School Leadership That Works

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In School Leadership that Works, Marzano, Waters, and McNulty discuss their findings of 69 studies on the effects of school leadership on student achievement. Additionally, they share the survey results of over 650 building principals. Based on these findings, they have developed a list of 21 leadership responsibilities, along with a five-point plan that will affect student achievement. Finally, they present a first order and second order of change sequence to facilitate student success.
Marzano, a well-established researcher in the field of education and President of Marzano Associates consulting firm, has teamed with Timothy Waters and Brian McNutly to write this book that combines research with action steps. Waters bring with him his experience of over 23 years as an educator and seven of those years as a superintendent. Currently he serves as CEO of Mid –continent Research for Education and learning (McREL). Brian McNulty also brings many years of experience in education, ranging from Assistant Superintendent to Assistant Commissioner of Education. McNulty is Vice President of Field Services for McREL All three have authored numerous books in the field of education.
The authors take a firm stance against current research rhetoric regarding the correlation of student performance to leadership. These groups suggest that research has not proven that school leadership is important to student achievement (pg 6) and that the research that is presented does not offer guidance on how to be an effective leader (p 12). Marzano and his team take issue. They reviewed and analyzed 35 years of research that disputes the aforementioned belief. In fact, it has led them to believe that a strong school leader actually has ‘a substantial eff...

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...ne book.
Since the authors work for an education research group, it is understandable that the book contains much data. For an educator and reader who enjoy numbers and statistics, this book will be enjoyable. However, the average reader might be overwhelmed by this format and may not take advantage of the information that is provided because it is so data dense.
Overall, it seems unclear if the book is a reference on how to become a strong school leader or a resource for/assessment of the research findings on strong leadership and its effects on student performance. Either way, there is enough ‘meat’ in both sections for everyone to get something out of the reading.

Works Cited

Marzano, R. J., Waters, T., & McNulty, B. A. (2005). School leadership that works: From research to results. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

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