Successful School Leadership: a Summary

The authors of a famous 2008 article on successful school leadership recently revisited their original “seven strong claims” in the light of new empirical evidence. Their updated model constitutes a simple yet comprehensive, research-based and actionable roadmap for both aspiring and experienced school leaders.

1. School leadership has a significant effect on features of the school organization which positively influences the quality of teaching and learning. While moderate in size, this leadership effect is vital to the success of most school improvement efforts.

2. Almost all successful leaders draw on the same repertoire of basic leadership practices.

More precisely, Leithwood, Harris and Hopkins (2019) identify 21 practices related to 4 different domains of leadership: 

• Setting directions - This includes identifying and communicating ambitious but specific short-term goals; 

 

• Building relationships and developing people - This includes modeling the school’s values and both stimulating professional growth and providing appropriate individual support;

 

• Developing the organization to support desired practices - This includes distributing leadership and creating collaborative cultures and structures;

 

• Improving the instructional program - This includes buffering staff from distractions to their instructional work and monitoring student learning and school improvement.

3. The ways in which leaders apply these basic leadership practices--not the practices themselves--demonstrate responsiveness to, rather than dictation by, the contexts in which they work.

More precisely, the authors insist on the importance of the following contexts: 

• Situated contexts, including school history, community, and surrounding culture; 

 

• Professional context, including teacher commitment and experience, and more generally the “development phase” of the school;

 

• Material contexts, including staffing, budget, buildings, technology and infrastructure;

 

• External contexts, including local authorities and accreditation agencies;

 

• Legal contexts, including local regulatory elements.

4. School leadership improves teaching and learning, indirectly and most powerfully, by improving the status of significant key classroom and school conditions and by encouraging parent/child interactions in the home that further enhance student success at school. 

Leithwood, Harris and Hopkins (2019) identify four pathways through which leaders can improve their school: 

• Rational path, which includes faculty training as well as the disciplinary climate of the school;

 

• Emotions path, which includes teachers’ collective efficacy, commitment and trust;

 

• Organizational path, which includes collaborative structures and cultures as well as optimal planning of instructional time;

 

• Family path, which includes proper communication and home-school partnerships, notably in relation to expectations.

5. School leadership can have an especially positive influence on school and student outcomes when it is distributed.

6. Some patterns of distribution are more effective than others.
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Although effective patterns will vary by school, the researchers point out that: 

• Informal leadership opportunities and participative decision-making (when appropriate) enhance teacher commitment;

 

• “Open leadership” based on expertise rather than position can be very effective for specific purposes.

7. While further research is required, a well-defined set of cognitive, social and psychological ‘personal leadership resources’ show promise of explaining a high proportion of variation in the practices enacted by school leaders.

These “Personal Leadership Resources” include: 

• Cognitive resources: 
  • Problem-solving expertise
  • Domain-specific knowledge
  • Systems thinking

 

• Social resources
  • Perceiving emotions
  • Managing emotions
  • Acting in emotionally appropriate ways

 

• Psychological resources
  • Optimism
  • Self-efficacy
  • Resilience
  • Proactivity

Reference: Leithwood, Harris and Hopkins, “Seven Strong Claims About Successful School Leadership Revisited”, School Leadership and Management, 2019.