Balanced Leadership: What 30 Years of Research Tells Us about the Effect of Leadership on Student Achievement. A Working Paper.

1 ABOUT THE AUTHORS TIM WATERS has served as CEO for McREL since 1995, following 23 years in public education, the last seven of which were as the superintendent of the Greeley, CO school system. Dr. Waters serves on the Board of Directors of the National Education Knowledge Industry Association and is a past Commissioner of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education. He received his B. Other McREL staff members who contributed to the development of this report include JAMES BAILEY, a former assistant district superintendent, high school principal and elementary principal; GREG CAMERON, a former elementary school principal and assistant principal; EVELYN CORTEZ-FORD, a doctoral candidate in educational leadership and former master teacher and teacher educator; MIKE GALVIN, a former teacher leader and elementary school principal; SANDRA GILPIN, a former secondary school mathematics teacher; and MONETTE MCIVER, a former elementary school teacher. BACKGROUND More than three decades of research on the effects of instruction and schooling on student achievement are creating a new science of education. Starting in 1998, McREL began synthesizing this growing body of research through meta-analyses of research on student characteristics and teacher and school practices associated with school effectiveness. The results of our first two meta-analyses have provided practitioners with specific guidance on the curricular, instructional, and school practices that, when applied appropriately, can result in increased student achievement.

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