In McREL's meta-analysis of research on school-level factors associated with high-student achievement, the factor of effective school leadership was defined as the extent to which the school has strong administrative leadership relative to the goal of academic achievement. The factors associated with this sort of effective leadership are

• well-articulated leadership roles,
• the school leader is an information provider, and
• the school leader facilitates group decision making.

McREL researchers found this variable was associated with, on average, a gain of 4 percentile points on student achievement measures. Although this may seem surprisingly small, since strong administrative leadership is one of the five correlates in the effective schools literature, McREL researchers noted that in the school effectiveness literature, the definition of strong administrative leadership goes well beyond the behaviors identified in our meta-analysis.

In fact, one might argue that in the school effectiveness literature, leadership from the principal encompasses a majority of the school-level variables identified in McREL's meta-analysis. Specifically, school leadership as defined in the school effectiveness literature encompasses functions such as establishing policies relative to the use of time, establishing policies relative to curriculum/test congruence, and the like.

Source: Marzano, R.J. (2000). A New Era of School Reform: Going Where the Research Takes Us. Aurora, CO: Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning.

Resources

We have compiled the following list of resources to provide educators with practical guidance on involving staff in key decisions and establishing clear communication and leadership roles.

Leadership for School Improvement. McREL's 1999 guide for leaders describes the need for school leaders to create patterns of distributed leadership in order to involve staff in key decisions.

Facilitative Leadership: The Imperative for Change. This 1992 guide from SEDL discusses successful leadership strategies that help promote change, including when leaders communicate the purpose of their school and their vision for improvement, then demonstrate commitment to that vision.

Shared Decision-Making Process. This page from NCREL's Pathways to School Improvement Web site describes a shared decision-making process developed by Springfield Public School District 186, Springfield, IL.