Marzano, R. J., Waters, T., & McNulty, B. A. (2005). School leadership that works: From research to results.

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 (196 pp., $27.95 pb, ISBN: 1-4166-0227-5).

School Leadership that Works; From Research to Results is the latest in a series of books that started with the highly successful, Instruction That Works. The book's intent is to combine rigorous research with practical advice in the examination of school leadership and academic achievement. The heart of the book is the identification of 21 categories of behaviors that the authors refer to as "responsibilities" of school leaders. Authors Marzano, Waters, and McNulty conducted a meta-analysis of 69 leadership studies that investigate the relationship between a school's principal leader and student achievement, spanning from 1978 to 2001. There is a small but growing body of literature on the importance of the principal's role in gifted and talented programs, and this book incorporates the findings and conclusions of this literature. For example, in Grantham and Ford's study of principal leadership and underrepresentation of Black students in gifted programs (Grantham & Ford, 1998), the authors found that teacher supervision and evaluation, staff development, and quality control, were essential leadership traits in remedying the problems of underrepresentation. Each of these is manifested in the 21 responsibilities.

The authors provide descriptions of each of the 21 categories of leadership, or responsibilities of leaders, along with brief practical applications. The leadership responsibility with the highest correlation to academic achievement was situational awareness, which addresses an awareness of the details and undercurrents of the school and uses that knowledge to solve problems. Flexibility was the second highest leadership responsibility correlated with academic achievement. Flexibility as defined by the authors is the ability to adapt leadership behavior to current situational needs. The authors expressed an important caveat that these correlations, in isolation, hold little practical value. The true importance of the leadership responsibilities lies in their application to different types of change. Although the authors concluded that the correlation between leadership behavior and student achievement was large enough that school leaders should feel compelled to seek ways to improve their leadership skills, the actual correlation amounted to .25.

Chapter 5 describes how different change conditions emphasize different leadership responsibilities. First-order change is incremental and gradual, and is characterized by the day-to-day management of the school. All 21 responsibilities are needed for first-order change to go well, but especially monitoring/evaluating, culture, and ideals/beliefs. Second-order change is more difficult and drastic. It involves solving complex problems that are many times riddled with paradox and dilemma. Interestingly, only 7 of the 21 leadership responsibilities were associated with second-order change. They were knowledge of curriculum/instruction/assessment, optimizer, intellectual stimulation, change agent, monitoring/evaluating, flexibility and ideals/beliefs. Leading a school through a new reform effort or innovation is a prime example of second-order change.

School reform models and action steps were also explored. Comprehensive school reform studies such as the meta-analysis conducted by Borman, Hewes, Overman, and Brown (2003) were examined. Borman et al. analyzed 232 models and identified 3 models as having strong evidence of effectiveness. The 3 models were Direct Instruction (Adams & Engelmann, 1996), the School Development Program (Joyner, Ben-Avie, & Comer, 2004), and Success for All (Slavin & Madden, 2001). Marzano, Waters, and McNulty then go on to detail the steps involved in designing a site-specific approach to school reform, using the "What Works in Schools" model. The book sets forth a plan for effective leadership through the creation of a leadership team, recognizing that no leader can effectively and simultaneously practice all 21 responsibilities.

The goal of presenting leadership research analysis with practical applications is a grand endeavor especially given the large number of identified leadership behaviors. The book definitely fulfills its goal of providing research findings, and the succinct reviews of leadership theories are easy to comprehend. The authors are even-handed in their analysis, and spend a good portion of the book addressing research findings that contradict their own findings. The identified leadership responsibilities contain numerous references to recent studies that allow the reader to investigate a given leadership area in greater detail. The final section of the book contains a 46 page technical description of study methods employed by the authors. This hefty section will be of particular interest to educational researchers and graduate students involved in design and analysis of their own research.

The practical suggestions for each leadership responsibility at times lacks substantive depth and comes across more like a checklist. For instance, only one page is dedicated to responsibility number five, culture. This subject alone could easily fill a complete chapter, and the brief description of such an important responsibility undermines the authors' stated objective of providing practical advice. The short length of the book--196 pages in total--contributes to this lack of depth.

In spite of the superficial treatment of some dimensions, School Leadership that Works: From Research to Results is an excellent book for school leaders and potential school leaders embarking on careers as principals. It is also a good refresher for veteran school principals interested in current research regarding leadership skills.

REFERENCE

Grantham, T. C., & Ford, D. Y. (1998). Principal instructional leadership can reverse the underrepresentation of Black students in gifted education. National Association of Secondary School Principals. NASSP Bulletin, 82(595), 101-109.

Todd Jeffrey, a former principal and teacher, is the president of the Oregon Association for Talented and Gifted and is working towards his doctoral degree in educational psychology at Purdue University. E-mail: [e-mail]