Seven Strong claims about successful school leadership revisited
Summarised by Mick Georgiadis.
- A synopsis of claims based on evidence from the original 2008 paper, this reading backs up the claims with empirical research and revises the claims with more evidence and research.
- Claim 1: School leadership is second only to classroom teaching as an influence on pupil learning
- The most frequently quoted claims of the whole paper
- Used 4 sources of evidence to make the claim both qualitative and quantitative
- From 2008 there is a much greater bank of evidence to support the claim including impacts on the school organisation and community
- Therefore the claim is now revised to… School leadership has a significant effect on features of the school organization which positively influences the quality of teaching and learning. While moderate in size this leadership effect is vital to the success of most school improvement efforts.
- Claim 2: Almost all successful leaders draw on the same repertoire of basic leadership practices
- This claim did not need any revising as the added evidence over the years just confirmed 4 sets of effective leadership practices
- These are What successful leaders do: set goals, build relationships and develop people, develop the organisation to support desired practices and improve the instructional program
- No revision, still valid
- Claim 3: The ways in which leaders apply these basic leadership practices- not the practices themselves- demonstrate responsiveness to, rather that dictation by, the contexts in which they work
- So, effective leadership needs to consider the context and situation of the school
- Evidence from successful ‘turnaround’ schools was used to confirm this claim since 2008
- Research has shown that socio cultural, political, economic factors directly influence leaders actions
- No revising of claim, just strengthened by evidence and focus of leaders making informed decisions based on their school context to lead improvements
- Claim 4: School leaders improve teaching and learning indirectly and most powerfully through their influence on staff motivation, ability and working condition
- The outcome of this empirical research has identified 4 conceptual ‘paths’ that influence leadership, these are the Rational Path (knowledge of curriculum, teaching and learning), the Emotions path (dispositions, feelings and states of staff, enabling efficacy and trust), Organizational path (structure, organisation and planning) and the Family path (link between home and school, broader community outlook)
- The revisions is… School leadership improves teaching and learning, indirectly and most powerfully, by improving the status of significant key clasrrom and school conditions and by encouraging parent/child interactions in the home that further enhance student success at school
- Claim 5: School leadership has a greater influence on schools and students when it is widely distributed
- There are critics of the effectiveness of distributive leadership however not based on evidence
- Research as affirmed that distributive leadership improves instructional change as well as student outcomes
- School leadership has broadened to include shared leadership and team performance
- Revised claim is now…School leadership can have an especially positive influence on school and student outcomes when it is distributed
- Claim 6: Some patterns of distribution are more effective than others
- Research shows that distributive leadership effects were influenced by quality and distribution of functions, social interactions, co operation of leadership team and participative decision making
- The creation of new teams to solve problems was found to be a critical component of distributive leadership
- Claim remains valid
- Claim 7: A small handful of personal traits explains a high proportion of the variation of leadership
- Lots of off again, on again interest in leadership traits over the years, some researchers claiming it a waste of time due to excessive number of traits
- Based on a 2012 review of research introduced some personal leadership resources that included traits, including cognitive resource, social resources and psychological resources
- Revised claim is now… While further research is required, a well-defined set of cognitive, social and psychological ‘personal leadership resources’ show promise of explaining a high proportion of variation in the practices enacted by school leaders.