New Study Compares Organizational Models and Leadership in Rural High Schools
By Brian Rhode and Amanda Lester
Organizational models and leadership practices can play a significant role in affecting student outcomes. As noted in recent school leadership research, “Leaders in schools matter, and their importance is illuminated when they make a difference in school outcomes.” This understanding is particularly poignant when examining how leadership models are developed and implemented in schools with better-than-expected student outcomes as compared to their typically performing counterparts.
A new NYKids-based study (A Comparative Study of Leadership and Management in Rural Odds-Beating and Typically Performing High Schools), offers insight into this issue by utilizing data from Phase I of NYKids’ 2018 Career and College Readiness study. This embedded study investigated leadership and management approaches through a comparative analysis of rural odds-beating and typically performing schools in New York State. The study applies symbolic leadership and rational management as a lens in order to better understand the incidence of different organizational models and types of leadership in schools with different student performance outcomes. The odds-beating and typically performing schools were compared with regard to the degree to which they are loosely or tightly coupled (i.e. how much or how little autonomy is provided to front-line educators) as related to educators’ sense-making around what to do and how to do it.
Organizational Models, District and School Leadership, and Student Success
One key to unlocking the potential for each young person to thrive and succeed academically in high school is to take into account how districts and schools are designed and the direction received from their leaders. Along these lines, understanding the ways in which the organization of schools and districts impacts leaders’ behaviors and practices, including what leaders prioritize and do and how they align with front-line educators’ work, is worthy of study.
To learn more about how the school organization model-leadership connection relates to student outcomes, the study was structured around the following four primary research questions that examine alignment and coherence between leadership priorities and actions, as well as the ways processes occurred toward achieving common goals for student success in odds-beating and typically performing schools:
Study Methodology and Findings
The study was conducted by drawing upon data from Phase I of the NYKids’ College and Career Readiness study and focused on the rural odds-beating and typical performing schools. In Phase 1, interviews and focus groups were conducted with district administrators, principals, teachers, and other professionals at both odds-beating and typically performing schools to learn more about policies, practices, and insights related to preparing young people for college or career.
Through cross-case analysis, typically performing schools were found to demonstrate more loosely coupled structures and less directive leadership. This resulted in more siloed capacities for student support. This differed from odds-beating schools where leadership practices and organizational structures more often landed in between tightly and loosely coupled designs that, in practice, reflected the managerial style of bounded autonomy.
Along those lines, the following conclusions were noted about how organizational models and district and school leadership practices in odds-beating schools relate to the capacity and practices demonstrated by teachers and staff:
Odds-beating District and School Leaders were found to–
- Emphasize “improvement mindsets” in tandem with adaptive, proactive leadership,
- Empower educator agency (i.e. exerting voice and choice) for students and front-line professionals-especially teachers,
- Employ leadership and management strategies and emphasize discourses which are explicitly student-centered,
- Strategically blend tight and loose coupling mechanisms when they grant teachers and other front-line professionals’ discretionary authority,
- Demonstrate skillful resource management,
- Rely on data in all matters of direction-setting, priority establishment, and resource reallocations, and
- Hold themselves and others accountable for collaboration and timely communication, building trust, and improving alignment and coherence in their loosely-coupled organizations.
By understanding how district and school leadership practices influence, and are influenced by, school organizational structures, educators can identify strategies to improve student success outcomes within their own local context.
To read more about organizational models and leadership in odds-beating rural schools as highlighted in this study, see these case studies about Sherburne-Earlville and Alfred-Almond, and check out other case studies on the NYKids Research Results page.
As part of our mission to inform, inspire, and improve, NYKids offers a variety of improvement resources and research results from studies on odds-beating schools. To learn more, visit www.ny-kids.org.
