Claim 5: School leadership has a greater influence on schools andpupils when it is widely distributed
Despite the popularity of this claim, evidence in its support is less extensive and in some cases less direct than that in support of the previous claims. Nevertheless, it is quite compelling. We begin with an illustration of this evidence using a recent study designed in much the same way as the one used to illustrate Claim 4. Results of this study are summarised in Figure 2, a path analysis model (with numbers included this time) representing the strength of relationships among the same variables (except altered teacher practices) considered in the study illustrating Claim 4. The leadership measured in this casewas not provided exclusively by headteachers: we asked about the leadership provided by many possible sources – individual teachers, staff teams, parents, central office staff, students and vice-principals – as well as the principal or headteacher. ‘Total leadership’ refers to the combinedinfluence of leadership from all sources.
Figure 2 indicates the following.
• There are significant relationships between total leadership and the three dimensions of staff performance.
• The strongest relationships are with teachers’ perceived working conditions.
• The weakest relationships are with teacher motivation and commitment.
• The relationship between total leadership and teachers’ capacity is much stronger than the relationship (illustrated in Figure 1) between the headteacher’s leadership alone and teachers’ capacity.
The most significant results of this study for our purposes, however, were the indirect effects of total leadership on student learning and achievement, through its direct effects on the three dimensions of staff performance. Total leadership accounted for a quite significant 27 per cent of the variation in student achievement across schools. This is a much higher proportion of explained variation (two to three times higher) than is typically reported in studies of individual headteacher effects.
In addition to this direct evidence about the effects of distributed leadership, less direct evidence in support of this claim can be found in research on formal leadership succession, school improvement initiatives, processes used to successfully turn around low-performing schools, and the movement toward flatter organisational structures and team problem-solving.