How school leadership practices relate to student outcomes: Insights from a three-level meta-analysis

Tan, C. Y., Dimmock, C. and Walker, A. (2021) How school leadership practices relate to student outcomes: Insights from a three-level meta-analysis. Educational Management Administration and Leadership, (doi: 10.1177/17411432211061445) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

The present study aims to generate broad insights from the large corpus of literature on the associations between a comprehensive range of school leadership practices and student outcomes in different school contexts. Three-level meta-analysis of 493 independent effects from 108 studies published since 2000 showed that the mean effect size was small at r  = 0.14. Effect sizes for leadership practices ranged from r’s  = 0.10 to .26. Results underscored the importance of different types of leadership practices related to instructional management, enhancing teacher capacity, and engaging external stakeholders to improve student outcomes. School leadership practices were significantly associated with students’ academic achievement (in different subjects except science) and learning attitudes/processes but not attainment. Moderator analyses showed that school leadership effects were significant in studies using a school-level analysis but not in those using a lower-level of analysis. Additionally, school leadership effects were significant at different grade levels (G1–G6, G7–G12) and in research reported in different study types (articles, dissertations) and in different years (2000–2009, 2010–2018).

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the General Research Fund 2018/19 (grant number Project No 17602518).
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Dimmock, Professor Clive
• Authors: Tan, C. Y., Dimmock, C., and Walker, A.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Education; College of Social Sciences > School of Education > Educational Leadership & Policy
• Journal Name: Educational Management Administration and Leadership
• Publisher: SAGE
• ISSN: 1741-1432
• ISSN (Online): 1741-1440
• Published Online: 03 December 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © The Author(s) 2021
• First Published: First published in Educational Management Administration and Leadership 2021
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy