| The purpose of this study was to examine the leadership styles of Texas public school elementary school principals identified as nonleadership, transactional leadership, and transformational leadership, and to examine teacher leadership, student performance, and selected demographic variables in schools headed by nonleadership, transactional, and transformational principals.; This survey research examined the differences of principal leadership and teacher leadership when analyzed based on the demographic variables of principal gender, school size, percentage of low socioeconomic students, grade configuration, years of principal experience, years of principal experience at the current campus, and the AEIS school rating measuring student performance. The differences in teacher leadership present in schools compared by principal leadership style was investigated. Finally, the relationship between teacher leadership and student performance (AEIS school rating) was explored. Three primary sources of data used for this study were the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, From 5X (Bass & Avolio, 1995) completed by elementary principals, the Teacher Leadership School Survey (Katzenmeyer & Katzenmeyer, 1998) completed by teachers, and the Texas Education Agency database, Snapshot: School Profiles '02 (Texas Education Agency, 2002c).; Descriptive statistics combined with analysis of variance and Spearman's rho provided analysis of the data. Significant differences were discovered in the principal leadership mean scores when analyzing for gender, school size, percentage of low socioeconomic students, and grade configuration. Findings revealed no significant difference in the levels of teacher leadership based on the leadership style of the elementary principal. When analyzing student performance as measured by the AEIS school rating, a statistically significant difference existed between teacher leadership and the school rating. The higher the school rating, the higher the level of teacher leadership was exhibited in the school.; Conclusions drawn from the results of this study should be interpreted with caution due to the MLQ self-reporting leadership tool, the validity of the teacher leadership survey instrument, and the sample size. However, the response patterns based on demographic variables may prove useful in developing future elementary principal leadership models in order to promote and support teacher leadership and increased student performance. |
