A Quantitative Study of the Impact of Leadership on School Culture in a Small Rural School District as Measured by Stakeholder Satisfaction

This study examined the relationship of school leadership on school culture. Given the demands on educational leaders, the goal is to improve student achievement and school culture. The literature review examines the previous study of the history of school leadership, history of school culture, effective school leadership, elements of effective school culture, and public perception as it relates to school culture. The literature review discusses leadership styles and how each one contributes to positive school culture as perceived by various stakeholders to build the case for the current study. The study uses the School Culture Triage Survey by Wagner (2002). It is a 17-item Likert scale survey defining three variables–professional collaboration, affiliative collegiality, and self-determination/efficacy. The analysis was done with hierarchical linear modeling and stepwise multiple regression. By using the combination of methods, it was confirmed that leadership does have a statistically significant impact on school culture. A positive correlation was found to exist in all schools with variables with comparison to professional collaboration. In schools, including the three middle schools in this study, school leaders need to focus on valuing teacher ideas, trusting the professional judgment of teachers, praising teachers who perform well, involving teachers in decision-making, facilitating teachers working together, keeping teachers informed about current issues, rewarding teachers for experimenting with new ideas and techniques, supporting risk-taking and innovation in teaching, and protecting instruction and planning time