| Education reform in the United States has experienced sweeping changes under Race to the Top (RTTT), the cornerstone of the Obama administration's philosophy on education. The Regents Reform Agenda, New York State's operationalization of the requirements of RTTT, includes an accountability model for principal and teacher effectiveness based on the academic growth of students over time. The scores for the first year of the new model were released in the summer of 2012, and the second year's scores were released in August 2013. With such a high emphasis being placed on student growth, districts have been charged to utilize a new measure of success.;A great body of research exists on the impact of leader behaviors on student achievement, including Hallinger and Heck (1998) and Waters, Marzano, and McNulty (2003). However, far less literature provides insight into leaders' impact on student growth over time (Dhuey & Smith, 2012; May, Huff, & Goldring, 2012). The book Mindset (Dweck, 2006), which has been used by the New York State Education Department in the implementation of the Regents Reform Agenda, offers a framework by which to gauge leader beliefs regarding human potential. The new education policy priorities in New York State and across the nation have created research opportunities focusing on ways leaders' beliefs and behaviors can influence student growth over time.;One hundred ninety-two elementary school principals participated in this quantitative study examining the relationship between leader beliefs about human growth potential, leadership behaviors in the roles of principals, and the building-wide student growth scores of school building leaders in New York State. Pearson correlations, analyses of variance, and multiple regression analyses were used to examine relationships among the variables in the study. The results revealed minimal relationships between leader beliefs in human growth potential, leadership behaviors, and building mean student growth scores. Some school related factors were also investigated as to their relationship with building mean student growth scores. Student poverty, as measured by free and reduced lunch rates, emerged as the only variable that demonstrated a significant relationship with the building mean growth scores for the schools in this study. One recommendation for future study is to examine the new accountability model with specific focus on recent adjustments for student poverty level. |
