School Leadership that Works: From Research to Results

With the growing number of changes in state and local policies surrounding student achievement since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the body of research surrounding effective and ineffective schools continues to grow. This is not unusual, as “whether a school operates effectively or not increases or decreases a student's chances of academic success” (p. 3). There is some controversy surrounding the notion of effective schools, and the effect that the principal has on student achievement. Some researchers assert that the principal has little or no effect, while others argue that “an effective principal is thought to be a necessary precondition for an effective school” (p. 5).

Robert Marzano has written over 20 books and 150 articles addressing the issue of student achievement and school effectiveness, focusing on both the teacher and the educational leader. In his book “School Leadership the Works: From Research to Results”, Marzano has teamed up with his colleagues from the Mid‐continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) Timothy Waters and Brian McNulty to address the key questions surrounding leadership and schools. These authors center the book on answering the following two questions: “To what extent does leadership play a role in whether a school is effective or ineffective?” and “How much of a school's impact on student achievement is due to the leadership displayed in that school?” (p. 4). The book is both a discussion of results from a meta‐analysis that the authors conducted, and the implications of these results.

The book is organized in a way that it is appropriate for both researchers and practitioners alike. It is divided into two sections, one focusing on the current research base, and the second focusing on practical applications of this research. Each section is further divided into chapters that focus on specific elements of school leadership in context. The overall theme of the book seems to be the translation of good research into good practice, and the authors take a similar approach in presenting the information to the reader, beginning with a presentation of the evidence based on solid research through a meta‐analytic approach, translating those results into specific skills for educational leaders, and concluding with the development of a plan for creating effective leadership.

In the first chapter entitled, “In Search of School Leadership,” Marzano et al. (2005), begin by presenting the challenges that are commonly associated with researching educational leadership. They talk about the different types of research in the area of educational leadership, and highlight the lack of quantitative research that addresses “the relationship between school leadership and student academic achievement” (p. 6). Though this has not previously seemed an adequate amount of research to provide guidance of strong leadership behaviors, the authors argue that used in a different way, this small body of quantitative research can indeed be used to identify strong leadership behaviors for improved student achievement.

The second chapter, “Some Theories and Theorists on Leadership,” provides the theoretical framework for the authors' analysis and the conclusions drawn from their results. This chapter not only addresses common leadership theories that researchers draw from, but also highlights some prominent researchers who focus on leadership theory. This chapter was extremely important in that “theories such as transactional leadership, transformational leadership, and instructional leadership, as well as the work of theorists including Collins, Elmore, and Heifetz, provided a knowledge base that allowed (the researchers) to review the research from a broad framework” (p. 27).

“The Meta‐Analysis” focused on the meta‐analysis itself. It is important to note that conducting a meta‐analysis uses fairly rigid quantitative methodology to yield results. In this case, the methodology involves inputting studies that meet specific criteria into the statistical model and using those correlations to compute the overall effect of school leadership on student achievement. Having given the rationale for using a meta‐analytic approach earlier, the authors begin the chapter by identifying the criteria they used to identify studies for inclusion in the meta‐analysis. The authors included studies ranging from 1978 to 2001, and included 64 studies that examined 2,599 schools. Within each study, the correlation between general leadership and student achievement “was either computed or extracted directly from the study” (p. 30). The mean correlation between leadership behavior and student achievement was computed to be 0.25, though there was a widespread distribution of correlations within each study. Additionally, the authors considered study quality and school level as moderating variables that may have contributed to the high effect size, but did not find any straightforward results.

“The 21 Responsibilities of the School Leader” begins the second section of the book, which is focused on the practical application of the results of this meta‐analysis. Marzano et al. (2005), recognized that the overall effect size of 0.25 could be taken only at face value, as leadership was defined differently in each study. In order to look more closely at this behavior, the authors examined various elements from each study. They examined 21 behaviors of principals that they referred to as responsibilities. An overall effect size was computed for each of these behaviors, and though each of the responsibilities makes a statistically significant contribution to school leadership, the responsibilities that yielded the highest effect sizes were situational awareness and flexibility.

In the chapter “Two Types of Change,” the authors really begin to translate their results into practice. They recognize that these 21 responsibilities that were identified are not mutually exclusive, and many of the responsibilities were related to each other. In order to look at the level to which these responsibilities were related, the authors did a factor analysis that looked at these 21 responsibilities within the day‐to‐day practice of principals. The factor analysis revealed that there were two types of change that principals engage in that address these responsibilities: first and second order change, or rather incremental or subtle change, and drastic change. Interestingly, all 21 responsibilities were found to be necessary considerations for principals in handling with incremental change, but only seven of them were found to be necessary considerations when implementing dramatic changes.

Marzano et al. (2005), brought forth an issue that was not addressed in their meta‐analysis. This was the notion that when schools are looking at improving student achievement, they must make sure they are working to improve the right things. In the chapter, “Doing the Right Work”, the authors look at two different reform models that were highlighted in the meta‐analysis. This was comprehensive school reform models and site‐specific approaches. These two reform models will assist schools in identifying interventions that are sound as well as those that do not specifically address the improvement of academic achievement. Finally, Marzano et al. (2005), concludes by synthesizing their ideas and findings to provide an outline a plan for school leadership effectiveness. “A Plan for Effective School Leadership” builds on the findings from the meta‐analysis and factor analysis, to formulate a five‐step plan for effective school leadership teams.

Throughout the book, the authors seem to focus on the need for school reform as a function of leadership. The book emphasizes the process of changing thoughts, both within the research community and in schools. This notion of leadership for school reform makes an important contribution to the school leadership literature. Though this book attempts to target both researchers and practitioners, it is better suited for those who are actually working in the field. The authors translate their empirical results into an amalgamation of best practices for principals to engage in to foster improved academic achievement. As a result, “School Leadership that Works: From Research to Results” is a book that would best serve those who are implementing these best practices within schools.