School Leadership, Parental Involvement, and Student Achievement: A Comparative Analysis of Principal and Teacher Perspectives

Purpose: This study adopted a quantitative design to evaluate a new latent construct, “Parental Academic Commitment (PAC)”, that was composed of parental involvement (PARINVOL) and parents’ expectations of their children’s academic success (PAREXPT). Furthermore, we also explored how different perceptions of school leadership would impact parental academic commitment and student learning. More specifically, we compared how principal-perceived school leadership and teacher-perceived leadership would influence student achievement (SA) directly and indirectly through mediating parental academic commitment (PAC). Methods: To find answers, we utilized two Structural Equations Models—Multiple Indicators and Multiple Causes Analysis (SEM-MIMIC) to first confirm the psychometric properties of PAC, and then compared the two SEM models. Data from 202 principals, 4251 teachers, 10,291 parents, and 10,291 students in Hong Kong and Macao from PISA 2022 were utilized; both individual-level and school-level analyses were conducted. Results: Principal-rated and teacher-rated school leadership functioned differently in the 2 SEM models. Both ESCS (Economic, Social, and Cultural Status) and PAC were confirmed to be significant contributors to positive student outcomes.