The relationship between student performance and leadership practices as perceived by principals and selected site-based decision making (SBDM) committee members of middle schools in Region 5 Education Service Center (ESC), Texas: a cohort study

摘要

This study, one of four cohort studies, was designed to determine the relationshipbetween student performance and leadership practices as perceived by principals andselected site-based decision making committee members of middle schools in theRegion 5 Education Service Center area of Texas. Using the Leadership PracticesInventory developed by Kouzes and Posner, the study compared the perceptions ofmiddle school principals and selected observers regarding leadership practices. Theseleadership ratings were compared to student achievement for each campus in thestudy. In addition, the study examined if selected demographic variables impact theperception of leaders and observers in regard to leadership.For schools in this particular study, there was no direct correlation betweenperceived leadership practices of the principals and student achievement as measuredby the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) tests. This was true oftotal LPI scores and also of each individual practice measured by the LPI. The data revealed that principals in the study rated themselves higher as a groupthan their observers rated them on the LPI. This trend was consistent for the totalinstrument and for each leadership practice. There were also similarities, however,between the two groups. The practice Model the Way had the highest mean for bothgroups, while Inspire a Shared Vision and Enable Others to Act were rated lower byboth groups of respondents.A researcher-developed questionnaire was used to gather demographic informationabout each respondent. Years of experience, age group, gender, and ethnicitywere all studied to determine if they had any effect on responses. The results indicatethat there were some differences when principals and observers were studied separately,but these differences were minimized when the two groups were combined.Of particular interest was the fact that younger principals and less experiencedprincipals rated themselves more conservatively than their older and moreexperienced colleagues. Younger observers and less experienced observers, however,had a propensity to rate their leader high when compared to older observers and moreexperienced observers. Neither ethnicity nor gender had an impact on leader ratings.