Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning: Final Report of Research Findings

Abstract

Educational leadership can have strong, positive, although indirect, effects on student
\nlearning. The full report of our study—Learning from Leadership: Investigating the Links to
\nImproved Student Learning—provides evidence and analyses to substantiate this claim. As
\nwell, our study also unpacks how such leadership has these strong positive effects. Leaders in
\neducation—including state-level officials, superintendents and district staff, principals,
\nschool board members, teachers and community members enacting various leadership
\nroles—provide direction for, and exercise influence over, policy and practice. Their contributions
\nare crucial, our evidence shows, to initiatives aimed at improving student learning.