The Relationship of Learner-Centered Beliefs of Principals and Student Achievement
Abstract
Educators are focused with efforts to improve student achievement through reform and policies; a majority of the efforts are focused on accountability reform. The learner-centered model focuses on school reform that is organized around the personal domain for systemic reform. How principals work with students is greatly influenced by policy and what they believe about student learning and behavior. This dissertation attempted to establish principal beliefs and their effectiveness on student achievement on the End-of-Grade and End-of-Course test in the state North Carolina.
Survey data was collected and analyzed to determine if, and to what extent, significant differences between learner-centered and non-learner-centered principals were found. In addition, the relationship of learner-centered beliefs and non-learner-centered beliefs with student achievement as measured by the end-of-grade and end-of-course tests of the 2010-2011 was tested and failed to achieve significant differences. Therefore, this study provides added research about the difference, as well as causal relationship, of principal beliefs and student achievement.