The Relationship of Leadership and Student Achievement Across Societal Cultures

AbstractSchool leaders are aware that their effectiveness is often defined by student performance as measured by test scores. Of particular interest in the global arena are the results of the TIMSS and PISA international assessments that rank student performance by country. While researchers and educators seek to account for the high achievement on these assessments, many turn to the characteristics and behaviors of school leaders to explain the difference in rankings. However, to view effective school leadership behaviors and characteristics from a global perspective poses some challenges, as societal culture influences the leadership process. As way to investigate leadership by societal cultures across the globe, the investigators of this study turned to The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) research survey, in which a research team described a large number of characteristics and behaviors, or universal leadership dimensions, to assess the different ways in which various societal clusters viewed leadership. The investigators of this study explore the relationship of global leadership using the GLOBE cultural leadership dimensions and student achievement as measured by TIMMS and PISA within cultural clusters. Findings indicated that four universal leadership dimensions, including charismatic/values based leadership, participative leadership, autonomous leadership, and self-protective leadership, were identified through ANOVA to be significant in predicting student achievement, which led the researchers to conclude that administering the GLOBE Survey to school leaders is necessary to determine the importance and value of the leadership dimensions relative to educational leaders across all cultures

The Private School Advantage: Evidence from School Vouchers and Educational Leadership

School choice is becoming increasingly popular around the globe. Broadly the term ‘school choice’ is used to describe the options available for families to send children to school(s) other than the one they are residentially assigned to. Private school choice interventions known as ‘school vouchers,’ offer public or private funding to enable families to send their children to private school. Research in 1970s and 80s by James Coleman and his colleagues showed a private school advantage in student achievement and graduation rates, in comparison to traditional public schools. Competing evidence was presented by Christopher Lubienski and Sarah Lubienski in 2013, claiming a public school advantage in student achievement. The debates surrounding a particular school sector advantage can be better addressed using causal evidence and using large datasets to understand possible mechanisms that differentiate the school sectors. This dissertation reports on four analyses of the possibility of a private school advantage, using a variety of data. The first study looks at overall evidence on student achievement in math and reading scores from causal studies on private school vouchers around the globe. The second study offers a supplemental cost-effectiveness evaluation of the same set of voucher programs. In the third study, nationally representative data on public and private school principals is analyzed to study principal autonomy over seven school-level activities across school sectors. Using the same dataset, the fourth study examines the determinants of principal attrition across school sectors. Principals’ stated responses to stay in the profession in the baseline year are compared to their revealed status a year later. Some contributions of this dissertation are evidence of vouchers increasing reading test scores more in comparison to math test scores and a larger test score impact in developing countries than in the U.S. The dissertation finds more autonomy over school-level activities and more likelihood to remain in the profession for the private school principal in comparison to the traditional public school principal. Hence, future studies may test the role of principal autonomy and principals’ remaining in the profession as a mediator of school choice outcomes

Disentangling the individual and contextual effects of math anxiety: A global perspective

Math anxiety is a common affective disorder in students that is characterized by intrusive thoughts that disrupt critical cognitive resources required for math problem-solving. Consistent associations between math anxiety and math achievement have been observed across countries and age groups, placing math anxiety among other important correlates of math achievement, such as socioeconomic status and magnitude representation ability. However, studies examining math anxiety\u27s relation to achievement have largely focused on the effect of students\u27 own math anxiety (individual effect), while little is known regarding the effect of math anxiety in students\u27 educational context (contextual effect). Using three international studies of achievement (n = 1,175,515), we estimated both the individual and contextual effects of math anxiety across the globe. Results suggest that while there are consistent individual effects in virtually all countries examined, the contextual effects are varied, with only approximately half of the countries exhibiting a contextual effect. Additionally, we reveal that teacher confidence in teaching math is associated with a reduction of the individual effect, and country\u27s level of uncertainty avoidance is related to a lessening of the contextual effect. Finally, we uncovered multiple predictors of math anxiety; notably, student perception of teacher competence was negative related with math anxiety, and parental homework involvement was positively related with math anxiety. Taken together, these results suggest that there are significant between-country differences in how math anxiety may be related with math achievement and suggest that education and cultural contexts as important considerations in understanding math anxiety\u27s effects on achievement

School accountability and teacher stress: international evidence from the OECD TALIS study

Accountability—the monitoring and use of student performance data to make judgements about school and teacher effectiveness—is increasing within school systems across the globe. In theory, by increasing accountability, the aims and incentives of governments, parents, school leaders and teachers become more closely aligned, potentially improving student achievement as a result. Yet, in practice, concerns are mounting about the stress that accountability is putting schools and teachers under. This paper presents new evidence on this issue, drawing upon data from more than 100,000 teachers across over 40 countries. We find evidence of a modest, positive correlation between school system accountability and how stressed teachers and headteachers are about this aspect of their job. When looking within schools, there is little evidence that the management practices of headteachers differ when they report feeling stressed about accountability, or that they transmit these feelings onto their staff. However, we do find strong evidence of ‘emotional contagion’ of stress amongst colleagues within schools, with teachers more likely to feel stressed by accountability if their colleagues do as well

TIMSS 2015: Influences of Student and Classroom Related Background Variables on Eighth-Grade Mathematics Achievement in Asean+3 (APT) Countries

Mathematics proficiency and achievement relate to a country’s future economy in many aspects. The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) serves as an international evaluation and comparison among the countries and nations around the globe. The mission of TIMSS is to provide comparative data on mathematics and science achievement on fourth- and eighth-grade students of participating countries and a collection of information in terms of students’ school, teachers, and homes (Snyder, de Brey, & Dillow, 2016). While many Asian countries remain as top performers, other Asian countries perform well below the international average. Furthermore, a review of relevant and current literature on TIMSS assessments revealed that a small number of participating countries would be further included in future studies (George et al., 2016) to determine how student related, teacher and classroom related variables influence student mathematics achievement on these international assessments. The purpose of this study was to examine how student and teacher/classroom related variables influence eighth-grade mathematics scores from TIMSS 2015 data reports. Guided by several educational theoretical frameworks, the researcher rationalized and developd a conceptual framework to answer a sub-set of research questions such as to what extent do student, and teacher/classroom background variables influence eighth-grade mathematics scores across the seven Asian countries. This study examined the variances within and between classrooms using several different predictor variables for seven countries in the region, known as ASEAN Plus Three (APT). The sample comprised of 42,221 eight grade students from APT countries, which include Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Singapore, and Thailand. By utilizing multilevel modeling, several HLM models were constructed to answer whether or not predictor variables had any influences on student mathematics achievement. The study findings provided strong evidence to support the perspectives that different countries have different educational models that may work for one country but not the other

GLOBE: Science and Education

This article provides a brief overview of the GLOBE Program and describes its benefits to scientists, teachers, and students. The program itself is designed to use environmental research as a means to improve student achievement in basic science, mathematics, geography, and use of technology. Linking of students and scientists as collaborators is seen as a fundamental part of the process. GLOBE trains teachers to teach students how to take measurements of environmental parameters at quality levels acceptable for scientific research. Teacher training emphasizes a hands-on, inquiry-based methodology. Student-collected GLOBE data are universally accessible through the Web. An annual review over the past six years indicates that GLOBE has had a positive impact on students' abilities to use scientific data in decision-making and on students' scientifically informed awareness of the environment. Educational levels: Graduate or professional

Odyssey: The Burton D. Morgan Foundation 2014 Annual Report

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. An you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go..."- Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You'll Go!In this verse, Dr. Seuss captures the true essence of the entrepreneurial journey, the overarching theme of our 2014 annual report. Our concept this year reflects Burt Morgan's boundless sense of adventure, a drive that took him to all corners of the globe spreading the spirit of entrepreneurship. We enjoyed our own mind-expanding journey in 2014 exploring new frontiers in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education. The wild ride of the past twelve months has taken us across the nation and at least virtually around the globe as we connected with entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial ecosystems in places distant from Northeast Ohio. Our regional ecosystem performed with gusto as students found record succuss in national venture competitions, our collegiate programs garnered wide recognition, the NEO ecosystem restructured for greater effectiveness, and JumpStart-mentored ventures experienced healthy exits. We enthusiastically welcomed Angela Kwallek Evans and Emily Bean to the Foundation as new program officers and express tremendous gratitude to former staff members Leslie Nelson and Alison Burner for their major contributions to the vitality of our grant portfolios. We look forward with great anticipation to 2015 and all the places we will go!From the Road,Deborah D. HooverPresident & CE

A Case for Student Teacher Placement as Preparation for Future Urban Educators

Do schools of education effectively train young, white, and middle-class teacher candidates to work in urban classrooms? How can schools of education prepare teachers and future teachers for classrooms that are diverse in terms of race/ethnicity, nationality, social class, language and other differences (Nieto, 2004) Classrooms that used to be homogeneous are now diverse, yet the predominant face and gender of the teacher has remained the same. Dramatic inequalities exist in the access that students around the globe have to an excellent, high quality education; inequalities that are lamentably too frequently based on race, social class, language, and other differences (Orfield, 2001). Using data from a descriptive survey, this paper will draw from the experience of eleven teacher candidates in racially diverse urban elementary schools through their first year of teaching to provide recommendations for future program improvements to strengthen existing teacher education programs internationally. Using both qualitative surveys and descriptive statistics, this research strives to answer the question of how to educate the strongest teacher candidates for urban classrooms worldwide