How To Enhance Teachers’ School Renewal Leadership: Efforts and Effects
Main Article Content
Abstract
Teacher leadership has been found to be positively associated with student achievement, and the dimensions of teacher leadership positively associated with teacher leadership have been identified. However, mechanisms to improve teacher leadership and the effects of these mechanisms are rarely studied. In this article, we report the efforts to develop teacher leadership in a multi-year, large-scale project titled, “High Impact Leadership for School Renewal”, and the effects of these efforts. Repeated measure analysis was conducted to assess the project’s effect on teacher leadership using validated and published instruments. The results indicated that the project had large effects on enhancing teacher leadership, with Cohen’s d effect size ranging from 0.85 to 1.16 for scales of Orientation to School Renewal and from 0.87 to 1.13 for scales of Learning-Centered School Leadership. Implications for school renewal are discussed.
Article Details

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Ash, R. C., & Persall, J. M. (2000). The principal as chief learning officer: Developing teacher leaders. NASSP Bulletin, 84(616), 15–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/019263650008461604
Bland, J. M., & Altman, D. G. (1986). Statistical methods for assessing agreement between two methods of clinical measurement. The Lancet, 327(8476), 307–310. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(86)90837-8
Heck, R. H., & Hallinger, P. (2009). Assessing the contribution of distributed leadership to school improvement and growth in math achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 46(3), 659–689. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831209340042
Heck, R. H., & Hallinger, P. (2010). Testing a longitudinal model of distributed leadership effects on school improvement. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(5), 867–885. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.07.013
Lambert, L. (2003). Leadership redefined: An evocative context for teacher leadership. School Leadership & Management, 23(4), 421–430. https://doi.org/10.1080/1363243032000150953
Ma, X., Shen, J., Reeves, P., & Yuan, J. (2020). A multilevel examination of an instrument measuring school renewal via teachers. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 65, 100850. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2020.100850
MetLife Inc. (2013, 21 February). The MetLife survey of the American teacher: Challenges for school leadership. https://metlife-prod-2019.adobecqms.net/about-us/newsroom/2013/february/the-metlife-survey-of-the-american-teacher— challenges-for-schoo/
Muijs, D., & Harris, A. (2007). Teacher leadership in (In) action: three case studies of contrasting schools. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 35(1), 111–134. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143207071387
Shen, J. (2020). The theory of bifurcated educational system and its implications for school improvement. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 26(2), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2020.1808708
Shen, J., & Burt, W. L. (Eds.) (2015). Learning-centered school leadership: School renewal in action. Peter Lang Publishing. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-1-4539-1710-7
Shen, J., & Cooley, V. E. (Eds.) (2013). A resource book for improving principals’ learning centered leadership. Peter Lang Publishing.
Shen, J. Gao, X., & Xia, J. (2017). School as a loosely coupled organization? An empirical examination using national SASS 2003-04 data. Educational Management, Administration & Leadership, 45(4), 657–681. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143216628533
Shen, J., & Ma, X. (2006). Does systemic change work? Curricular and instructional practice in the context of systemic change. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 5(3), 231–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/15700760600805832
Shen, J., Ma, X., Gao, X., Palmer, L. B., Poppink. S., Burt, W. L., Leneway, R. J., McCrumb, D., Pearson, C., Rainey, M., Reeves, P., & Wegenke, G. (2018). Developing and validating an instrument measuring school leadership. Educational Studies, 45(3), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2018.1446338
Shen, J., Ma, X., Mansberger, N., Palmer, L. B., Burt, W. Leneway, R., Reeves, P., Poppink, S., McCrumb, D., Whitten, E., Gao, X., & Wu, H. (2021). Developing and validating an instrument measuring school renewal: Testing the factorial validity and reliability. International Journal of Leadership in Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2021.1930187
Shen, J., Ma, X., Mansberger, N., Gao, X., Palmer, L. B., Burt, W., Leneway, R., McCrumb, D., Poppink, S., Reeves, P., & Whitten, E. (2020). Testing the predictive power of an instrument titled “Orientation to School Renewal”. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 31(4), 505–528. https://doi.org/10.1080/09243453.2020.1749087
Shen, J., & Xia, J. (2012). The relationship between teachers’ and principals’ power: Is it a win-win situation or zero-sum game? International Journal of Leadership in Education 15(2), 153–174. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2011.624643
Shen, J., Wu, H., Reeves, P., Zheng, Y., Ryan, L., & Anderson, D. (2020). The association between teacher leadership and student achievement: A meta-analysis. Educational Research Review, 31, 100357. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2020.100357
Silva, D. Y., Gimbert, B., & Nolan, J. (2000). Sliding the doors: Locking and unlocking possibilities for teacher leadership. Teachers College Record, 102(4), 779–804. https://doi.org/10.1111/0161-4681.00077
Teacher Leadership Institute. (2018). The teacher leadership competencies. http://www.nea.org/home/61346.htm.
Xia, J., & Shen, J. (2020). The principal-teacher’s power relationship revisited: A national study based on the 2011–12 SASS data. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 19(3), 477–496. https://doi.org/10.1080/15700763.2019.1586962
Xia, J., Shen, J., & Sun, J. (2020). Tight, loose, or decoupling? A national study of the decision-making power relationship between district central offices and school principals. Educational Administration Quarterly, 56(3), 396–434. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X19851174
Wasley, P. A. (1991). Teachers who lead: The rhetoric of reform and the realities of practice. Teachers College Press.
Wenner, J. A., & Campbell, T. (2017). The theoretical and empirical basis of teacher leadership: A review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 87(1), 134– 171. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654316653478
York-Barr, J., & Duke, K. (2004). What do we know about teacher leadership: Findings from two decades of scholarship. Review of Educational Research, 74(3), 255–316. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543074003255