Leadership styles of principals and student achievement in selected Catholic schools of Indiana

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Authors
Politz, Arthur Jay
Advisor
Wagner, Ivan D.
Issue Date
1991
Keyword
Degree
Thesis (D. Ed.)
Department
Department of Educational Leadership
Other Identifiers
Abstract

The purposes of the study were to identify leadership styles of principals as perceived by teachers in selected Catholic schools of Indiana, and to determine if leadership styles of principals were correlated with achievement of seventh-grade students. Participants were selected from a population of 140 elementary schools of the Diocese of Ft. Wayne-South Bend, the Diocese of Gary, and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. The instruments used to collect data were the Leader Effectiveness and Adaptability Description (LEAD-Other), and the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS). The LEAD-Other was used to measure teacher judgments of principal leadership style, and the ITBS was used to measure academic growth of seventh-grade students.The sources of data for the study were 22 principals, 135 teachers and 2,134 students of the 22 schools. The distribution of leadership styles of the 22 principals was: 2 principals as Style 1 (Telling); 13 principals as Style 2 (Selling); 6 principals as Style 3 (Participating), and 1 principal as Style 4 (Delegating). The 2,134 students, with their respective grade equivalent means, were distributed among the four styles of principal leadership as: Style 1, 193 students with a mean of 9.04; Style 2, 1,261 students with a mean of 8.98; Style 3, 602 students with a mean of 8.86; and style 4, 78 students with a mean of 9.42. An ex post facto research design was used for the study. A single classification analysis of variance (ANOVA) and a multiple comparison procedure were used to analyze data. Seventh-grade students differing on independent variables of leadership styles of the principal, gender of student, and enrollment size of school were compared on the dependent variable of student achievement scores. Analysis of variance findings indicated significant differences existed between comprehensive score gains for seventh-grade students and leadership style of principals, based on an F value of 5.69 that was significant at the .05 alpha level. Data from the Newman-Keuls procedure indicated the Style 4 mean of 9.42 was significantly higher at the .05 level than the means for Style 1, Style 2, and Style 3 respectively. Analysis of variance findings indicated significant differences did not exist between comprehensive score gains for seventh-grade students and size of enrollment, based on an F value of .41 that was not significant at the .05 alpha level. Analysis of variance findings indicated significant differences did not exist between comprehensive score gains for seventh-grade students and gender of students, based on an F value of .07 that was not significant at the .05 alpha level.These data indicated seventh-grade students in schools where the principal was perceived by teachers as being Style 4 (Delegating) have significantly higher mean test scores than dostudents in schools where the principal was perceived by teachers as being Style 1, Style 2, or Style 3. Neither size of enrollment nor gender of student revealed a significant relationship upon the achievement of students.