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What factors influence teachers to attribute leadership qualities to some principals and not others? In particular, what accounts for attributions of transformational school leadership? Guided by an information processing perspective to explain teachers’ attributions, answers to these questions were explored through data provided by an achieved sample of 1,253 elementary and secondary teachers from a single large school system. Replicating the framework and design of an earlier study by the same authors, this, as well as the previous study, found that teachers’ leadership attributions were largely explained by alterable rather than unalterable variables.

This study aims to examine seven challenging schools in the US and the practices their principals employed in leading these schools to a measure of success in terms of student performance.

Uses a case study methodology, a two‐stage framework is used to analyze the data. First, uses Leithwood and Riehl's three core leadership practices to determine whether these leaders were demonstrating the necessary practices for success, then develops and describes three principles that enabled these leaders to translate their core practices into school success: accountability, caring and learning.

The principals formed a diverse group, varying in gender, race, experience and education. But they shared some common characteristics, most notably, all seven demonstrated facility with the core leadership practices of direction setting, developing people and redesigning the organization. They were leaders who managed to set and maintain a sense of purpose and direction for their schools and generally exerted a positive influence on people's willingness to follow their lead, even in the face of challenging conditions.

Provides recommendations for the preparation and practice of school leaders.

This article examines the effects of transformational school leadership on the commitment of teachers to school reform, and the effort they are willing to devote to such reform. It does so by building on the knowledge from both educational and non‐educational research into such effects. A model of such effects is tested using two approximately comparable sets of data collected from samples of Canadian and Dutch teachers. Structural equation modeling is applied to test the model within each data set. Results of the Canadian and Dutch studies are then compared. The findings show transformational leadership dimensions to affect both teachers’ commitment and extra effort. The effects of the dimension's vision building and intellectual stimulation appear to be significant in particular. Overall, the findings clearly indicate the importance of analyzing dimensions of transformational leadership for their separate effects on teacher commitment and extra effort within the context of educational reform.

The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between four patterns of distributed leadership and a modified version of a variable Hoy et al. have labeled “teachers' academic optimism.” The distributed leadership patterns reflect the extent to which the performance of leadership functions is consciously aligned across the sources of leadership, and the degree to which the approach is either planned or spontaneous.

Data for the study were the responses of 1,640 elementary and secondary teachers in one Ontario school district to two forms of an online survey, xx items in form 1 and yy items in form 2. Two forms were used to reduce the response time required for completion and each form measured both overlapping and separate variables.

The paper finds that high levels of academic optimism were positively and significantly associated with planned approaches to leadership distribution, and conversely, low levels of academic optimism were negatively and significantly associated with unplanned and unaligned approaches to leadership distribution.

This study provides as‐yet rare empirical evidence about the relationship between distributed leadership and other important school characteristics. It also adds support to arguments for the value of more coordinated forms of leadership distribution.

The objective of this chapter is to analyze educational leadership policy in New Jersey, US, and Ontario, Canada, focusing on the inclusion of the unique needs of systematically marginalized students, specifically refugees and forced immigrant (RFI) youth. Modes of inquiry are qualitative document analysis of New Jersey and Ontario leadership policies, preparation requirements, and standards. The objective of this paper is to present an extensive literature review of policies related to educational leadership and supporting RFI youth and their teachers as well as to reveal gaps in policies and examine pre- and in-service training requirements. Within the field of comparative and international education, this chapter highlights the institutionalization of trends in educational leadership at state or provincial levels and how these macro-level policies influence educators’ abilities to meet the needs of students from marginalized communities, such as refugees and immigrants.

The purpose of this paper is to inquire about the characteristics of effective school leadership networks and the contribution of such networks to the development of individual leaders’ professional capacities.

The study used path-analytic techniques with survey data provided by 450 school and district leaders in Ontario to test a path model of effective network characteristics. Variables in the model included network leadership, structure, health, connectivity, outcomes and unintended challenges.

Results confirmed that the model was a very good fit with the data, and as a whole, explained 51 percent of the variation in network outcomes. Network leadership had the largest total effect on network outcomes (R2=0.56), followed closely by the effects of network health (R2=0.49) and network connectivity (R2=0.46).

The study was limited to leadership networks intentionally organized within districts, not networks organized by school leaders themselves or networks arising spontaneously by their members. Results cannot be generalized to other types of networks.

In addition to a focus on single unit leadership development in districts, systematic initiatives should be designed to help prepare network leaders to foster the forms of collaboration that are so central to professional capacity development.

Results of the study offer explicit guidance to network leaders about how to improve the contribution of network participation to their colleagues’ capacities; it is one of a very small number studies in educational contexts to provide such guidance.

In this paper, the authors recap the history and evolution of ISSPP research in the USA with research teams that grew from one location in 2002 to seven teams at present. The authors also examine the unique context of public education in America by describing its governance, key policies and funding as well as increasing student diversity due to changing internal student demographics and global population migrations. In particular, the authors describe how decentralization in American public education that has led to long-standing systemic inequities in school resource allocations and subsequently to marked gaps in performance outcomes for children from poor communities, especially for those of color. These existing inequities were the reason the USA research team was the only national ISSPP team from the original network of eight countries that choose to study exclusively leadership in challenging, high needs schools that performed beyond expectations.

The authors describe the common multi-case case study methodology (Merriam, 1988) and interview protocols employed in order to gather multiple perspectives on school success in high-needs communities and the principal's contribution to that success. Leithwood and Riehl's (2005) framework of core leadership practices for successful school leadership was used to analyze our data across all cases.

The authors present key findings from cases across the USA and synthesize common trends across these findings.

The authors conclude the paper with a discussion of their overarching impressions from almost two decades of study, the importance of national and local context in examining school leadership and, lastly, suggestions for future research.

This article contributes to findings from the longest and largest international network on successful leadership.

The purpose of this study was to examine the integration of instructional and transformational leadership models of leadership in sustaining quality teaching and learning in schools. The study sought to establish how principals integrate instructional and transformational leadership in enhancing learner performance.

The study employed qualitative methods of collecting and analysing data. The principal sources of data were six face-to-face semi-structured interview questions with school principals from selected schools in rural South Africa. Qualitative evidence was collected from six principals selected through purposive sampling. The selection of participants was based on the criteria that there was evidence of employing instructional and transformational leadership.

Findings from the study provided evidence that instructional and transformational leadership approaches were used to change under performing schools. There was evidence of individualised consideration and principals supporting teachers through providing rewards and motivation. It was established that principals build a school culture that promotes successful academic improvement. The study showed that the integration of instructional and transformational models of leadership leads to a climate that promotes a culture of teaching and learning.

The study covered six schools in South Africa. Findings from the study have implications that principals are cornerstones to achieving quality teaching and learning in schools.

The study was conducted in schools that were seen to adopt instructional and transformational leadership. This study is among the most important studies that were conducted in South Africa on the role of leadership in enhancing a culture of teaching and learning.

The study has critical implications for policy making and influences on school leadership in general and the adoption of strategies, policies and models that can improve teaching and learning. The study highlights the importance of integrating leadership models.

This is an original study conducted in South Africa and data was conducted through face-to-face interviews to seek for opinions from participants in their original settings.

This paper aims to identify what counts as successful school leadership within a Norwegian context.

The paper uses multi‐site case study methods as a methodological approach. In selecting cases the first strategy included schools appointed as “good practice schools” by the Ministry of Education and Research. The second strategy was to obtain a desired variation based on different factors like school size and structure, rural/urban representation and principals' gender.

Leadership in the case schools are almost entirely practiced through collaboration and team efforts, and a learning‐centered approach is the focal point for the schools' philosophy as well as for its practice. Respect of the individual student and colleague in the building of professional communities of practice seems to be a guiding norm of conduct. In addition, school leaders that are successful in fulfilling a moral enterprise based on democratic principles and values, manage to deal with the types of dilemmas that are at the core of working with people in a school.

The study shows how successful leadership is an interactive process involving many people and players.