Distributed Leadership is often considered an optimal form of leadership to improve student achievement. The challenge though is that previous research on distributed leadership has often described what distributed leadership is as opposed to what distributed leadership's impact on student achievement might be. Since leadership has an indirect effect on student achievement, exploring organizational factors that may have a more direct impact on student achievement is important. Academic optimism describes teachers' perceptions of the staff's collective efficacy, the trust experienced between teachers, and between teachers and administrators, and the extent to which academic press (high expectations) is evident in the school. Academic optimism is an organizational factor that improves student achievement according to previous research. This thesis examined patterns of distributed leadership and their correlation to academic optimism. Further I examined the impact that academic optimism has on student achievement. By surveying 2122 teachers in 113 schools in a large school board in south-central Ontario, I determined that planfully aligned distributed leadership had a significant correlation to academic optimism but academic optimism did not have a significant correlation to student achievement. Rather, academic press, one of the variables within academic optimism, did have a significant correlation to student achievement in language and math. This study concluded that planfully aligned distributed leadership mediated by academic press had a significant impact on student achievement.

Distributed Leadership is often considered an optimal form of leadership to improve student achievement. The challenge though is that previous research on distributed leadership has often described what distributed leadership is as opposed to what distributed leadership's impact on student achievement might be. Since leadership has an indirect effect on student achievement, exploring organizational factors that may have a more direct impact on student achievement is important. Academic optimism describes teachers' perceptions of the staff's collective efficacy, the trust experienced between teachers, and between teachers and administrators, and the extent to which academic press (high expectations) is evident in the school. Academic optimism is an organizational factor that improves student achievement according to previous research. This thesis examined patterns of distributed leadership and their correlation to academic optimism. Further I examined the impact that academic optimism has on student achievement. By surveying 2122 teachers in 113 schools in a large school board in south-central Ontario, I determined that planfully aligned distributed leadership had a significant correlation to academic optimism but academic optimism did not have a significant correlation to student achievement. Rather, academic press, one of the variables within academic optimism, did have a significant correlation to student achievement in language and math. This study concluded that planfully aligned distributed leadership mediated by academic press had a significant impact on student achievement.

This study described how principal leadership, consisting of both capacities and practices, advanced a climate of academic optimism among faculty to improve the achievement of all students including those from low-income family households within two public elementary schools in southern Arizona. Participants in the multiple embedded replication case study included one principal, five teachers, and one parent from each school. Semi-structured interviews, school observations, and document analysis were incorporated within the study. Findings revealed that peer observations helped build collective efficacy among teachers and required principal leadership to occur in a systemic manner. Interpretive analysis further demonstrated that principal leadership was valuable in developing academic emphasis within the school. Moreover, the principal was a powerful role model for cultivating trust between teachers and parents. An unexpected finding was that the leadership capacities and practices were not as precisely divided or separated as indicated by the conceptual framework. Rather, the capacities and practices were highly interrelated and mutually reinforcing. Based upon the analysis of patterns across cases, it was determined that the principals’ leadership capacities and practices influenced the climate of academic optimism. As a specific example, the principals studied utilized the bureaucracies within their schools to enable the work of teachers. Furthermore, the principals’ capacities of self-awareness and internalized moral perspective guided their vision of schooling. Compelling evidence was found for each capacity and practice detailed within the conceptual framework, and they were demonstrated in unique ways based on the specific circumstances of the site as well as the principal’s individual leadership style. The conceptual generalization from this interpretative qualitative case study suggests that, in terms of principal leadership, both “Who you are, and what you do, matter.”

Principal Academic Optimism is an hypothesized latent construct that has strong theoretical foundations in both educational research and educational psychology. Academic Optimism derives from research on school academic optimism and teacher academic optimism, which originated via Hoys, Tarters, and Woolfolk Hoys (2006a; 2006b) merger of school climate research with research on learned optimism, stemming from Martin Seligmans (1998, 2006) research on positive psychology. Principal Academic Optimism expands upon discoveries of School Academic Optimism and Teacher Academic Optimism. The theoretical framework of Principal Academic Optimism is built upon a strong research foundation of the organizational health model, social capital theory, social cognitive theory and positive psychology. The purpose of this research is to revise Riegel's (2012) Principal Academic Optimism Scale, thereby creating and testing a comprehensive measure of Principal Academic Optimism. The questionnaire used to accomplish this goal was a revised version of Riegel's Principal Academic Optimism Scale and Tschannen-Moran's and Gareis's (2004) Principal Trust Scale. By incorporating a measure for principal trust in faculty with a measure of principal trust in clients (parents and students), a more comprehensive measure of Principal Academic Optimism was validated and found reliable (α = 0.908). Perhaps the most compelling finding of the study was the significant negative relationship between principals' perception of trust in clients whose schools have high percentages of students receiving free and reduced price lunches (r = -0.444; p < 0.05). Principals with high percentages of free and reduced price lunch rates explained 72.203% of the variance in principals' self-reported perception of trust in clients. Principals of schools with 61%-80% or 81%+ percentages of free and reduced price lunch rates reported lower levels of trust in clients (parents and students). / Ed. D.

Academic optimism is a relatively new construct that combines collective efficacy, academic emphasis, and faculty trust in students and parents. The cumulative measure represents a robust picture of the social interactions within a school that influences the beliefs, behaviors and emotions of organizational members. Academic optimism has been established as a predictor of student achievement controlling for student socioeconomic status. However, past studies have not included student ethnicity in statistical models utilized to test the effect of academic optimism on student achievement, even though research and state achievement data show gaps among students of color and Anglo students that are just as substantial as those identified along socioeconomic. Additionally, there was a need to determine if academic optimism is simply a product of school context or if there is additional variance left to be explained by psychosocial interactions within schools. Therefore, the intent of this study was threefold: first, examine the relationships between the theoretical underpinnings of collective efficacy, academic emphasis, and faculty trust in students and parents; second, produce a more rigorous test of the effect of academic optimism on student achievement by including student ethnicity in addition to other student background characteristics; and third, determine to what magnitude school context explains a schools level of academic optimism. The author utilized multi-level analysis to test the relationship between school academic optimism and student achievement controlling for student ethnicity, socioeconomic status, previous achievement and school size within a new sample. The relationship between school academic optimism and school context was tested by employing multiple regression analysis. In a sample of 10,464 students nested within 97 elementary schools the author was able to determine that academic optimism is a positive predictor of student math and reading achievement. Furthermore, academic optimism is capable of mediating the negative relationships existing between both low socioeconomic status (SES) and student of color status and student achievement. Additionally, the studied revealed that only 52% of the variance in school level academic optimism is determined by school context.

Through using a Positive Youth Development framework and culturally based education program, Konaway Nikka Tillicum Native American Youth Academy aspires to mentor and prepare Native youth through high school and on to higher education. This collaborative research partnership investigated cultural identity, self-esteem, and academic optimism of Native American youth attending the academy. The results of this program evaluation found that cultural identity, self-esteem, and academic optimism were all closely related to each other as well as that they increased significantly when measured before and after the academy. GPA was found to not be predictive of cultural identity, self-esteem, or academic optimism prior to students attending the academy. Lastly, the relationship between cultural identity and academic optimism appeared to be explained through the indirect effect of self-esteem. The results suggest that culturally based education and positive youth development programs such as Konaway are efficacious in increasing protective factors among Native American youth.

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本研究旨在探討臺北縣國民小學分散式領導與教師學術樂觀的現況，剖析不同背景變項與學校變項知覺分散式領導與教師學術樂觀的差異情形，探討分散式領導對教師學術樂觀的關係，並根據研究結論，提出建議供有關單位參考。為達上述研究目的，本研究採用問卷調查法，以臺北縣60所國民小學之主任、組長及教師為研究對象，共寄發問卷632份，回收有效問卷553份，有效回收率為87.5％。本研究採用SPSS 17.0 for Windows和LISREL 8.80統計套裝軟體進行分析，獲得以下結論： 一、臺北縣國民小學教師知覺分散式領導、教師學術樂觀為中高程度 。 二、不同性別、教育程度、學校規模、學校地區之教師在知覺分散式領導與教師學術樂觀上，沒有顯著差異。 三、50（含）歲以上教師知覺分散式領導高於40歲以下教師，在知 覺教師學術樂觀也高於30（含）~40歲教師。 四、服務年資20（含）年以上教師在知覺分散式領導與教師學術樂觀上，高於10年以下教師。 五、教師兼主任知覺分散式領導高於班級導師；在知覺教師學術樂觀上，也高於教師兼組長及班級導師。 六、學校歷史30年以下與學校歷史90年以上的教師，在知覺分散式領導上，高於學校歷史30（含）~60年及學校歷史60（含）~90年教師；在知覺教師學術樂觀上，亦高於學校歷史30（含）~60年教師。 七、本研究建構之模式經過結構方程模式檢定獲得支持，分散式領導對教師學術樂觀具有正向顯著的影響。 最後依據上述研究結論，提出具體建議，以作為教育行政機關、國小學校行政參考運用。 關鍵詞：分散式領導、教師學術樂觀 / This study aimed to explore the current situation of Taipei County elementary schools’ distributed leadership and teacher academic optimism, and to analyze different background variables and school variables’ on the different perception of distributed leadership and teacher academic optimism, and to discuss the relationship between distributed leadership and teacher academic optimism. Based on the research conclusions, I also submitted recommendations for the relevant institutions’ reference. To achieve these purposes, this study used questionnaire survey method. I used the directors, team leaders and teachers from 60 elementary schools in Taipei County as our study objects. A total of 632 questionnaires were distributed, with 553 valid questionnaires. The effective rate was 87.5%. In this study, I used SPSS 17.0 for Windows and LISREL 8.80 statistical software for analysis and obtained the following conclusions: 1.Taipei County elementary school teachers’ perception of distributed leadership and teacher academic optimism is high. 2.There is no significant difference in different gender, education level, school size, school location in teachers’ perception of distributed leadership and teacher academic optimism. 3.Over 50 (inclusive) years old teachers’ perception on distributed leadership is higher than teachers under 40 years old. The teacher academic optimism is also higher than 30 (inclusive) to 40 years old teachers. 4.Teacher’s year of service above 20 (inclusive) years, their perception on distributed leadership and teacher academic optimism is higher than the teachers under 10 years. 5.Teachers also hold the post as directors’ perception on distributed leadership is higher than class teachers. Their perception of teachers academic optimism is also higher than teachers also hold the post as team leaders and class teachers. 6.Teachers at the school history of less than 30 years and school history over 90 years, their perception of distributed leadership is higher than teachers at school years between 30 (including) years to 60 years and school history of 60 (inclusive) years to 90 years. Their perception of teacher academic optimism is also higher than teachers at school history of 30 (inclusive) years to 60 years. 7.The model constructed in this study was supported through structural equation modeling test. Distributed leadership has a significant positive impact on teacher academic optimism. Finally, based on the above research conclusions, I submitted specific recommendations as references and applications for educational administration and elementary school administration. Keywords: distributed leadership, teacher academic optimism

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