School Leadership and Student Achievement: The Mediating Effects of Teacher Beliefs

Abstract

Principals are held accountable for student achievement although most studies find that they have no direct effect on it. In this study we tested a model hypothesizing that principals contribute to student achievement indirectly through teacher commitment and beliefs about their collective capacity. Path analysis of data from 205 elementary schools supported this hypothesis. Schools with higher levels of transformational leadership had higher collective teacher efficacy, greater teacher commitment to school mission, school community, and school ‐ community partnerships, and higher student achievement. Increasing the transformational leadership practices in schools makes a small but practically important contribution to overall student achievement. Key words: teacher efficacy, transformational leadership, path analysis, grade 3 and 6 Les directions d’ecoles sont imputables au regard du rendement scolaire sur lequel elles n’ont aucun effet direct d’apres la plupart des etudes. Les auteurs ont teste un modele selon lequel la direction d’ecole contribuerait indirectement au rendement scolaire a travers l’implication des enseignants et leurs facons de percevoir leur capacite collective. L’analyse acheminatoire (path analysis) de donnees issues de 205 ecoles primaires vient etayer cette hypothese. Les ecoles presentant un niveau plus eleve de leadership transformationnel se distinguaient par une plus grande efficacite du corps enseignant, une implication plus grande des enseignants vis ‐ a ‐ vis de la mission de l’ecole, de l’equipe ‐ ecole, des partenariats ecole ‐ communaute et un meilleur rendement scolaire. L’amelioration d’un ecart ‐ type des methodes propres au leadership transformationnel dans les ecoles augmenterait le rendement scolaire en lecture, en ecriture et en mathematiques en 3 e et en 6 e annees de 0,22 d’un ecart type. Mots cles : efficacite des enseignants, leadership transformationnel, analyse acheminatoire, 3 e et 6 e annees