Distributed leadership and high-stakes testing: Examining the relationship between distributed leadership and LEAP scores

Educational stakeholders are aware that school administration has become an incredibly intricate dynamic that is too complex for principals to handle alone. Test-driven accountability has made the already daunting task of school administration even more challenging. Distributed leadership presents an opportunity to explore increased leadership capacity by democratizing the decision-making process and vesting leadership activity to segments of the educational community traditionally viewed as followers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between distributed leadership and student achievement as measured by Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) assessments. The data were analyzed utilizing a quantitative methodological approach. Correlation coefficients were calculated to determine the strength and direction of the relationship between teacher perception of the collective effects, seven dimensions, and three forms of distributed leadership and student achievement. The results of correlational analyses indicated that the relationships between the collective effects of distributed leadership and academic achievement as measured by standardized LEAP ELA and math assessments were statistically non-significant at all performance levels of student achievement (e.g., Advanced, Mastery, Basic, Approaching Basic, and Unsatisfactory). There were statistically significant relationships between three dimensions of distributed leadership and the LEAP ELA assessment. Those dimensions include school culture, teacher leadership, and principal leadership. However, the significant relationships occurred only at the mastery achievement level. There were also statistically significant relationships between three forms of distributed leadership and the LEAP ELA assessment. Those forms include spontaneous collaboration, intuitive working relations, and institutionalized practices. These significant relationships also occurred only at the mastery achievement level. There were no significant relationships between any dimension or form of distributed leadership and the LEAP math assessment at any achievement level