HARNESSING THE POWER OF PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP TO BUILD HIGH LEVELS OF COLLECTIVE EFFICACY TO SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

Date

2021-05

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Abstract

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to identify and describe the leadership characteristics, practices, and styles that lead to the development of high collective efficacy in a school to increase student achievement. Teachers and principals participated in this mixed-methods research, with principals as the primary unit of analysis—only principals with at least 3 years of experience in their current role and at their current site in order to ensure the collective efficacy being reported was in fact a product of or related to their leadership. The focus of the research was four districts spread across two southern California counties, Riverside and San Diego. Participants were from public K–12 schools in these districts. Data from 136 participants—126 teachers and 10 principals—are included in this study I conducted the Collective Efficacy Scale with teaching staff and the Principal Self-Efficacy Survey with principals, and five individual interviews with principals from high collective efficacy schools. The primary research questions of the study asked: What leadership characteristics, practices, and styles lead to high collective efficacy in schools? How do principals believe they have built high levels of collective efficacy among their staff? Information obtained from this research study provides a deeper understanding of the leadership characteristics, practices, and styles that most contribute to building high levels of collective efficacy in schools. The results of this study could be used to inform current and prospective site administrators on how to build high levels of collective efficacy in their organization to increase student achievement.

Description

Keywords

Citation

DOI