Purpose: This study is a quantitative exploration of a new construct the authors label as "academic culture (AC)." Treating it as generalized latent variable composed of academic press (AP), disciplinary climate (DC), and teachers' use of instructional time, the purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of this construct to be a…

This study reviews evidence about the overall influence of direction-setting leadership practices (DSLPs), 1 of 4 major categories of practices included in a widely known conception of effective leadership (e.g., Leithwood & Louis, 2011) and a focus of many other such conceptions, as well. This study also inquires about how direction-setting…

This study, based on interviews with 31 principals, was undertaken in response to quantitative evidence from a larger mixed-methods project that found school leaders' collective efficacy to be a crucial link joining district leadership and conditions to school conditions and student learning. Results of this study suggest that districts contribute…

This review examined 57 post-1990 empirical studies of school size effects on a variety of student and organizational outcomes. The weight of evidence provided by this research clearly favors smaller schools. Students who traditionally struggle at school and students from disadvantaged social and economic backgrounds are the major benefactors of…

Purposes: This study aimed to improve our understanding of the nature, causes and consequence of school leader efficacy, including indirect influences on student learning. We asked about district contributions to school leader efficacy, whether leader self- and collective efficacy responded to the same or different district conditions and the…

Findings from a study that explored the relationship between school restructuring and school leadership are presented in this paper. Specifically, the research examined the processes involved in implementing the Primary Program, the first stage of British Columbia's "Year 2000" plan for the first 4 years of education. A survey of 2,547…

Uses survey data from an achieved sample of 1,762 teachers and 9,941 students in a large Canadian school district to explore influences of transformational leadership practices on selected organizational conditions and student engagement with school. Transformational leadership strongly influenced organizational conditions and moderately but…

This paper provides a review of research that examined transformational leadership in the context of K-12 school restructuring. It presents a rationale for studying transformational leadership, a theoretical framework for such study, and findings of six studies about the effects of transformational leadership. The framework is comprised of…

Synthesizes evidence from three independent studies of conditions fostering organizational learning in schools conducted in different contexts, but using comparable methods. The purpose was to identify such conditions from state, district, and school sources, relying on qualitative data from 111 teachers in 14 schools. Collegial atmosphere and…

A study used survey data from an achieved sample of 1,818 elementary teachers and 6,490 students in a large Canadian school district to explore teacher and principal leadership influences on student engagement with school. Principal-leadership effects were weak but significant; teacher-leadership effects proved insignificant. (Contains 59…

In developing a vision of schools capable of responding effectively to their challenges to change, futurists and reformers must solve two closely linked problems inherent in their positions. One problem is the risky business of predicting the future social and economic consequences of present trends; the other is the improbability of accurately…

The challenges of school restructuring have been cited as reasons for advocating a move from instructional to transformational forms of school leadership. This paper presents findings of a study that examined teachers' overall perceptions of their principals' transformational leadership performance. It also examined teachers' perceptions of how…

Leadership may come from many different sources in a school. This paper examines the relative effects of leadership provided by principals, teachers, and those in other roles. A study based on surveys of 2,727 teachers and 9,025 students in 110 elementary and secondary schools (Ontario, Canada) analyzed the effects of "total leadership," including…

This document reports on a study of the nature, causes and consequences of team learning among faculty in five secondary schools. Data were collected primarily through group interviews; 48 individual team members also responded to an 11-item survey about team learning conditions. From the data analysis, three teams were classified as functional…

In 1995, the Ontario government required the establishment of school councils. Although the government provided guidance, little of its information was based on systematic knowledge that is problem-focused, applied, and empirical. To fill that need, a study sought to estimate the nature and extent of influence of councils on schools several years…