| The purpose of this study was to provide greater depth, understanding, and clarity around the key leadership practices of the principal that support teacher engagement and school improvement processes, and lead to improved student outcomes, as viewed by teachers. This study was unique in that it explored how the principal promoted teacher engagement and how the principal developed effective school improvement practices, based upon the perceptions of teachers in an urban setting who had formed distinct ideas through their current practice in the classroom. This study explored the relationship between the principal's use of instructional and transformational leadership practices and the school's student achievement gains. This study provided valuable insight into the essential elements of good leadership and the relationship among leadership practices, school improvement practices, teacher engagement, and student outcomes, specifically student achievement, within the world of the school principal.;The conceptual design for this study was based on the school reform research of the past 20 years. This study built on the work of Leithwood et al. (2004), which explored the effects of leadership practices on organizational conditions and student engagement with school. The study used a survey research design, a survey entitled the School Leadership Study - Developing Successful Principals to collect feedback from 438 teachers of kindergarten through 8th grade who worked in schools located within one of eleven networks in New York and aggregated their perceptions and experiences for comparisons with principal characteristic information and student achievement test gains over a three-year period.;The study found that the use of instructional and transformational leadership practices appears to mirror the level of student achievement. The findings suggest there is a significant relationship between instructional and transformational leadership practices, teacher engagement, teacher collaboration, school improvement practices, and student outcomes, including student achievement, while controlling for student demographics. These relationships appear to be interwoven and interdependent. |
