This article provides an overview of the literature concerning successful school leadership. It draws on the international literature and is derived from a more extensive review of the literature completed in the early stage of the authors’ project. The prime purpose of this review is to summarise the main findings from the wealth of empirical studies undertaken in the leadership field.

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Seven strong claims about successful school leadership

Part One: The Historical and Intellectual Foundations of School Effectiveness Research 1.An Introduction to School Effectiveness Research 2.Current Topics and Approaches in School Effectiveness Research: The Contemporary Field Part Two: The Knowledge Base of School Effectiveness Research 3.The Methodology and Scientific Properties of School Effectiveness Research 4.The Processes of School Effectiveness 5.Context Issues within School Effectiveness Research Part Three: The Cutting Edge Issues of School Effectiveness Research 6.Some Methodological Issues in School Effectiveness Research 7.School Effectiveness and School Improvement 8.School Effectiveness: The International Dimension 9.School Effectiveness and Education Indicators 10.Theory Development in School Effectiveness Part Four: The Future of School Effectiveness Research 11. School Effectiveness Research and the Social and Behavioural Sciences 12.The Future Agenda for School Effectiveness Research

The International Handbook of School Effectiveness Research

This meta-analysis summarizes teaching effectiveness studies of the past decade and investigates the role of theory and research design in disentangling results. Compared to past analyses based on the process–product model, a framework based on cognitive models of teaching and learning proved useful in analyzing studies and accounting for variations in effect sizes. Although the effects of teaching on student learning were diverse and complex, they were fairly systematic. The authors found the largest effects for domainspecific components of teaching—teaching most proximal to executive processes of learning. By taking into account research design, the authors further disentangled meta-analytic findings. For example, domain-specific teaching components were mainly studied with quasi-experimental or experimental designs. Finally, correlational survey studies dominated teaching effectiveness studies in the past decade but proved to be more distal from the teaching–learning process.

Teaching Effectiveness Research in the Past Decade: The Role of Theory and Research Design in Disentangling Meta-Analysis Results

Most school restucturing initiatives assume significant capacity development on the part of individuals, as well as whole organizations; they also depend on high levels of motivation and commitment to solving the substantial problems associated with the implementation of restructuring initiatives. Transformational approaches to leadership have long been advocated as productive under these conditions, and evidence suggests that transformational practices do contribute to the development of capacity and commitment. Much less evidence is available, however, about whether these socio‐psychological effects actually result in organizational change and enhanced organizational outcomes. Survey data from an achieved sample of 1,762 teachers and 9,941 students in one large school district were used to explore the relative effects of transformational leadership practices on selected organizational conditions and student engagement with school. Results demonstrated strong significant effects of such leadership on organizational conditions, and moderate but still significant total effects on student engagement.

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The Effects of Transformational Leadership on Organizational Conditions and Student Engagement with School.

Due to new standards in fostering life-long learning at school, research has increasingly dealt with the promotion of self-regulated learning, resulting in a large number of intervention studies conducted at primary and secondary school. The current study aimed at investigating the impact of various training characteristics on the training outcomes, regarding academic performance, strategy use and motivation of students. Two meta-analyses were conducted separately, one for primary and one for secondary school level to allow for comparisons between both school levels. The meta-analyses included 49 studies conducted with primary school students and 35 studies conducted with secondary school students; analyzing 357 effect sizes altogether. The potential effects of training characteristics were investigated by means of meta-analytic multiple regression analyses. The average effect size was 0.69. For both school levels, effect sizes were higher when the training was conducted by researchers instead of regular teachers. Moreover, interventions attained higher effects when conducted in the scope of mathematics than in reading/writing or other subjects. Self-regulated learning can be fostered effectively at both primary and secondary school level. However, the theoretical background on which the training programme is based, as well as the type of instructed strategy led to differential effects at both school levels.

Components of fostering self-regulated learning among students. A meta-analysis on intervention studies at primary and secondary school level

Ideally, school effectiveness research and school improvement might have a relationship with a surplus value for both. In reality, this relationship is often troublesome. Some problems can be attributed to the intrinsic differences between effectiveness and improvement, such as different missions. However, an analysis of the current situation in effectiveness and improvement shows that there are many possibilities at all stages of research studies and improvement projects for a more fruitful relationship. In this article, stronger links between effectiveness and improvement are advocated. Such links can be achieved by better‐guided processes of application and reconstruction of knowledge during effectiveness research and improvement. These processes, illustrated by some successful projects which have started recently, are described under the heading of sustained interactivity.

School Effectiveness and School Improvement: Sustaining Links

In this article, the current status of school level factors, as they appear in research reviews and in school effectiveness models is criticised both from a theoretical and from an empirical perspective School level factors are often related to student achievement without taking into account the classroom level, where teaching and learning primarily take place As a theoretical alternative, an overview of school level factors that enhance the quality of instruction, time for learning and opportunity to learn at the classroom level is provided These factors are supposed to contribute to the explanation of differences in student achievement Some empirical support for these ideas is found in educational research studies that have made use of three‐level analyses

School-Level Conditions Affecting the Effectiveness of Instruction.

School effectiveness and school improvement have different origins: School effectiveness is more directed to finding out “what works” in education and “why”; school improvement is practice and policy oriented and intended to change education in the desired direction. However, in their orientation to outcomes, input, processes, and context in education, they also have much in common. In the project Effective School Improvement (ESI), the merger of the 2 traditions has been pursued. In the theoretical part, different orientations have been analysed and combined in a model for effective school improvement. Based on this analysis, an evaluation framework was developed for the analysis of the case studies of school improvement projects in the participating countries. The theoretical model and the results of the analyses of the case studies were combined in a framework of effective school improvement.

Linking school effectiveness and school improvement: The background and outline of the project

The comprehensive framework was developed in the Effective School Improvement Project. The initial framework was based on an analysis of a range of theories and an additional analysis of case studies in the field of school improvement. A revision took place after an analytic confrontation of the initial framework with successful improvement projects. Also, country conferences for groups of researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers contributed to the revised version of the framework. The framework builds on earlier work in the field of school effectiveness and school improvement.

A comprehensive framework for effective school improvement

Constructivist ideas have influenced recent major innovations in Dutch secondary education and new curricula for reading and math in primary education, for example, pay much more attention to metacognition than before. In our study, we compared the growth of student metacognition in varying learning environments, direct instruction, and cognitive apprenticeship in primary school. The study also included a control group of teachers. In order to measure metacognition we developed a questionnaire, with separate parts for metacognitive skills and metacognitive knowledge. In the item selection procedure we made use of item response modeling. It was found that in the direct instruction and the cognitive apprenticeship group the pupils had higher scores on metacognitive skills and metacognitive knowledge compared to the control group pupils. No clear differences were found between direct instruction and cognitive apprenticeship. Interactions of learning environment and student intelligence were non-significant f...

G.J. Reezigt

Papers

School Effectiveness and School Improvement: Sustaining Links

School-Level Conditions Affecting the Effectiveness of Instruction.

Linking school effectiveness and school improvement: The background and outline of the project

A comprehensive framework for effective school improvement

The Development of Metacognition in Primary School Learning Environments.