Measuring systemic leadership in Chilean public schools: validation of a questionnaire and its association with school outcomes

This study examines the factorial validity of a systemic leadership questionnaire and explores its association with school outcomes in Chile’s reformed public education system. The instrument, , was administered to teachers and school leaders across 27 schools within a Public Education Service (SLEP). The study provides evidence of the instrument’s internal consistency and construct validity. Using aggregated school-level data, multiple regression models were estimated to explore the association between leadership practices with a systemic orientation and academic performance (SIMCE) and Indicators of Personal and Social Development (IDPS). While leadership dimensions were not significantly associated with SIMCE scores, some dimensions showed statistically significant associations with IDPS, particularly academic self-esteem, civic participation . These findings should be interpreted cautiously given the limited number of schools, aggregated perception data, and the modest explanatory power of several models. The study offers an exploratory analysis of possible relationships between systemically oriented leadership practices and broader dimensions of educational quality. By operationalizing systemic leadership as a practice-based construct embedded in everyday organizational practices within schools, this study contributes to the literature on leadership in multi-level and networked education systems and provides empirical evidence regarding the measurement of leadership practices with a systemic orientation in Chile’s public education reform.