School Climate as a Key Factor to Improve Academic Outcomes: A Task for School Leadership
Given the pivotal role played by school principals in school effectiveness (Sammons, 2008; Souza, 2006), this study asks how principals’ work can affect schools’ outcomes? Based in the concepts of school leadership (Leithwod, 2009; Lima, 2001) and school climate (Aguerre, 2004; Brunet, 1992), it was developed a survey with new questionnaires that were tested and applied to a sample of 42 municipal public schools in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Through statistic approach, it was investigated possible associations between the principals’ activity and both the teachers’ work and students’ proficiency. The data analysis indicates that a recognized and proactive principal, specially creating a positive environment to academic practices, is an important element for school outcomes. The study intended to analyze which aspects related to principals’ job (leadership, relationship, management, etc) could be associated to two important school outcomes: teachers’ job satisfaction and students’ proficiency. In doing so, seeks to enlarge the discussion about school leadership and its effects to school outcomes by proposing a new quantitative research instrument, and presenting the results of an exploratory study, with important clues to future researches on the school leadership field.
