Effective School Leadership and Stakeholder Perceptions
In continuing our series on school leadership, this article discusses relevant research on principal effectiveness. More specifically, this article looks at how teacher and student perceptions of leadership can impact performance, and how principals primarily impact school climate in a way that makes all the difference to their ultimate success (or failure). It’s especially important to discuss teachers’ perceptions of their principals’ effectiveness. While principals may view themselves as successful or scoring well on various evaluations, if teachers do not have a positive perception of their leadership skills it is difficult to see how the school will succeed. Research has shown that relationships exist among principals and teachers and effective schools. So, school climate and trust should be a top priority for principals in order to ensure that teachers have a positive perception of their leadership style and, consequently, the motivation and desire to seek out their principal’s help and input more frequently.
In 2005, researcher Robert C. Kelley examined the relationships between school leadership and school climate. In doing this, he also compared teachers’ perceptions of their principal’s leadership styles and principals’ perceptions of their own leadership styles. He ultimately found that teachers’ perceptions of their principals’ effectiveness are related to school climate. This article explains that positive school climates make large positive impacts on staff performance, morale, and student achievement. Climates that create a safe and comfortable school while holding students to high expectations are difficult to cultivate. However, it is worth the effort because there exists a significant relationship between student achievement and school climate. Principals are strongly linked to school climate—so school leadership is crucial. Principal behaviors can shape the climate of a school and make large differences in teachers’ performances. Not only that, but researchers have shown that teachers’ views of teacher-principal interactions are also related to school climate. Principal behaviors, therefore, are related to school climate in many ways. Communication, teacher advocacy, participatory decision-making, and equitable evaluation all make significant contributions to school climate and teacher perceptions, according to Kelley’s work.
Kelley notes that, “principals have the power, authority, and position to impact the climate of the school, but many lack the feedback to improve.” This may mean that evaluations aren’t targeting measures of school climate or principals aren’t seeking the feedback from their staff properly. Given how much climate can impact student achievement, it is imperative that principals be given the tools necessary to receive and implement feedback related to this. The research continues to say that if principals are highly skilled, they can develop feelings of trust, open communications, collegiality, and promote effective feedback themselves. If principals do not seek out this feedback, they are operating blindly, and can make mistakes when it comes to school decisions. Kelley concludes by saying, “Principals must know and understand how to provide the foundation for creating an atmosphere conducive to change. Leaders must be able to correctly envision the needs of their teachers, empower them to share the vision, and enable them to create an effective school climate.”
A 2012 research piece followed up Kelley’s work by continuing to examine the effects of how teachers, parents, and students perceive effective school leadership in practice. These researchers conducted interviews with key stakeholders in Australia and found that there are many complexities associated with school leadership dimensions. However, throughout their interviews it remained clear that every stakeholder understood the associations between leadership and effective school outcomes. They also indicated that the main leadership dimensions that make differences in their schools were administration, responsibility to ensure quality teaching and learning, and positive relational leadership. In other words, students, parents, and teachers all agreed that school leaders must provide strong administrative duties, provide instructional leadership, and maintain positive relationships with everyone within the school building. This research relates back to Kelley’s work and also highlights the importance of seeking teacher, student, and parent perceptions of leadership. If a school leader is operating efficiently, but no one perceives this, it is difficult to imagine them having any real success in their schools.
In 2010, researchers examined the impacts of school leadership and wondered whether collaborative teams of leaders would be more successful than a lone principal. Given the numerous responsibilities of school leaders, this seemed like a logical solution. This paper reported using a large sample of US elementary schools of a four-year period and found that collaborative leadership can impact student learning in both reading and math by building up the schools’ ability for academic improvement. Additionally, the research also offered support that school leadership is a “process of mutual influence” and that school capacity is shaped by collective leadership. In other words, school leaders that share the burden with others may see more student learning gains as a result of the collaborative climate they are fostering among administration and within the school. While schools might not be using leadership teams instead of principals, principals can still seek out these effects by collaborating with others and sharing responsibilities.
School leaders are important to success, but their effectiveness is heavily influenced by the perceptions of those they serve. This is because perceptions are strongly related to school climate, which research has shown can make large impacts on student achievement. Principals wishing to succeed in their roles should focus on the impressions they make on teachers and students and how their decisions might change others’ perceptions of them. Additionally, principals might want to share the burden of leadership in order to foster a collaborative environment among teachers and administrative staff.
Learn more about the 360 degree Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education (VAL-Ed)
https://www.resonanteducation.com/school-and-district-leadership-valed
