VALUES CONGRUENCE: ITS EFFECT ON PERCEPTIONS OF MONTANA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP PRACTICES AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between principal and teacher values congruence and perceived principal leadership practices. Additionally, this study considered the relationship between values congruence, leadership practices, and student achievement. The perceptions teachers hold regarding their principal's effectiveness have proven to be an important variable that influences the quality of the school, when quality is defined in terms of student achievement levels (Cotton, 2003; Marzano et. al., 2005). This study sought a better understanding of the factors that influence a teacher's perceptions of their principal's effectiveness to provide insight into the teacher/principal relationship and its subsequent association with student achievement. The statistical analyses in this study revealed that values congruence between teachers and principals is not a variable that has a statistically significant relationship to teachers' perceptions of their principal's leadership practices. This study also revealed that teacher/principal values congruence has no statistically significant relationship to student achievement levels. This study suggests that principals would be well served to focus their efforts on factors that have been shown to improve student achievement instead of seeking to affect the congruence between their work values and their staff's work values. The existing research base focuses the school leader on creating practices that are conducive to building professional teacher/principal relationships rooted in the examination of student data with a constant eye upon adjusting instruction that meets the diverse needs of each individual learner (DuFour & Eacker, 1998; Schmoker, 1999, 2006). A focus upon assuring teachers' utilization of instructional practices that have been found to impact student achievement is also essential (Marzano et al., 2003, 2005; Danielsen, 2002). It is advisable that principals focus their efforts in these areas rather than upon seeking to effect the level of values congruence that might exist between the principal and his/her staff.
Achievement, Congruence, Leadership, Practices, Principal, Values
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