Reassessing the Principal's Role in School Effectiveness: A Review of Empirical Research, 1980-1995

Abstract

Although the is little disagreement conquering the belief that principals have an impact on the lives of teachers and students, both the nature and degree of this effect continues to be open to debate. The relationship is complex and not easily subject to empirical verification. This article reviews the empirical literature on the relationship between the principal's role and school effectiveness during the period from 1980 to 1995. We specifically focus on the conceptual underpinnings of several theoretical models to study the role, the relationship between models and methods of investigation, an4 consequently, to what has been learned about the nature of the principal impact. We conclude by framing a possible research agenda for the next generation of studies on the effects of school administration.

The role of professional development and learning in the early adoption of the new zealand curriculum by schools

“…There is an interesting tension here. In much of the professional leadership and school effectiveness literature, it is suggested that the principal as 'out-front leader' and 'driver' is a vital ingredient in establishing and maintaining positive, purposive change in an implementation programme (Hallinger & Heck, 1996;Southworth, 2002;Leithwood, Harris, & Hopkins, 2008). On the other hand, in other literature it is suggested that unless teachers also see themselves as fully involved and as genuine co-leaders in the whole professional learning community, meaningful change will not 'scale up' to include all teachers and classrooms (Eaker, DuFour, & DuFour, 2002;Bain, 2007).…”

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“…Policy makers' emerging emphasis on improving teaching and learning led to an interest in the concept of principal instructional leadership in the USA (e.g., Leithwood and Montgomery, 1982;Hallinger and Murphy, 1986;Marcoulides and Heck, 1992;Hallinger and Heck, 1996), and England (e.g., Day et al, 2001;Southworth, 2002;MacBeath and Swaffield, 2008). However, there has been very little discussion in Greece about how leadership is conceptualized by school practitioners and whether leadership contributes to school improvement (e.g.…”

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“…The hope for finding such an effective school leader model, however, has dampened with the findings of several meta-analyses (Hallinger & Heck, 1996;Witziers, Bosker, & Krüger, 2003). These studies revealed that the immediate effects of educational leadership on school performance were marginal.…”