Leadership Practices that Affect Student Achievement: Creating a Supportive Organization for Learning

Abstract

Thesis advisor: Diana PullinIt is widely accepted that school leadership has both a direct and indirect impact on student achievement. Hitt and Tucker’s (2016) Unified Leadership framework summarized a decade of work by numerous researchers identifying the five most effective leadership domains that influence student learning. Using that work as a conceptual framework, this qualitative case study analyzed one of the five interdependent leadership domains in an urban elementary school that succeeded in educating traditionally marginalized students and outperformed other schools with similar demographics in the district. This study focused on the fourth of Hitt and Tucker’s (2016) key leadership domains or practices: creating a supportive organization for learning. Creating a supportive organization for learning is important because just as teachers need to establish a sense of well-being and trust for students to learn in their classroom, administrators must establish the same sense of trust and comfort to create an environment where teachers can teach to their highest capacity. This study explored whether the key leadership practices of creating a supportive organization for learning were present in a school and whether the school leaders believed that presence of the attributes contributed to the effectiveness of the school. This study found that the five attributes of creating a supportive organization for learning were present at the school in that the principal built capacity in her building, the school resources targeted student achievement and there was a belief that all students can learn. Importantly, the superintendent also highlighted the principal’s ability to push her staff to continuous results without pushing so hard that they lost trust in her and love for the students they serve. There were, however, opportunities for improvement including creating a clear set of district supports for schools and improving cultural proficiency at the school level. We also found that administrators in the district believe that school leaders have made the school successful by setting high expectations for the students, no matter their situation, and created a culture of productive collaboration that was focused on continuously improving student achievement, key components of creating a supportive organization for learning.Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2018.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education