Study of School Leadership: Working Paper - Measuring Leadership Practice

Comments View on the CPRE website. " If you ask a manager what he does, he will most likely tell you that he plans, organizes, coordinates , and controls. Then watch what he does. Don't be surprised if you can't relate what you see to these four words. " (Henry Mintzberg, 1975) While Minztberg's studies have focused on the private sector, his quote captures in part the complexity of studying leadership practice. Just as researchers have long debated exactly what " educational leadership " is, so they have debated and studied exactly what these leaders do. The examination of leadership practice has evolved from often atheoretical surveys and/or observations to more formalized protocols involving structured observations, interviews, and surveys. The current education policy environment of standards and accountability has drawn attention to the role that principals play as instructional leaders for their schools, and this focus has pushed the question of just what principals (and other school leaders) do to promote student learning and achievement. This paper reviews earlier studies of leadership practice in education and outside before focusing on recent works that have formed the current state of the field. It first offers an overview of studies both in and outside of education that help to illustrate prevalent approaches before moving to an analysis of the works. This analytical discussion is guided by three questions. First, who have researchers identified as leaders; to whom have they looked as leaders in their studies? Second, on what particular actions or behaviors have researchers focused to construct leadership practice? Third, what different methods have researchers used in their studies, and how have they influenced 3 our picture of leaders' practices? The paper concludes with a consideration of the significant debates and gaps that will influence the measurement of leadership practice in the years to come, and it offers examples of work that may help to address some of these issues. Selection criteria for inclusion in this review were based on the following two questions; each study had to address one or both of them: 1) Did the study focus primarily or exclusively on leadership practice in its overall design OR did it utilize measures of leadership practice which it discussed in detail? 2) Was the study empirical in nature? Did it draw on primary or secondary data to analyze leadership practice? Pieces that simply cited others' research to argue their points were …