Author Description

"The Effective Leadership and Pupil Outcomes Project is the largest and most extensive study of contemporary leadership to be conducted in England to date. Its sampling methods and innovative mixed methods design have enabled it to examine the work of head teachers and other school leaders in a range of primary and secondary schools nationally. All these schools are recognised as having achieved success in terms of improvement in pupil attainment measures and were highly effective in value added terms over at least a three year consecutive period. The study focussed on schools that were identified to have significantly raised pupil attainment levels over a relatively short three year period (2003-2005). Many of the schools continued to maintain or further improve their results in subsequent years. The ability to continue to improve or to sustain effectiveness over longer periods is an indicator that improvement has become embedded in the school?s work and culture and the result of heads? application of combinations of strategies within and across school development phases. Through a combination of statistical analysis of national data sets on pupils? attainment three groups of schools were identified, all of which had made sustained improvements in academic outcomes but from different starting points. Low start, Moderate start and High start. Questionnaires sent to a large sample of heads and key staff in schools which had made consistent improvements combined with twenty detailed case studies has enabled the research to determine that change for improvement is not a linear process through the identification of direct and indirect relationships between the work of effective heads, changes in school and classroom processes and conditions and improvements in pupil outcomes. The research demonstrates that heads in more effective schools are successful in improving pupil outcomes through who they are - their values, virtues dispositions, attributes and competences - the