Transformational school leadership for large-scale reform: Effects on students, teachers, and their classroom practices

TLDR

Using data from a 4‑year evaluation of England’s National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies, the study examined how a school‑specific transformational leadership model influences teachers’ motivation, capacities, work settings, classroom practices, and student achievement gains. The analysis drew on responses from 2,290 teachers in 655 primary schools who completed literacy and numeracy surveys, measured student gains via Key Stage 2 test scores over 2–3 years, and applied path‑analytic techniques to test the relationships. Results showed that transformational leadership significantly improved teachers’ classroom practices but had no measurable effect on student achievement.

Abstract

Using data from a larger 4-year evaluation of England's National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies, this study tested the effects of a school-specific model of transformational leadership on teachers (motivation, capacities, and work settings), their classroom practices, and gains in student achievement. Some 2,290 teachers from 655 primary schools responded to 2 forms of a survey (literacy and numeracy) measuring all variables in our framework. Our measure of student achievement was gains in the British government's own Key Stage 2 tests over either 2 (numeracy) or 3 (literacy) years. Path analytic techniques were used to analyze the several different versions of the results. Results indicate significant effects of leadership on teachers' classroom practices but not on student achievement.