Date

2-2014

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Chair

Clarence Holland

Keywords

achievement, principal leadership, servant leadership, student achievement

Disciplines

Educational Administration and Supervision | Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Educational Leadership | Educational Methods | Elementary and Middle and Secondary Education Administration | Teacher Education and Professional Development

Abstract

The purpose of this correlational study is to test the theory of servant leadership that relates the servant leadership characteristics of school principals to student achievement in Southwest Virginia schools. The primary independent variable was principals' servant leadership characteristics as derived from a self-assessment survey (SASL). The dependent variable was student achievement as measured by students' scores on the Virginia Department of Education Standard of Learning achievement tests in math and reading. Other variables tested were principal total experience in education, principal total experience in administration and principal education level. The data analysis chosen for this research is the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient, which is more commonly known as either Pearson's correlation or Pearson's r. However, because 3 out of 6 variables failed normality tests, Spearman's rho, a nonparametric test, was chosen as the best analysis for the monotonic data.
The results of analysis yielded a significant positive correlation of principal servant leadership characteristics and reading achievement scores. There were no other significant findings among other variables tested.

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