Topic Progress:

UNPACKING ESSENTIAL FUNCTION 4: INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP (PART 2)

What impacts achievement the most?

Dr. John Hattie conducted over 800 meta-analyses and classified his studies into six domains: Teacher, Teaching, School, Home, Student, and Curriculum.

He calculated an effect size for practices across these areas. Practices that have an effect size of .40 or greater are where we should be spending the bulk of our time and effort, such as training instructional staff in how to use these practices.

Check the effect size of the instructional practices being used in your building. Practices with a high effect size should be deeply embedded throughout your district/building’s daily instructional operation.

In his recent work, Hattie (2015) makes clear that just as in teacher practices, leadership practices are not equal in terms of impact on student achievement. In High Impact Leadership, an analysis of leadership practices was examined (Hattie, 2015).

Impact is measured by effect size (ES), which is a standardized measure for the magnitude of the study outcomes. An effect size of 1.0 means there was an increase of 1 standard deviation in the study outcome (in this instance student achievement). In education, an improvement of one standard deviation is associated with the advancement of children’s achievement by two to three years.

The following practices of leaders who had a high impact on student achievement were found to be significant:

  • Leaders who believe their major role is to evaluate their impact (ES=.91)
  • Leaders who get everyone in the school working together to know and evaluate their impact (ES=.91)
  • Leaders who learn in an environment that privileges high-impact teaching and learning (ES=.84)
  • Leaders who are explicit with teachers and students about what success looks like (ES=.77)
  • Leaders who set appropriate levels of challenge and who never retreat to ‘just do your best’ (ES=.57)

Reflective Questions

Do you know if the practices with the highest effect sizes are occurring in your district/building?

What is the knowledge level of staff concerning the effect size of various educational practices? How can understanding effect size be of benefit to the teachers in your district/building?

Are you using leadership practices that have a high effect sizes?

Other Research on Instructional Leadership

The National Center On Educational Outcomes found that districts that have “moved their numbers” for all children have or are engaged in developing district-wide processes that allow for more collective use of relevant data to make smarter decisions, including the ongoing assessment of teaching and learning at the classroom, school, and district levels.

What works to support great teaching?  That is the question the Mirage Report sought to answer. “Openness to feedback” and “ratings alignment” were significantly correlated with improved practice. In other words, teachers who were open to hearing ways to get better got better and teachers rated themselves the same as their evaluators.  These two findings are part of a coherent system that promotes a culture of high expectations, increased collaborative practice, and a shared sense of commitment.[/toggle]

This meta-analysis identified five key leadership practices  that had a positive effect on student achivement.

  1. Establish Clear Goals and Expectations
  2. Strategic Resourcing
  3. Planning, Coordinating, and Evaluating Teaching and Curriculum
  4. Promoting and Participating in Teacher Learning and Development
  5. Ensuring an Orderly and Supportive Environment[/toggle]

Found that principals working directly with teachers in the use of data is more than twice as powerful as any other leadership dimension.

Found that the reliability for assessing student learning and district decision making was one critical characteristic of effective districts.