Abstract No.	0286
Presentation	Early Career Researcher Conference Individual Paper
Title	Leadership for Leaning Effectiveness:  Perceptions of Student Academic Services in the Context of a Social Community.
Abstract	The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) became U.S. law on January 8, 2002.  NCLB’s goal was to improve educational outcomes for all students.  In September 2011, the Department of Education drafted a formal letter to the Chief State School Officers inviting them to apply for ESEA flexibility waivers containing annual measurable objectives (AMOs).   “NCLB requirements have unintentionally become barriers to State and local implementation of reforms” (US Ed., 2011).  Although instructional leadership investigations have contributed greatly to understanding how principal behaviors affect student outcomes, the causality analysis is far from complete.  Recently, instructional leadership has been alternatively termed leadership for learning to reflect the “open system” model in which the leadership behaviors transpire (Hallinger, 2011).  Past studies reveal leadership effects on student learning are limited by an academic institution's capacity to improve.  Capacity building models are available to address issues of improvement in student academic performance (Roy, E. B. & Hobart, L. H., 2005).  Changes to conceptual frameworks and investigation models allow for future discoveries in investigating leadership for learning.  The instructional behaviors of principals must be investigated beyond the learning community in which a majority of the action occurs.  An attempt to correlate principal effectiveness with student outcomes should be studied in the broader institutional system and social community (Mulford and Silins, 2009; Hallinger, 2011b; Heck, Ronald H., 1998).  Meta-analysis studies show cross-sectional design represents 90% of doctoral dissertation methodology.   Multi-level statistical analysis has the potential to further the understanding of leadership for learning using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM).  Bidirectional function models illustrate mediating variables.  Is there a measurable difference in self-perceptions of principals and perceptions of teachers in relation to instructional leadership behaviors servicing a social community?  The Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale:  Version 1.4 (PIMRS) survey was selected over the VAL-ED instrument due to its suitability in purpose.  Structural equation modeling (SEM) offers a methodological framework for investigating relationships because of its flexibility in accounting for measurement of leadership behavior in contextual constructs (Heck & Thomas, 2009).  Cautions exist in applying findings from leadership for learning studies to a particular school (Hallinger, 2011).  Limitations in applying findings in leadership for learning research lie within the difficulties of identifying contextual environments during which the instructional leadership behaviors operate (Leithwood, K. and Jantzi, D., 2000, p 113).  New models pose an opportunity to discover how leadership behaviors affect student outcomes in a variety of contextually rich environments.