Executive Summary: Review of Research: How Leadership Influences Student Learning

The executive summary for a report that examines the available evidence and offers educators, policymakers and all citizens interested in promoting successful schools, some answers to the questions: How leadership matters, how important those effects are in promoting the learning of all children, and what the essential ingredients of successful leadership are. This research is part of a 5-year, $3.5 million research project funded by the Wallace Foundation (New York) examining the effect of educational leadership on student achievement. The results of this study describe the nature of successful leadership practices at the state, district and school levels. The study is also identifying how those practices shape instructional behaviors of teachers which ultimately lead to improved student learning.