Running head: IMPROVING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT 1 A Systems-based Synthesis of Research Related to Improving Students ’ Academic Performance

This paper addresses the issue of school improvement by looking to research on both the variables that should be the focus of school improvement efforts as well as factors that make it more likely that the organization will actually implement research findings. Issues of transformational leadership, instructional leadership, and high functioning teams are addressed; Hattie’s (2009) review of over 800 meta-analyses of variables related to school achievement is the primary source of identifying classroom and school variables that can be addressed by educators. As developed nations move out of the industrial age into the information/conceptual age, there is an ongoing debate about how to best prepare children and youth for adult success in the twenty-first century (Huitt, 1999b, 2007). While there is a consensus that schools should play a major role in this process, there is less agreement about exactly what that role should be. Some believe that the primary focus of schools should be academic preparation of students (Hirsch, 1987, 1996; Tienken, & Wilson, 2001), that classroom teachers are primarily responsible for student academic achievement (Darling-Hammond, 2000), and schools should efficiently and effectively organize themselves towards that task (Engelmann & Carnine, 1991). These effort