This helps drive the vision and purpose of the
school with student learning to sustain high achievement over time. A cultural norm develops
that mutually supports the ongoing effort of learning. These school leaders purposefully develop
relationships with students, staff, families, and the community to sustain high student
achievement.
Theme 4: Collective Determination
The fourth theme of collective determination identified during the data analysis was
referenced by all 10 participants in the semi-structured interviews. There were two sub-themes
that emerged from the data for collective determination. The first sub-theme is high expectations
for staff and the second sub-theme is high expectations for students. Participants communicated
the importance that staff invest in improving their instructional practices and continually model
what holding high expectations looks like for students. The school leaders invest in professional
development for all staff and ensure they are implementing high-yield instructional practices.
Also, the school leaders communicated the need to always hold students to high expectations for
their learning. This determination among staff and students creates a sustained environment of
high achievement. This theme will be further developed in the following sections.
Interview Findings
The participants communicated that collective determination was imperative to sustaining
high student achievement over time. The staff and students both have to hold themselves to high
79
expectations in the instructional setting. Participants stated that school staff must hold
themselves to a high standard of professional instruction and practices to create an effective
rigorous learning environment for student learning. Moreover, participants expressed the need
for students to also have determination to hold themselves accountable to strive for high
achievement. All members of the school community must hold to the same vision and mission to
sustain high student achievement. It must become the norm and standard praxis for all
stakeholders. This collective determination helps weather the challenges that schools can face or
other factors that can inhibit high student outcomes. Participant 1 communicated the need for
honesty and transparency from the beginning with high expectations by stating, “We don’t
sugarcoat things with kids. We set the stage right away with high expectations.” There is a clarity
with the standard of learning the leaders want students to reach that is quantifiable and expressed
from the first day. There is no ambiguity with defining the learning expectations at the school
where students are unaware of a learning goal. The participant, staff, and students all come to a
common understanding of a performance standard that will be attained. Everyone implements a
rigor of teaching, learning, and assessment at that high standard and it is not lowered at any point
during the year. The students are expected to learn the pace, rigor, and performance for success
and adapt to that robust environment. It is clear from the beginning that this is the norm and
culture of these schools.
There are two specific sub-themes that emerged from the participant responses related to
collective determination. The first sub-theme is high expectations for staff and the second subtheme is high expectations for students. The participants expressed the importance of both staff
and students having determination to strive for high expectations. These two sub-themes will be
further developed in the following sections.
80
High Expectations for Staff. The participants were very clear with regard to staff having
high expectations for learning. Participant 2 stated that, “I have high expectations for staff, but I
also understand and value their individuality and what they uniquely bring to our campus.”
Participant 3 stated that it is important to “set high standards for yourself” and always strive to
“continue to do better.” Participant 3 also stated that holding all staff to high expectations creates
an environment that “people want to be on board and a part of good schools and learning.”
Moreover, Participant 4 stated, “We’re honest about our expectations. I think as a leader we have
to show up every day and have that passion in order for our staff to see that passion.” These
school leaders understand and communicate the need for all staff to hold high expectations for
themselves. This was communicated during staff meetings, professional development, and
everyday communication at the schools. The school leaders must come with the vision and
passion to reach for great outcomes and high student achievement. They set the tone for other
staff to follow with regard to excellence, achievement, and high standards. It is imperative that
teachers hold this standard of high expectations for themselves and strive for excellence in
education. This inspires everyone to want to be a part of something great in education and be
determined to reach their goals with student learning.
The participants also set a standard for the vision of the school that staff believe students
can learn. Participant 6 stated, “It is clear that we want 100% of students to meet standard. At
minimum all students meet standard.” Participant 7 promotes to staff the belief that “all students
can learn.” This helps motivate staff to believe in the mission and vision for high expectations.
Participant 9 stated, “You need to have high expectations for all, so anyone in the building that’s
working with us together needs to have that expectation that all students can learn.” The
leadership promotes high expectations for everyone and builds a culture that this is the norm.
81
Participant 8 expresses the desire staff have for academic excellence by stating, “There’s a lot of
self-motivation for that within our teaching staff.” Teachers become motivated to do well with
instruction when high expectations are held by all staff and promoted by school leaders. It is
important for school leaders and all staff to model high expectations for students so they can
learn to have high expectations as well. As the staff continue to promote high academic
achievement, students will be influenced as well.
The school leaders understood the high standard of learning that they wanted to promote
with the staff. This high standard was communicated during staff meetings, professional
development, informal communication, and through action. It was integrated into trainings,
instructional programming, and all components of school function. The leaders equipped staff
with the necessary knowledge and praxis to implement the rigor of the high standard for
learning. This created an environment that students entered into and were required to grow
academically to meet the standard of excellence these schools required. The passion, rigor, and
resilience of the leaders and staff for promoting high expectations were modeled for the students.
High Expectations for Students. Students must be consistently held to high learning
expectations just as staff hold themselves to high expectations. Participant 1 explained that the
school starts the year off with high expectations from the very beginning and states that students
“don’t know any different. It’s their platform as they go to high school. They’re really set for a
strong success.” Participant 3 stated that they hold the “same expectations over the years, they
build year to year.” The participants communicated the need that staff hold consistent high
expectations for students continuously as the norm of daily learning. Then they will know that
this is how schools function and will adapt to those expectations. Participant 4 stated that in
order to sustain high student achievement “you want to have a high achieving school no matter
82
what. There is a difference between having research-based practices that support high
achievement and actually having high achievement.” This school leader was very candid and
truthful about what is required for reaching high achievement. It is not merely implementing
practices that can promote high achievement, but actually attaining high achievement. The
difference between the two is the collective determination. The participant stated that you do
whatever you can to have a high achieving school.
The school leaders and staff all believe that students are capable of success. This is why
they hold students to high expectations. Participant 7 shares this belief by stating that, “Every kid
is highly capable of great work and every kid is going to learn every year.” Participant 8 further
elaborates on helping students achieve success by stating, “Always do what is best for kids.” The
participants and school staff hold students to high standards of learning because it is beneficial
for them. The students are capable of doing the work and can rise to high expectations for high
achievement. It takes determination on part of the students and staff to remain consistent through
challenging circumstances to sustain that effort.
The participants were able to have a vision for high achievement and create the classroom
context with staff where high academic learning is a reality. The determination factor identified
in this theme is the difference between implementing evidence-based practices and actually
achieving high outcomes. The participants were able to find and develop the praxis that actually
produces results. When they implemented a practice that did not work, they changed it until they
were able to find an educational practice that produced high outcomes. The leaders would
continue this leadership approach until they were able to implement multiple instructional
programming practices that all produced high outcomes. This became the consistent leadership
praxis of all the participants and enabled them to create schools that produced high academic
83
achievement and sustain it through challenges. This was the theme of collective determination
because all members of the school community molded into this approach.
Summary
Data collected through the semi-structured interviews yielded evidence supporting the
theme of collective determination among school leadership, staff, and stakeholders. All of the
participants expressed the importance of school leadership, staff, and families being collectively
determined to fulfill the schools’ mission and vision for high achievement. Two sub-themes
emerged from the data analysis. The first sub-theme was high expectations for staff and the
second sub-theme was high expectations for students. When all stakeholders, including staff and
students believe in high student achievement, a mutual resolve for academic learning develops.
As a result, high expectations, motivation, and accountability create a culture of sustainment for
high outcomes. It begins to become the norm of the school that high expectations are required,
and everything school leaders do centers around helping students succeed. This helps drive
schools to reach high outcomes. These school leaders purposefully promote collective
determination to sustain high student achievement.
Summary of Results and Findings
This chapter reviewed the data collected for each of the two research questions for this
qualitative study. The first research question centered on practices that promote high student
achievement and yielded two themes from data collected during the semi-structured interviews.
Findings from Research Question 1 indicated that school leaders that identify the needs of the
whole child in their schools contribute to high student achievement. Moreover, school leaders
that use data to drive instructional interventions to meet the learning needs of their students also
contribute to high achievement. The second research question focused on identifying factors that
84
facilitate or inhibit sustaining high student achievement and yielded two themes from data
collected during the semi-structured interviews. Findings from Research Question 2 indicated
that school leaders that build strong relationships with students, staff, families, and the
community contribute to sustaining high student achievement over time. Additionally, school
leaders that promote collective determination among school stakeholders also contribute to
sustaining high student achievement. School leaders that were able to systematically implement
identifying student learning needs, using data to drive strategic instructional interventions, build
strong relationships with stakeholders, and promote a fortified belief to be collectively
determined to support high achievement were able to sustain high student outcomes over time
regardless of challenges the schools faced. In Chapter Five a more detailed discussion of the
findings will be presented along with evidenced-based recommendations for practice.
85
Chapter Five: Discussion
This qualitative research study focused on identifying leadership practices that promote
and sustain high student achievement over time. In the previous chapter, the results from the data
collected from the semi-structured interviews and document analysis were presented. This
chapter has five sections to discuss the research findings and present recommendations. The first
section summarizes the findings and aligns them with the literature reviewed in Chapter Two.
Then three recommendations for professional practice are presented and discussed. These
recommendations are for school leaders that want to implement leadership praxis that promotes
high student achievement and sustains high outcomes over time. The next section is a review of
the limitations and delimitations of this qualitative study. The fourth section discusses
recommendations for further research and the final section is the conclusion.
Discussion of Findings
This qualitative study yielded four main themes from the findings of practices that school
leaders can implement to promote and sustain high student achievement over time. Meeting the
needs of the whole child and using data to drive high student achievement were themes that had
immediate indicators of raising high student achievement in the short term. Building strong
relationships with all stakeholders, and collective determination were two themes that facilitate
sustained high achievement over time. Some factors that participants mentioned as inhibitors to
sustaining high achievement include systemic factors such as COVID-19, budget shortages, staff
inefficacy, and low-yield educational practices. This section will further discuss implications
from the findings of the research study on promoting and sustaining high student achievement as
it relates to the literature.
86
The findings in the study yielded leadership practices that resulted in an immediate
increase in student achievement and those that sustained high outcomes over time. The
participants in the study did not implement these differentiated practices in siloed individualized
efforts as separate praxis, but in an integrated approach where they were simultaneously utilized
aggregately every day. This integrated leadership praxis was possessed by each of the
participants and implemented intuitively by them in daily actions. The participants displayed a
confidence in their composure that the practices and educational interventions that were
implemented at their local sites would yield high outcomes. The confidence in their
communication and descriptions of educational praxis were the result of a resolve for their
school to attain high outcomes. They implemented a praxis that was developed with their
experience with instructional programming to learn to only implement practices that resulted in
producing high outcomes. They would discard educational practices that did not produce high
academic learning and implement those that actually did. These leaders knew that the
educational practices implemented at their local school sites would result in high outcomes
because they learned to overcome inhibitors to success through modifying praxis until high
achievement was attained. This leadership phenomena was identified with all of the participants
and produced the same outcome regardless of inhibitors.
Moreover, these participants’ consistent implementation of a needs-based inquiry for
identifying student learning needs, the utilization of data to drive effective decision-making, and
intentional relationship building occurred with a determination or resolve. This determination is
linked to the literature with the possession of a transcendent purpose (Ernst & Fothergill, 2021;
Yeager et al., 2014). The catalyst of efficacy with the implementation of successful leadership
practices was the determination of these leaders to succeed that was truly transformational
87
(Kouzes & Posner, 2012; Kwan, 2020). The participants implemented strategies to identify
student learning needs, used data to drive instruction, and built strong relationships with
stakeholders with transformational resolve. The context in which all of the participants’
leadership decision-making and actions were implemented was within a transformational
leadership disposition.
The differentiating factor with the participants in this study is not the mere
implementation of evidence-based practices but a transformational capacity to produce
extraordinary results. The findings from this study corroborate the research from Kwan (2020)
and Kouzes and Posner (2012) that conventional practices implemented with a transformational
leadership disposition produce exceptional outcomes. Salient practices from the data collected in
this study yielded four main themes of leadership praxis that include meeting the needs of the
whole child, using data to drive instruction, building relationships with stakeholders, and
collective determination. All of these themes were corroborated with the literature (Kouzes &
Posner, 2012; Kwan, 2020; Leithwood et al., 2020; Marks & Printy, 2003) and the conceptual
framework from this study. The efficacy factor that distinguished these leaders’ capacity from
others was the collective determination or transformational resolve to strategically implement
these research-based practices until they actually worked. The pursuit of an effective inquirydriven leadership praxis specific to their local school context and student population was
imperative. The leaders did not stop the modification and data-driven improvement of their
leadership praxis until students actually reached high achievement.
Sustained high outcomes was only attained by these leaders because of longevity
principal tenure. Each of these leaders were able to sustain high outcomes for a minimum of 3
years for this study and many were able to sustain high outcomes for many more years than that.
88
These school leaders were able to develop a successful leadership praxis overtime with
experience and determination. The skill and capacity of leadership to promote and sustain high
outcomes was consistent with each participant’s input. There was continual leadership praxis
adaptation and modification specific to their student population’s learning needs. This inquirydriven leadership praxis was integrated with a resolve to reach a high standard of learning with
students. The leaders faced challenges and inhibitors to student learning but they were able to
learn how to overcome these factors. A fortitude of successful leadership praxis was developed
with the participants that produced in them a transformational confidence.
It was evident that the participants in the study implemented evidence-based practices
with a transformational leadership capacity that produced extraordinary outcomes (Kwan, 2020).
The tenets of transformational leadership theory provided the transcendent purpose and catalyst
for implementing traditional evidence-based practices effectively (Kwan, 2020; Marks & Printy,
2003). The difference between implementing practices that promote high achievement and
actually attaining high achievement is a transformational leader. All of the participants in this
study transformed their schools from diverse conditions that were low-achieving to schools that
are high-achieving because they had a transformational transcendent purpose that exceeded the
inhibitors they faced. Collective determination with all stakeholders were achieved because these
school leaders modeled exceptional leadership, inspired a vision for high expectations, and
enabled the school community to attain high outcomes (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). The
transformational collective determination of the school leadership and community was a strong
indicator of promoting and sustaining high achievement (see Table 3). The findings of this
qualitative study informed two recommendations for professional practice that are discussed in
the next section.
89
Table 3
Research Findings Alignment to the Conceptual Framework
Research findings Transformational leadership practices
Meeting holistic student needs Model the way.
Inspire a shared vision.
Enable others to act.
Use of data Inspire a shared vision.
Enable others to act.
Building relationships Model the way.
Enable others to act.
Collective determination Model the way.
Inspire a shared vision.
Enable others to act.
Recommendations For Practice
The findings in this research study have contributions that can benefit school leaders with
effectively promoting and sustaining high student achievement over time. Research has provided
many principal leadership practices that have empirical evidence of increasing student
achievement (Hitt & Tucker, 2016; Jacobson, 2011; Kwan, 2020; Robinson et al., 2008).
However, there is limited research on school leadership practices that sustain high achievement
(Jacobson, 2011; Taranto & Buchanan, 2020). This qualitative research study contributes to the
corpus of school leadership research that correlates leadership practices that promote high
90
student achievement and sustains high outcomes over time persevering through inhibitors to
performance.
A significant finding from the study that contributed to high student achievement among
all of the participants was a collective determination or a resolve in their disposition that
influenced every educational decision the leaders made. This collective determination or resolve
was that these leaders would do whatever was needed to reach high outcomes and that failure
was not an option. This leadership disposition permeated the entire school community with a
transformational effect. The collective determination to reach high achievement in the schools
was among students, staff, and all stakeholders. The school leaders were able to inspire a vision
in such a way that the entire school community was enabled to act in a transformational capacity
(Kouzes & Posner, 2012; Kwan, 2020). The implementation of research-based practices was not
implemented as routine or in mediocrity but with precision and purpose. It is from this leadership
capacity and framework that the following two recommendations must be implemented through.
This finding aligns with this study’s conceptual framework that traditional research-based
practices implemented through transformational leadership praxis result in high-yield student
achievement outcomes. The two recommendations include implementing a trauma-informed
needs-based assessment and utilizing strategic data-driven protocols.
Trauma-Informed Needs-Based Assessments
The first recommendation is to implement a trauma-informed and needs-based
assessment with students. This can be an initial step that is comprehensive toward identifying the
holistic needs of students. This recommendation is linked with two findings in this study that
made a significant contribution to sustaining high student achievement. Meeting the holistic
needs of the student and building relationships were leadership practices that participants
91
implemented to connect with their students. A trauma-informed and needs-based assessment can
be implemented by teachers in classrooms to gather data on identifying trauma impacted students
and specific learning needs that students’ exhibit in the learning environment. This formal data
collection measure is consistent with participants’ data collection practices as they used multiple
data sources to corroborate findings on student learning needs. Teachers implementing this
assessment will be practicing relationship building with students that can help remove inhibitors
to learning growth (Crandall et al., 2019; Louis et al., 2016). It would be beneficial to implement
this assessment multiple times during the school year to help monitor student progress, trauma
exposure, and inform intervention responses.
The recommendation to implement a trauma-informed and needs based assessment helps
counter barriers to student success academically, socially, and emotionally (Crandall et al., 2019;
Grace et al., 2021). This practice helps school leaders build authentic relationships with students
that can increase student motivation to reach high achievement. Communicating with students
also provides school leaders with important data on student learning needs that can close
achievement gaps. Many students may be experiencing traumatic events such as poverty, chronic
crises, and neglect that require school leaders to be responsive. Identifying student learning
needs early through an assessment can help school leaders counter negative effects that inhibit
student learning and promote high outcomes. It is recommended that school leaders consider the
implementation of a trauma-informed and needs based assessment to mitigate inhibitors to
student learning and inform high-yield instructional interventions that promote sustained high
achievement.
Utilize Strategic Data-Driven Protocols
92
The second recommendation is the implementation of strategic data-driven protocols to
inform decision-making for instructional interventions. This protocol would link the areas of
student learning need with result-driven instructional practices. School leaders should use
school-wide data to identify categorical student learning gaps in areas including academics,
social-emotional, behavioral, and other areas of need. Then link result-driven interventions that
can be implemented in the classroom to close achievement gaps in these areas. This protocol can
be created at a local school site with leaders and teachers during a professional development or
professional learning community. This protocol should be modified and updated regularly to
integrate instructional interventions that actually produce high outcomes. Data progress
monitoring should be collected by school leaders and teachers to determine if the instructional
intervention is working. If the intervention does not result in higher outcomes, then the school
leadership and teachers should collaborate during a professional learning community to modify
the protocol with other evidence-based interventions that will work. A majority of current
schools are not able to promote and sustain high achievement because they do not modify
programming to produce results. They simply continue using a low-yield praxis that perpetuates
low outcomes because they do not effectively use data to inform decision-making. The
difference in the participants in this study is they would continually use data to drive
instructional decision-making until they found out what works. They relentlessly continued to
modify instructional programming until high outcomes were achieved. A strategic data-driven
protocol will help guide school leaders to implement instructional programming that will
promote high outcomes.
The use of data is highly referenced in the literature for identifying and communicating
academic progress (Marzano et al., 2005; Robinson et al., 2008; Urick et al., 2018; Young et al.,
93
2017). The use of data with leadership praxis has been a common practice in education
(Robinson et al., 2008). The difference with the findings in this study is that the school leaders
strategically use data to inform all decision-making with students throughout the entire school
year. Data was not used in a siloed effort that did not integrate with holistic school programming.
Rather, data was used by these school leaders to inform and drive almost every decision. The
culture of the school among leadership and staff is that data is a common norm for use in
everyday instructional programming. It is recommended that school leaders utilize a strategic
data-driven protocol to inform decision-making toward reaching high outcomes.
The literature and the findings in this qualitative research study support the conceptual
framework that research-based school leadership practices are most effective when implemented
through a transformational leadership context (Kwan, 2020). These two recommendations
integrate the findings from this study and present practical steps that school leaders can take to
promote and sustain high student achievement at their schools. These recommendations are not
exhaustive and other pragmatic practices can be drawn from the findings in this study. The
findings and recommendations show that the conceptual framework of implementing evidencebased practices through a transformational leadership disposition can increase school leadership
efficacy to attain sustain high student outcomes over time.
Limitations and Delimitations
The limitations of the study were factors or variables that influenced the credibility and
trustworthiness of the findings but were beyond the control of the researcher. The first limitation
was the time constraints of the Doctor of Education program, and the concomitant dissertation
schedule permitted data collection for a 3-month period. A second limitation was the small
94
sample size of a total of 10 principals that were selected to participate in the qualitative study.
Participants were voluntary in nature with their involvement in the study.
The qualitative study utilized data collection from interviews and document analysis. A
third limitation was that the validity of findings from interviews were dependent on the reliability
of participant responses. The researcher made the effort to facilitate interview settings that were
welcoming and comfortable so that participants could be honest and comprehensive in their
answers (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Delimitations of the study include research components that were within the control of
the researcher. Purposeful sampling was implemented with pre-determined criteria for selecting
principals that promote high student achievement for the study. Washington State’s school
recognition methodology identifies high achieving schools as meeting two criteria applicable for
middle schools (Washington SBE, 2022). The first criterion were schools that perform in the top
20% of schools for 3-year proficiency rates in math and ELA and the second criterion were
schools that perform in the top 20% of schools on separate SQSS measures aggregated over 3
years (Washington SBE, 2022). These two criteria were used to identify and select principals that
promote and sustain high student achievement according to these performance measures at their
schools. Based on the study’s delimitations, the findings were limited and may not be
transferable or generalizable to other sites or contexts.
Recommendations for Future Research
This qualitative study presented the professional practices of ten middle school
administrators that promote and sustain high student achievement over time. These school
leaders were able to attain high student outcomes and sustain high achievement regardless of
inhibitors to success. The findings in this study have contributed to the corpus of literature on the
95
efficacy of school leadership practices. Delimitations were implemented to ensure credibility and
trustworthiness in the findings of the study. Though these efforts were made, there are still
limitations to the study. Four recommendations are presented for future studies based upon the
findings and to contribute to the literature of school leadership.
This study used a qualitative research methodology with purposeful sampling in a state in
the Pacific Northwest. This is a limitation to the generalizability of the findings to other school
sites. The first recommendation would be to conduct qualitative studies with purposeful
sampling in different geographical regions, states, and school districts. Qualitative studies
conducted among other schools across the nation that sustain high student achievement may
yield further findings that contribute to sustained high outcomes. The additional findings may
provide school leadership practices that can further contribute to the efficacy of school
leadership praxis that administrators can implement to improve student learning.
This qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews and document
analysis as data sources to inform the methodology and findings of the study. A second
recommendation would be for further studies to be conducted using quantitative or mixedmethod methodologies to enrich the data collection process. Integrating in-person observations,
surveys, and case-study research can contribute more robust data collection processes toward
understanding practices that sustain high student achievement over time. This qualitative study
was limited in duration and instrumentation for data collection. The inclusion of additional
research methodologies can contribute to future findings.
The criteria used by Washington State to identify high performing schools used aggregate
student success measures over 3 years. Though many of the participants communicated that the
schools sustained high achievement for longer than 3 years, future studies would benefit from
96
being more longitudinal. The third recommendation would be that additional research studies
should be conducted that collect data on schools that sustain high achievement over longer
periods of time. School leadership research would benefit from studies that collect data from
schools that are able to promote and sustain high achievement over 10 or more years. This may
provide a more comprehensive framework for how schools sustain high outcomes even when
faced with various inhibitors to success.
This study collected data from middle school administrators that promoted and sustained
high student achievement. A fourth recommendation would be that studies be conducted with
elementary and high school administrators that sustain high outcomes. The difference in student
demographics by age in a research study may yield additional findings that can be generalized to
more schools. Further research among both primary and secondary schools can contribute to
school leadership practices that sustain high student achievement. It is recommended that
additional studies be conducted that target student populations beyond this study to identify
additional findings that contribute to effective school leadership practices.
Conclusion
School leadership practices have been the focus of recent research inquiry toward
improving student achievement (Gordon & Hart, 2021; Leithwood et al., 2020; Park et al., 2019).
The increase in school accountability and academic press for high student outcomes has
contributed to the search for school-level factors that promote high achievement. Current
literature on school leadership practices has focused more on short-term academic gains and
there is limited research on leadership practices that sustain high achievement over time
(Jacobson, 2011; Taranto & Buchanan, 2020). Even with the current corpus of literature on
school leadership practices, public education continues to yield data with underachieving schools
97
and achievement gaps (Heise, 2024; Klar & Brewer, 2013; Mendoza et al., 2022). Moreover, the
compounding health and academic factors from the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to
learning loss and school wide operational changes (Heise, 2024). The imperative to close
historical learning loss gaps and those related to the COVID-19 pandemic is evident. The need to
restore academic exceptionalism and high student achievement in schools can be achieved
through transformational school leadership practices. Educational leaders can implement resultdriven praxis that promotes and sustains high student achievement in schools and closes
achievement gaps.
The findings in this research study provide data on leadership practices that can be
implemented to help mitigate inhibiting factors to student success, including policy, datamanagement, staff inefficacy, low-yield educational practices, and factors related to the COVID19 pandemic. The findings and recommendations drawn from this study can help guide school
leaders toward pragmatic solutions to improve leadership efficacy and instructional
programming toward sustaining high student outcomes. Moreover, as school leaders begin to
implement high-yield practices that promote and sustain high outcomes, achievement gaps and
learning loss impacting underachieving schools can be reversed. The restoration of civic
confidence in our public education school systems can be achieved through the moral resolve of
effective school leadership.
This study was conducted at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and participants were
leading schools that continued a trajectory of extraordinary academic achievement while facing
strong inhibiting factors. What is unique about the participants in this study is that they are
ordinary people leading schools but possess an overcoming determination to reach high student
achievement. They believe that high outcomes are possible and do whatever they can to help
98
students succeed. They do not allow challenges to hinder their mission of helping students attain
high learning results. They are able to equip their staff with the skills and motivation to reach the
learning expectations for the school. These expectations are upheld for students in the classroom
and collectively everyone drives toward this goal. This becomes a norm and standard that
everyone adapts to where nobody knows anything different. This environment of high student
achievement is the normal expectation of what is required for student learning.
The school leadership practices in the findings of this study aligned with the conceptual
framework that transformational leadership theory positively impacts the efficacy of school
leadership’s implementation of traditional leadership praxis. The imperative school leaders face
today is the restoration of educational exceptionalism in schools especially stemming from
learning loss and changes to operational frameworks from the COVID-19 pandemic (Heise,
2024; Zierer, 2023) There has been an increase in achievement gaps among diverse student
populations (Gonzalez, 2022) and a decrease in overall learning mastery in schools (United
States Government Accountability Office, 2022). Though there has been a decrease in student
learning since COVID-19, there have been student populations that have excelled (United States
Government Accountability Office, 2022). The anomaly of schools that have excelled in
academics regardless of inhibitors to success such as the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors
are truly transformational in nature. The school leader participants in this study are a part of that
anomaly of schools. The school leadership practices proposed in this study, if implemented with
fidelity and transformational purpose, can produce sustaining high student achievement in
underperforming schools as well. The findings and recommendations in this study can benefit
school leaders that want to increase and sustain high student learning in their schools.
99
References
Adams, C. M. (2010). Social determinates of student trust in high-poverty elementary schools. In
W. K. Hoy & M. F. DiPaola (Eds.), Analyzing school contexts: Influences of principals
and teachers in the service of students (pp. 255–280). Information Age.
Bass, L. R. (2020). Black male leaders care too: An introduction to black masculine caring in
educational leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly, 56(3), 353–395.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X19840402
Bastian, K. C., & Henry, G. T. (2015). The apprentice: Pathways to the principalship and student
achievement. Educational Administration Quarterly, 51(4), 600–639.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X14562213
Bevan, S. J., Chan, C., & Tanner, J. A. (2014). Diverse assessment and active student
engagement sustain deep learning: A comparative study of outcomes in two parallel
introductory biochemistry courses. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education,
42(6), 474–479. https://doi.org/10.1002/bmb.20824
Blasé, J., & Blasé, J. (1999). Principal’s instructional leadership and teacher development:
Teachers’ perspectives. Educational Administration Quarterly, 35(3), 349–378.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X99353003
Blasé, J., & Blasé, J. (2003). Handbook of Instructional Leadership: How successful principals
promote teaching and learning (2nd ed.). Corwin.
Bloom, C. M., & Owens, E. W. (2011). Principals’ perception of influence on factors affecting
student achievement in low- and high-achieving urban high schools. Education and
Urban Society, 45(2), 208–233. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013124511406916
Boberg, J. E., & Bourgeois, S. J. (2016). The effects of integrated transformational leadership on
100
achievement. Journal of Educational Administration, 54(3), 357–374.
https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-07-2014-0086
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice and leadership
(6th ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-
1955/347us483
Burns, J. (1978). Leadership. Harper & Row.
Chiang, H., Lipscomb, S., & Gill, B. (2016). Is school value-added indicative of principal
quality? Education Finance and Policy, 11(3), 283–309.
https://doi.org/10.1162/EDFP_a_00184
Christophersen, K. A., Elstad, E., & Turmo, A. (2011). The nature of social practice among
school professionals: Consequences of the academic pressure exerted by teachers in their
teaching. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 55(6), 639–654.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00313831.2011.594605
Collins, J. (2001). Level 5 leadership: The triumph of humility and fierce resolve. In Harvard
business review’s 10 must reads: On leadership (pp. 115-136). Harvard Business Press.
Crandall, A., Miller, J. R., Cheung, A., Novilla, L. K., Glade, R., Novilla, M. L. B., Magnusson,
B. M., Leavitt, B. L., Barnes, M. D., & Hanson, C. L. (2019). ACES and counter-ACES:
How positive and negative childhood experiences influence adult health. Child Abuse &
Neglect, 96(2019), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.104089
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research and design: Qualitative, quantitative, and
mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). Sage.
101
Cross, C. T. (2014). Political education: Setting the course for state and federal policy. Teachers
College Press.
Crum, K. S., & Sherman, W. H. (2008). Facilitating high achievement: High school principal’s
reflections of their successful leadership practices. Journal of Educational
Administration, 46(5), 562–580. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578230810895492
Dhuey, E., & Smith, J. (2014). How important are school principals in the production of student
achievement? Canadian Journal of Economics, 47(2), 634–663.
https://doi.org/10.1111/caje.12086
Ernst, S., & Fothergill, W. (2021). How can leaders develop and maintain high achieving
elementary schools?: A single case study exploring collective teacher efficacy and
principal leadership. Educational Leadership Review of Doctoral Research, 9, 51–67.
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1337792
Fife, B. L. (2016). Renewing the American commitment to the common school philosophy:
School choice in the early twenty-first century. Global Education Review, 3(2), 4–22.
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1098831
Franco, C., Ott, M., & Robles, D. (2011). A culturally proficient society begins in school:
Leadership for equity. Corwin.
Fullan, M. (2020). Leading in a culture of change (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Gentry, R. (2014). Sustaining college students’ persistence and achievement through exemplary
instructional strategies. Research in Higher Education, 24, 1–14.
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1064117
George, G., Dilworth-Bart, J., & Herringa, R. (2021). Potential socioeconomic effects of the
COVID-19 pandemic on neural development, mental health, and k-12 educational
102
achievement. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 8(2), 111–118.
https://doi.org/10.1177/23727322211032248
Goddard, R. D., Bailes, L. P., & Kim, M. (2020). Principal efficacy beliefs for instructional
leadership and their relation to teachers’ sense of collective efficacy and student
achievement. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 20(3), 472–493.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15700763.2019.1696369
Goddard, R., Goddard, Y., Kim, E. S., & Miller, R. (2015). A theoretical and empirical analysis
of the roles instructional leadership, teacher collaboration, and collective efficacy beliefs
in support of student learning. American Journal of Education, 121(4), 501–
530. https://doi.org/10.1086/681925
Goddard, R. D., Skrla, L., & Salloum, S. J. (2017). The role of collective efficacy in closing
student achievement gaps: A mixed methods study of school leadership for excellence
and equity. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 22(4), 220–236.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10824669.2017.1348900
Gonzalez, M., Loose, T., Liz. M., Perez, M., Rodriguez-Vincon, J. I., Tomas-Llerena, C., &
Vasquez-Echeverria, A. (2022). School readiness losses during the COVID-19
outbreak: A comparison of two cohorts of young children. Child Development, 93(4),
910–924. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13738
Gordon, M. F., & Hart, H. (2022). How strong principals succeed: Improving student
achievement in high-poverty urban schools. Journal of Educational Administration,
60(3), 288–302. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-03-2021-0063
Grissom, J. A., Blissett, R. S. L., & Mitani, H. (2018). Evaluating school principals: Supervisor
ratings of principal practice and principal job performance. Educational Evaluation and
103
Policy Analysis, 40(3), 446–472. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373718783883
Grissom, J. A., Kalogrides, D., & Loeb, S. (2015). Using student test scores to measure principal
performance. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 37(1), 3–28.
https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373714523831
Grissom, J. A., & Loeb, S. (2011). Triangulating principal effectiveness: How perspectives of
parents, teachers, and assistant principals identify the central importance of managerial
skills. American Educational Research Journal, 48(5), 1091–1123.
https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831211402663
Grissom, J. A., Loeb, S., & Master, B. (2013). Effective instructional time use for school leaders:
Longitudinal evidence from observations of principals. Educational Researcher, 42(8),
433–444. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X13510020
Handford, V., & Leithwood, K. (2013). Why teachers trust school leaders. Journal of
Educational Administration, 52(2), 194–212.
https://doi.org/10.1108/09578231311304706
Heck, R. H., & Hallinger, P. (2009). Assessing the contribution of distributed leadership to
school improvement and growth in math achievement. American Educational Research
Journal, 46(3), 659–689. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831209340042
Heise, M. (2024). Educational rights and wrongs: How COVID-related student math
achievement losses distributed and implications for equal educational opportunity.
Journal of Education Finance, 49(3), 291–323.
https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jef.2024.a937824
104
Hitt, D. H., & Tucker, P. D. (2016). Systematic review of key leader practices found to influence
student achievement: A unified framework. Review of Educational Research, 86(2),
531–569. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654315614911
Hollingworth, L., Olsen, D., Asikin-Garmager, A., & Winn, K. M. (2017). Initiating
conversations and opening doors: How principals establish a positive building culture to
sustain school improvement efforts. Educational Management Administration &
Leadership, 46(6), 1014–1034. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143217720461
Jacobson, S. (2011). Leadership effects on student achievement and sustained school success.
International Journal of Educational Management, 25(1), 33–44.
https://doi.org/10.1108/09513541111100107
Jang, S. T., & Alexander, N. A. (2022). Black women principals in american secondary schools:
Quantitative evidence of the link between their leadership and student achievement.
Educational Administration Quarterly, 58(3), 450–486.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X211068415
Kafka, J. (2009). The principalship in historical perspective. Peabody Journal of Education,
84(3), 318–330. https://doi.org/10.1080/01619560902973506
Klar, H. W., & Brewer, C. A. (2013). Successful leadership in high-needs schools: An
examination of core leadership practices enacted in challenging contexts. Educational
Administration Quarterly, 49(5), 768–808. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X13482577
Knoeppel, R. C., & Rinehart, J. S. (2010). A canonical analysis of successful and unsuccessful
high schools: Accommodating multiple sources of achievement data in school
leadership. Educational Considerations, 38(1), 24–32.
https://doi.org/10.4148/0146-9282.1123
105
Koslouski, J. B. (2022). Developing empathy and support for students with the “most
challenging behaviors:” Mixed-methods outcomes of professional development in
trauma-informed teaching practices. Frontiers in Education, 7, 1–16.
https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.1005887
Kouzes, J. M., and Posner, B. Z. (1987). The leadership challenge: How to get extraordinary
things done in organizations. Jossey-Bass.
Kouzes, J. M., and Posner, B. Z. (1988). The leadership practices inventory. Pfeiffer
and Company.
Kouzes, J. M. and Posner, B. Z. (1993). Leadership practices inventory: A self‐assessment and
analysis (Expanded ed.). Jossey‐Bass.
Kouzes, J. M. and Posner, B. Z. (1995). The leadership challenge: How to keep getting
extraordinary things done in organizations (2nd ed.). Jossey‐Bass.
Kouzes, J. M. and Posner, B. Z. (2012). Leadership challenge (5th ed.). Jossey‐Bass.
Kwan, P. (2020). Is transformational leadership theory passe?: Revisiting the integrative effect of
instructional leadership and transformational leadership on student outcomes.
Educational Administration Quarterly, 56(2), 321–349.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X19861137
Lashway, L. (1995). Can instructional leaders be facilitative leaders? ERIC Digest, (98), 1-6.
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED381893
Leithwood, K. (1992). The move toward transformational leadership. Educational Leadership,
49(5), 8–12. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ439275
Leithwood, K. (1994). Leadership for school restructuring. Educational Administration
Quarterly, 30(4), 498–518. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X94030004006
106
Leithwood, K., & Duke, D. L. (1999). A century’s quest to understanding school leadership. In J.
Murphy & K. S. Louis (Eds.), Handbook of research on educational administration (2nd
ed.; pp. 45–72). American Educational Research Association.
Leithwood, K., & Jantzi, D. (2008). Linking leadership to student learning: The contributions of
leader efficacy. Educational Administration Quarterly, 44(4), 496–528.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X08321501
Leithwood, K., & Mascall, B. (2008). Collective leadership effects on student achievement.
Educational Administration Quarterly, 44(4), 529–561.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X08321221
Leithwood, K., Patten, S., & Jantzi, D. (2010). Testing a conception of how school leadership
influences student learning. Educational Administration Quarterly, 46(5), 671–706.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X10377347
Leithwood, K., & Sun, J. (2012). The nature and effects of transformational school leadership: A
meta-analytic review of unpublished research. Educational Administration Quarterly,
48(3), 387–423. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X11436268
Leithwood, K., Sun, J., & Schumacker, R. (2020). How school leadership influences student
learning: A test of “the four paths model.” Educational Administration Quarterly, 56(4),
570–599. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X19878772
Lochmiller, C. R. & Lester, J. N. (2017). An introduction to educational research: Connecting
methods to practice. Sage.
Louis, K. S., Murphy, J., & Smylie, M. (2016). Caring leadership in schools: Findings from
exploratory analyses. Educational Administration Quarterly, 52(2), 310–348.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X15627678
107
Love, B. L. (2019). We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of
educational freedom. Beacon Press.
Makgato, M., & Mudzanani, N. N. (2018). Exploring school principal’s leadership styles and
learners’ educational performance: A perspective from high- and low-performing
schools. African Education Review, 16(2), 90–108.
https://doi.org/10.1080/18146627.2017.1411201
Marks, H. M., & Printy, S. M. (2003). Principal leadership and school performance: An
integration of transformational leadership and instructional leadership. Educational
Administration Quarterly, 39(3), 370–397. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X03253412
Marzano, Waters and McNulty (2005). School leadership that works: From research to results.
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Maxwell, J. A. (2013). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach (3rd ed.). Sage.
Mendoza, A., Jones, D., Varela, D., & Challoo, L. (2022). Teachers’ and principals’ perceptions
of factors that contribute to the success of blue-ribbon schools. Administrative Issues
Journal: Connecting Education, Practice, and Research, 12(2), 13–30.
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1365418
Merriam, S., & Tisdell, E. J. (2016). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation
(4th ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Norqvist, L., & Arlestig, H. (2021). Systems thinking in school organizations: Perspectives from
various leadership levels. Journal of Educational Administration, 59(1), 77–93.
https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-02-2020-0031
Northouse, P.G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage.
Okilwa, N., & Barnett, B. (2017). Sustaining school improvement in a high-need school:
108
Longitudinal analysis of robbins elementary school (USA) from 1993–2015. Journal of
Educational Administration, 55(3), 297–315. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-03-2016-0034
Paris, D. & Alim, H. S. (2014). What are we seeking to sustain through culturally sustaining
pedagogy?: A loving critique forward. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 85–100.
https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.84.1.982l873k2ht16m77
Park, J. H., Lee, I. H., & Cooc, N. (2019). The role of school-level mechanisms: How principal
support, professional learning communities, collective responsibility, and group-level
teacher expectations affect student achievement. Educational Administration Quarterly,
55(5), 742–780. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X18821355
Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (3rd ed.). Sage.
Person, D. R., Kaveh, H., Garcia, Y., & Carsey, T. A. (2021). What leaders believe: Increasing
educational attainment among urban youth. Urban Education, 56(3), 355–369.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085917721954
Posner, B. Z., & Kouzes, J. M. (1993). Psychometric properties of the leadership practices
inventory updated. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 53(1), 191–199.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164493053001021
Reed, L. C., & Swaminathan, R. (2016). An urban school leader’s approach to school
improvement: Toward contextually responsive leadership. Urban Education, 51(9),
1096–1125. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085914553675
Rigby, J. G. (2014). Three logics of instructional leadership. Educational Administration
Quarterly, 50(4), 610–644. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X13509379
Robinson, V. M. J., Lloyd, C. A., & Rowe, K. J. (2008). The impact of leadership on student
outcomes: An analysis of the differential effects of leadership types. Educational
109
Administration Quarterly, 44(5), 635–674. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X08321509
Rossmiller, R. A. (1992). The secondary school principal and teachers’ quality of work life.
Educational Management and Administration, 20(3), 132–146.
https://doi.org/10.1177/174114329202000302
Shatzer, R. H., Caldarella, P., Hallam, P. R., & Brown, B. L. (2014). Comparing the effects of
instructional and transformational leadership on student achievement: Implications for
practice. Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 42(4), 445–459.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143213502192
Schein, E. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership (4th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Schildkamp, K. (2019). Data-based decision-making for school improvement: Research insights
and gaps. Educational Research, 61(3), 257–273.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2019.1625716
Silva, J. P., White, G. P., & Yoshida, R. K. (2011). The direct effects of principal-student
discussions on eighth grade students’ gains in reading achievement: An experimental
study. Educational Administration Quarterly, 47(5), 772–793.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X11404219
Smith, P. A., Escobedo, P., & Kearney, W. S. (2020). Principal influence: A catalyst for positive
school climate. International Journal of Educational Policy and Leadership, 16(5), 1–
16. https://doi.org/10.22230/ijepl.2020v16n5a961
Steele, J. L., Steiner, E. D., & Hamilton, L. S. (2021). Priming the leadership pipeline: School
performance and climate under an urban school leadership residency program.
Educational Administration Quarterly, 57(2), 221–256.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X20914720
110
Sun, J., & Leithwood, K. (2012). Transformational school leadership effects on student
achievement. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 11(4), 418–451.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15700763.2012.681001
Taylor, J. A., Stuhlsatz, M. A. M., & Bintz, J. (2019). The effect of a leadership development
program for high school science reform on student achievement in science: A
retrospective quasi-experiment. Science Educator, 27(1), 1–14.
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1267717
Tenuto, P. L., & Gardiner, M. E. (2017). Interactive dimensions for leadership: An integrative
literature review and model to promote ethical leadership praxis in a global society.
International Journal of Leadership in Education, 21(5), 593–607.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2017.1321783
Terrell, R. D., Terrell, E. K., Lindsay R. B., Lindsay, E. B. (2018). Culturally proficient
leadership. Sage.
The nation’s report card. (2022, February 1). The nation’s report card. Retrieved February 1,
2022, from www.nationsreportcard.gov
The Washington State Board of Education School Recognition. (2022, July 8). The Washington
State Board of Education. Retrieved July 8, 2022, from www.sbe.wa.gov
Thomas, M. S., Crosby, S., & Vanderhaar, J. (2019). Trauma-informed practices in schools
across two decades: An interdisciplinary review of research. Review of Research in
Education, 43(1), 422–452. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X18821123
Tschannen-Moran, M., & Gareis, C. R. (2015). Faculty trust in the principal: An essential
ingredient in high-performing schools. Journal of Educational Administration, 53(1), 66–
92. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-02-2014-0024
111
United states government accountability office pandemic learning. (2022, June 8). United States
Government Accountability Office. Retrieved September 9, 2024, from
https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-105816
Urick, A., Wilson, A. S. P., Ford, T. G., Frick, W. C., & Wronowski, M. L. (2018). Testing a
framework of math progress indicators for ESSA: How opportunity to learn and
instructional leadership matter. Educational Administration Quarterly, 54(3), 396–438.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X18761343
Valentine, J. W., & Prater, M. (2011). Instructional, transformational, and managerial leadership
and student achievement: High school principals make a difference. NASSP Bulletin,
95(1), 5–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192636511404062
Westover, J. (2020). Districts on the Move: Leading a coherent system of continuous
improvement. Corwin.
Yeager, D. S., Henderson, M. D., Paunesku, D., Walton, G. M., D’Mello, S., Spitzer, B. J., &
Duckworth, A. L. (2014). Boring but important: A self-transcendent purpose for learning
fosters academic self-regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 107(4),
559–580. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037637
Young, M. D., Winn, K. M., & Reedy, M. A. (2017). The every student succeeds act:
Strengthening the focus on educational leadership. Educational Administration
Quarterly, 53(5), 705–726. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X17735871
Zierer, K. (2023). Educating the covid generation: How we can prevent the impending
educational catastrophe after covid. Routledge.
112
Appendix A: Participant Recruitment Letter
You have been selected to participate in this research study because of your experience in
a school leadership position that has influenced high student achievement at your local school
site. As a participant in this study, your contribution will provide information and assistance to
other school leaders with implementing school leadership practices that promote high student
outcomes in their own educational settings.
The intent of this study is to investigate how some school leaders are implementing
leadership behaviors that promote and sustain high student achievement.
In order to achieve the purpose of the study, the following research questions have been
proposed as an effort to gain insight into successful school leadership practices that promote and
sustain high student achievement.
1. In what ways do middle school principals work to promote high student
achievement?
2. What are factors that both facilitate and inhibit sustaining high student achievement?
Identifying school leadership practices that promote and sustain high student achievement
at local school sites may provide a guide for other schools and districts to follow. Exploring the
perceptions and experiences of school leaders about specific knowledge, strategies, and
behaviors that are implemented to improve student learning and promote high outcomes may
improve the capacity building and praxis of current principals. Finally, the identification of
factors that facilitate and inhibit sustaining high student achievement may help inform leadership
practices that other school leaders can implement to maintain high outcomes over time.
113
Your participation in this study should take approximately an hour of your time and will
consist of the following activities:
• one interview lasting 45 minutes to an hour
• coordinating communication by email or phone about participation in the study
Participation is completely voluntary, and you will not receive any money for
participating in the study. You can choose at any time not to participate in the study.
If you have any specific questions about the study, you can contact me by email or phone at any
time.
Consent
My choice: Please write and sign your name below if you agree to be in this research
study. You can change your mind at any time during the study not to continue. There is no
penalty for choosing to no longer be a part of the study at any time. It is completely voluntary to
participate.
_________________________________ ________________
Participant’s Signature Date
_________________________________ ________________
Participant’s Name Date
114
Appendix B: Study Information Sheet
INFORMATION SHEET FOR EXEMPT RESEARCH
STUDY TITLE: School Leadership Promoting High Achievement
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Brad Meckley
FACULTY ADVISOR: Kathy Stowe, Ed.D.
You are invited to participate in a research study. Your participation is voluntary. This
document explains information about this study. You should ask questions about
anything that is unclear to you.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this study is to investigate how school leaders are implementing
leadership practices that promote and sustain high student achievement. We hope to
learn leadership practices that may help other schools improve academic achievement
at their local school sites. You are invited as a possible participant because your school
was listed as a recognized school by the Washington State Board of Education.
PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT
115
Participants will participate in approximately a 40-minute interview through an online
video conferencing platform such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom. Each participant will be
asked interview questions about school leadership practices. All interviews are
confidential. Audio/video recording will be requested through the online video
conferencing program, but each participant can decline recording if they choose.
If you decide to take part, you will be asked to schedule a day and time to meet for the
interview through the online conferencing program.
PAYMENT/COMPENSATION FOR PARTICIPATION
You will receive a $10 visa gift card for your time. You do not have to answer all of the
questions in order to receive the card. The card will be given to you as a thank you for
your time in participating in the interview.
CONFIDENTIALITY
The members of the research team and the University of Southern California IRB may
access the data. The IRB reviews and monitors research studies to protect the rights
and welfare of research subjects.
When the results of the research are published or discussed in conferences, no
identifiable information will be used.
116
All responses to interview questions will be secured through a password protected
electronic device. The information collected in the research study will be kept only until
the completion of the dissertation research. Any audio/video recordings will also be
secured through a password protected electronic device and will be deleted at the
completion of the research study. All participant information will be kept confidential
using pseudonyms for people and schools. Audio and video recordings will be
transcribed through a professional transcription company. Participants have the right to
review/edit the interview recording or transcripts. The information collected will only be
used for the purpose of the dissertation study. Participants will be offered a copy of the
final research dissertation study when it is complete in May 2023.
INVESTIGATOR CONTACT INFORMATION
If you have any questions about this study, please contact Brad Meckley (principal
investigator) at meckley@usc.edu or Kathy Stowe, Ed.D. (faculty advisor) at
kstowe@rossier.usc.edu.
IRB CONTACT INFORMATION
If you have any questions about your rights as a research participant, please contact the
University of Southern California Institutional Review Board at (323) 442-0114 or email
irb@usc.edu.
117
Appendix C: Interview Protocol
Two research questions guided this study.
1. In what ways do middle school principals work to promote high student achievement?
2. What are factors that both facilitate and inhibit sustaining high student achievement?
Concepts From the Conceptual Framework That Are Addressed in This Interview
The following concepts addressed in this interview include historical leadership
practices, transforming leadership practices, student learning in the classroom, and sustained
student achievement. Nuanced conceptual probe questions will be used to elicit further
information regarding core concepts from the framework.
Introduction
I want to thank you for your willingness to participate in my study. I appreciate the time
you have taken to go through this interview and answer my questions. As we discussed in our
last conversation, this interview should take about an hour. The information provided in this
interview will be kept completely confidential and will only be used for research purposes.
Before we begin the interview, I wanted to review information regarding this study which
was provided for you in the Study Information Sheet and answer any questions you may have
about participating in this interview. The interview is completely voluntary and please answer
the questions to the best of your ability. I am a student at the University of Southern California’s
Rossier School of Education conducting a study on school leaders’ practices that promote and
sustain high student achievement. There are school leadership practices that are able to positively
influence student learning and outcomes. I am interested in understanding the school leadership
behaviors and actions that principals make to promote high student achievement at their local
school site. I am also interested in factors that facilitate and inhibit sustaining high student
118
achievement. I will be talking with multiple school leaders to gain more insight regarding these
practices.
I will complete the interview wearing the hat of a researcher wanting to gather more
information about this topic today. The questions in the interview are not evaluative in any way.
I will not be making judgements about your professional practice as a school leader. My goal is
to understand your point of view and insight.
As stated in the Study Information Sheet provided to you earlier, this interview and the
information gathered is completely confidential. Your name will not be shared with anyone
outside of the research team. I will not be sharing any information about participants with other
teachers, principals, or the district. The data collected for this study will be put together into a
final report. Information and data collected in the interview as quotes or paraphrases will
maintain confidentiality. I will use pseudonyms to protect the identification of any participants
and will securely store all documents and data related to the study. I will also provide copies of
the final dissertation study to all interested participants.
As stated in the Study Information Sheet, the data from this study will be secured and
stored in a password protected computer and all data will be destroyed after 3 years. All physical
documents will be stored securely in a locked cabinet and shredded at the culmination of the
study.
Thank you again for your willingness to participate in this interview, do you have any
questions about the study before we begin? I will be recording the interview through the online
video conferencing program so that I can accurately record what you share today in response to
the interview questions. The recording is strictly for the purpose of capturing your understanding
119
and perspective. The information recorded will not be shared with anyone outside of the research
team. May I get your permission to record our conversation today?
Questions
Setting the Stage
I would like to start by asking some background questions about you.
1. Could you please tell me about your background as a school leader?
• How did you become interested in leading schools?
• How long have you been in a principalship?
• What teaching experience did you have before becoming a school leader?
Heart of the Interview
I would like to transition to asking you questions about school leadership practices that
promote high student achievement.
2. How do you identify ways to promote high expectations for student learning? (RQ1)
• What are some indicators in your school of learning needs?
• How do you identify specific learning needs for growth?
3. What methods do you use to meet learning needs at your school?
• Can you provide an example of a strategy you used that met student learning
needs?
• How do you address any gaps in learning at your school?
4. How do you measure progress for student learning? (RQ1)
• How do you measure growth over time?
• How do you define success?
120
5. What actions do you take to help all staff at the school be able to work at their best?
(RQ1)
• What actions do you take to build a positive learning environment?
• How do you support staff to help them succeed?
• What steps do you take to help all staff work together well?
6. How do you provide professional improvement to all staff for increasing student
learning? (RQ1)
• What professional development do you provide?
• What professional learning communities do you promote?
• Could you please describe how you press for high learning expectations?
I would now like to start asking you questions about school leadership practices that
inspire a school toward high student achievement.
7. How do you inspire staff toward reaching high student achievement? (RQ1, RQ2)
What does high student achievement look like?
8. What are ways you model in your behavior the vision for the school? (RQ1, RQ2)
• What behaviors do you model that communicate the expectations of how to
reach the vision?
• How do others respond to your promotion of high student achievement?
9. How do you enable others to act successfully toward achieving the vision? (RQ1,
RQ2)
• How do you provide professional growth for staff to succeed?
• Can you describe any situations where you enabled others to achieve a shared
goal?
121
Finally, I would like to ask you some questions about how you identify challenges as well
as strategies to overcome these obstacles.
10. Please describe leadership practices you implement to sustain high student
achievement. (RQ2)
• What elements are you able to influence to sustain high student achievement?
• How do you know what elements to influence in the school to reach high
student achievement?
11. How do you stay the course? (RQ2)
• How do you identify challenges?
• How do you buffer challenges to reaching high achievement?
• How do you not let challenges be a barrier to success?
12. What ways, if at all, will accomplish sustaining high achievement? (RQ2) Can you
describe the factors that facilitate this?
13. How do you sustain high student achievement over the course of multiple years?
(RQ2)
• What practices do you use to support long-term sustainability of high
achievement?
• Can you share a practice you used to sustain high achievement that was
successful?
Closing Question
Is there any other information or insight you would like to share about our conversation
on school leadership practices that promote high student achievement that I might not have
covered, if any?
122
Closing Comments
I want to thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences with me today. I really
appreciate your time and willingness to share in this interview. All the information you have
provided will be very helpful for my study. If I have a follow-up question, would it be ok for me
to contact you? Would an email be ok for the follow-up question? Again, thank you so much for
your help with participating in my study. As a thank you, please accept this small token of my
appreciation for your time today.
Abstract (if available)
Abstract
There has been a historical gap and underperformance with academic achievement in schools in the United States that has only become more severe with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there have been some schools that have been able to promote and sustain high student outcomes persevering through challenges such as the pandemic. This research study sought to identify school leadership practices that promote and sustain high student achievement overtime enduring through inhibiting factors to high student outcomes. This study gathered data on transformative leadership practices that leaders use to guide a school to reach high outcomes across multiple student success measures. A literature review was conducted identifying school leadership practices that promote and sustain high student outcomes informed by transformational leadership theory (Kouzes & Posner, 2012) as the theoretical framework. A qualitative research methodology was implemented for the study conducting semi-structured interviews with ten middle school principals in the Pacific Northwest and using document analysis for data collection. Data from the study yielded findings of school leadership practices that promote and sustain high student achievement including meeting the needs of the whole child, using data to drive high student achievement, building strong stakeholder relationships, and collective determination. School leaders that implement these transformational leadership practices can promote a culture of sustaining high student learning outcomes. Recommendations for school leadership praxis were provided for school leaders to pragmatically implement steps to improve student learning at their schools.
Linked assets
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
Conceptually similar
PDF
Promising practices for building a college-going culture for LatinX students: a case study of a large comprehensive high school
PDF
Promising practices for developing leadership capacity in future school administrators
PDF
Promising practices for building a college-going culture: a case study of a comprehensive high school
PDF
How principals lead Title I schools to high academic achievement: a case study of transformative leadership
PDF
Promising practices: developing principal leadership succession
PDF
The impact of leadership on student achievement in high poverty schools
PDF
Promising practices: promoting and sustaining a college-going culture
PDF
Promising practices to promote and sustain a college-going culture: a charter-school case study
PDF
Building a college-going culture: a case study of a continuation high school
PDF
Interrupting inequitable systems: evaluating a teacher leadership development program
PDF
School culture and its impact on PBIS implementation
PDF
A school leadership approach to building a college-going culture for low-income Latinx students: high school case study
PDF
Building the leadership capacity of women in K-12 education: successful strategies that create the next generation of women school and district leaders
PDF
Principal leadership succession: developing the next generation of leaders
PDF
Leadership matters: the role of urban school principals as transformational leaders in influencing parent engagement to disrupt educational inequities
PDF
How principals lead Title I schools to high academic achievements: a case study of transformative leadership
PDF
Educational technology integration: a search for best practices
PDF
Promising practices: building the next generation of effective school principals
PDF
A culture of care in elementary schools to impact Black student academic achievement: a case study
PDF
Building data use capacity through school leaders: an evaluation study
Asset Metadata
Creator
Meckley, Brad
(author)
Core Title
Effective school leadership: practices that promote a culture of high student achievement
School
Rossier School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Education
Degree Program
Educational Leadership (On Line)
Degree Conferral Date
2024-12
Publication Date
12/23/2024
Defense Date
12/09/2024
Publisher
Los Angeles, California
(original),
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
high achievement,leadership practices,leadership praxis,OAI-PMH Harvest,theory integration,transformational leadership
Format
theses
(aat)
Language
English
Contributor
Electronically uploaded by the author
(provenance)
Advisor
Stowe, Kathy (
committee chair
), Malloy, Courtney (
committee member
), Ott, Maria (
committee member
)
Creator Email
bradmeckley@gmail.com,meckley@usc.edu
Unique identifier
UC11399EZL8
Identifier
etd-MeckleyBra-13712.pdf (filename)
Legacy Identifier
etd-MeckleyBra-13712
Document Type
Dissertation
Format
theses (aat)
Rights
Meckley, Brad
Internet Media Type
application/pdf
Type
texts
Source
20241223-usctheses-batch-1230
(batch),
University of Southern California
(contributing entity),
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
(collection)
Access Conditions
The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright.
Repository Name
University of Southern California Digital Library
Repository Location
USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA
Repository Email
cisadmin@lib.usc.edu
Tags
high achievement
leadership practices
leadership praxis
theory integration
transformational leadership