How Leadership and School Climate Influence Student Achievement: Evidence from a Comparative Meta-Analysis

Background/purpose: This study aims to investigate the influence of leadership (principal and teacher leadership) and school climate on student achievement as well as the moderating effect of some variables in this relationship. Materials/methods: With this purpose, a meta-analysis of data gathered from a total of 90 empirical studies including 83,337 participants was performed. The random effects model was utilized to measure the overall effect sizes. Results: The results showed that leadership and school climate had a moderate effect on academic achievement. In the USA context, organizational climate, principal leadership, and teacher leadership affected student achievement respectively. However, in the Turkish context, teacher leadership had a greater influence on student achievement the school climate, and principal leadership. The analysis also revealed that the influence of leadership on student achievement was attained through transformational, supportive, distributed, and instructional leadership practices respectively. Among the moderators tested, only the education level was determined to moderate the effect of school climate on student achievement. It was also concluded that an open organizational climate in primary schools had a greater effect on academic achievement. Conclusion: The current study evidenced that leadership and school climate are significant variables in improving student achievement.