Does School Leadership Influence Opportunity to Learn for 15-Year-Olds in the United States and Brazil?

• In Event: 49.023 - International Perspectives on Leadership and Family Relationships

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to test if principals influence student opportunity to learn in Brazil and US schools. While educational leadership research has searched for principal effects on achievement, we know little about how principals might influence student access to math content. Through opportunity to learn (OTL), schools might mediate the strong relationship between student socioeconomic status, or family academic resources, and achievement. The results of this study show how family academic resources and opportunities to learn are distributed within and across schools in two countries with distinct educational systems. Using 2012 PISA cross-sectional data, neither country showed a leadership effect on 15 year old student OTL. However, each country had specific significant student and school characteristics.

Authors

• Angela Urick, The University of Oklahoma

• Alison Wilson, The University of Oklahoma

• Cynthia Paes de Carvalho, PUC-Rio - Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro

• Ana Cristina Oliveira

• S. Marshall Perry, Dowling College

• Mariane Campelo Koslinski, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro