WHY COLLECTIVE LEADER EFFICACY MATTERS
For years, much of the conversation about efficacy in schools centered on teachers, with a belief that teachers were the sole influence on student achievement.. Visible Learning (Hattie, 2018, 2011) sought to test this theory by understanding the impact of (a) the student, (b) home environment, (c) the school, (d) the curricula, (e) the teacher, and (f) teaching and learning approaches. The results did not merely provide a list of the relative effects of different influences on student achievement, but also the underlying impacts of various influencers–the most important of which was “the collective visibility and modeling of teaching and learning school-wide.” According to Hattie (2018), the data has changed little since he began studying the influences and effect sizes of student achievement in 2009.
Hattie’s (2018) updated research led to an important question:
- What beliefs do leaders hold about their own capacity to create change?
The topic of CLE is now PRIMARY to understand on a deeper level when working to cultivate change in school leadership teams, district leadership teams, and instructional leadership collectives, which are cross-role teams that go across districts, regions and states. And, the research seems to suggest that CLE–the shared belief of a leadership collective in its collective capability to improve practitioner learning, instructional practice, and student learning by developing shared understanding, engaging in joint work, and using evidence of progress and impact to guide continuous improvement– is empirically recognized as the effectual impact point for “the collective visibility and modeling of teaching and learning school-wide.”
In OUR WORK at CLC, a clear pattern arises when collectives create a shared understanding, engage in joint work around cycles of inquiry, and focus on evidence of progress and impact. The RESULT is a cultural belief that the cooperative efforts of a collective that visibly models teaching and learning school-wide can and WILL solve the influencers of student achievement.
RESEARCH IN SUPPORT OF CLE
Hallinger & Heck (2002) found that school improvement is most likely when leaders collaborate with teachers and specialists to shape mission, improve teaching, while building shared responsibility.
Leithwood & Jantzi (2008) demonstrated that collective leadership directly impacts student achievement by fostering conditions that strengthen teachers’ efficacy.
Robinson (2008) showed that promoting and participating in teacher and specialist learning experiences throughout an academic year has the largest leadership impact on student outcomes.
Bryk & Schneider (2002) revealed that relational trust among leaders, teachers, specialists, and parents is the connective tissue of culture and student achievement and social/emotional improvement.
Christenson (2023) noted that superintendent behaviors like vision-setting, collaboration, and open communication are strongly correlated with leadership cabinets’ collective efficacy, collaborative learning among professionals, student behavior, and student achievement.
DeWitt & Nelson (2025) suggest that by developing a shared professional understanding, engaging in joint work, and evaluating impact, school and district leadership can have a positive impact on professional and student learning and behavior.
Guskey (2002) has throughly documented that beliefs among school communities often grow through the learning, evidence, and impacts to professionals within the school community.
Collectively, the above studies show that CLE is more than a concept. It is a driver of systemwide cultural improvement. When professionals believe in their shared ability to influence outcomes, they have the ability to create the very conditions for teacher efficacy to flourish. And when beliefs align from administration through teachers to specialists, students benefit most.
FROM RESEARCH TO PRACTICE
CLC understands the power of a cooperative learning collective tends to be built upon three (3) distinct empowerments:
- Shared Understanding. CLCs agree on the “why” behind the work.
- Joint Work. CLCs pursue collective responsibility over working to promote oneself.
- Evidence of Impact. CLCs analyze the impact of their work as if it is the goal (e.g., “How do we know this work is making a difference?”).
All the above are needed to strengthen a leadership team’s belief in their collective and cooperative capacity and to ground that belief in evidence.
THE CHALLENGE OF CLE
The challenge for today’s leaders and specialists is rarely about whether CLE matters, as we have shown there is a growing body of research that supports its effectiveness. The issue at hand now is more about whether (a) intentional steps will be taken by leadership teams to cultivate collective and cooperative efficacy, (b) leadership teams will model CLE for their teachers and specialists, and (c) leadership teams will persistently evaluate their own impact instead of expecting their teachers and specialists to accomplish the task of efficacy on their behalf.
You can be a part of making those decisions for your school, your district, and your students.