Teacher Community in Urban Elementary Schools - The Role of Leadership and Bureaucratic Accountability

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dawugda

Study examines how principal leadership and accountability policies influence teachers’ sense of community in urban elementary schools. Positioned within research on professional teacher communities—shared values, cooperative support, and mutual accountability for improving student achievement—the analysis addresses limited prior work measuring teacher community via community theories. Data come from NCES Schools and Staffing Survey (1999–2000), using two-level multilevel regression on urban public K-5 schools to test leadership-amenable policy effects.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages42

Reading Time1 h 46 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Research Purpose and Background

Data and Methods

Results

Principal Leadership Effects

Accountability and Standards Effects

Keywords

| education policy analysis archives
A peer-reviewed, independent, open access, multilingual journal | | | --- | --- | | Arizona State University | | | Volume 19 Number 3 30th of January 2011 ISSN 1068–2341 | | | Teacher Community in Urban Elementary Schools: The Role of Leadership and Bureaucratic Accountability1
John M. Weathers
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Citation: Weathers, J. M. (2011) . Teacher community in urban elementary schools: The role of leadership and bureaucratic accountability. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 19 (3) . Retrieved [date], from [http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/887](http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/887)
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of principal leadership and accountability policies on teachers’sense of community. This study is situated within the research and policy/practice discourse over the importance of schools developing a professional community of teachers who share common values, cooperate in support of these values, and a have sense of mutual accountability as a means of improving student achievement. However, to date, few studies have examined the effect of leadership practices and accountability policies on teacher communities, and these studies do not conceptualize and measure teacher community inline with theories of community. Additionally, there is a pervasive and mostly untested belief by advocates of teacher professionalization that top-down management, standards, and accountability policies are antithetical to teacher communities. Data for this study come from the National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) Schools and Staffing Survey (1999-2000) . A two-level multilevel regression analysis was used with a public school urban elementary (K-5) | | 1 Accepted under the editorship of Sherman Dorn. Submitted 10/20/2008 Revisions Received 12/30/2009 Accepted: 12/15/2010 Education Policy Analysis Archives Vol. 19, No. 3 2 subset of the SASS data. Principal leadership has a very strong positive effect on teacher community—the strongest effect of any policy-amenable variable. Significant principal actions include: recognizing teacher effort and communicating expectations; and a principal’s direct efforts to build community among teachers. The effect of teacher classroom control and policy influence is significant, but reduced by measures of principal leadership. Teachers’ use of standards is associated with a sense of community, but a somewhat limited measure of school performance-based accountability has no association. Keywords: teacher collaboration; school administration; teacher administrator relationship; school policy; teacher autonomy; elementary schools; and urban schools. Comunidad educativa en las escuelas primarias urbanas: El papel del liderazgo y larendición de cuentas burocráticas Resumen: El objetivo de este estudio es determinar el efecto del liderazgo de los directores/as de escuelas y de las políticas de rendición de cuentas en la percepción de los docentes sobre el sentido de comunidad. Este estudio se alinea con las investigaciones que rescatan la importancia de que las escuelas desarrollen una comunidad profesional donde los/as profesores/as comparten valores comunes, cooperan para mantener esos valores, y tienen un percepción de responsabilidad mutua como medio para mejorar el rendimiento escolar. Sin embargo, hasta ahora, pocos estudios investigaron el efecto de las prácticas de liderazgo y políticas de rendición de cuentas en comunidades docentes, y estos estudios no conceptualizaron y evaluaron comunidades docentes siguiendo teorías sobre comunidad. Por otra parte, hay una la creencia común, y, en general no probada, entre los partidarios de la profesionalización docente que sistemas de gestión verticales, normas y las políticas de rendición de cuentas son antitéticos con comunidades docentes. Los datos de este estudio se obtuvieron del Centro Nacional de Estadísticas

FAQs

What is the study’s main purpose?

To determine the effect of principal leadership and accountability policies on teachers’ sense of community.

What data and method does the study use?

It uses NCES Schools and Staffing Survey data (1999–2000) and applies a two-level multilevel regression analysis to urban public elementary (K–5) school subsets.

Which factor shows the strongest impact on teacher community?

Principal leadership has a very strong positive effect and is the strongest effect among policy-amenable variables.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dawugda