The Relationship between Principal Cultural Intelligence and Graduation Rates of Black and Latinx Students: A Study of Cultural Responsiveness in Public High School Principals

Our nation’s culturally diverse public school students require transformative social justice school leadership that values, affirms, and includes all cultures. Studies focused on educational leadership for diverse student populations increasingly center around cultural responsiveness just as empirical studies on cultural intelligence (CQ) outside the field of education are also proliferating. This study was built upon a conceptual framework that highlights the overlaps between culturally responsive school leadership (CRSL) and the multi-dimensional framework of CQ. Based upon evidence of CQ as an antecedent to a number of positive outcomes in culturally diverse settings, the purpose was to uncover the extent to which principal CQ predicts Black and Latinx students’ high school graduation rates. Data collection involved the 20-item Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) (Ang et al., 2007) and federal data on high school graduation rates for Black, Latinx, and White students. The sample was drawn from 18 of the state’s 67 districts, and included 28 principals with a tenure at their current schools of three years or more. A bivariate correlation analysis, a multiple regression analysis, estimators of cross-validated R2, a test of differences of R2, and moderation tests were conducted using a new program developed by Morris and Lieberman (2021). Four significant correlations were detected. Black student graduation rates positively correlated to metacognitive CQ and the combination of cognitive CQ, motivational CQ, and behavioral CQ. Cognitive CQ and motivational CQ correlated to one another, as were cognitive CQ and metacognitive CQ. Results indicated that CRSL plays a positive role in education, with particular promise for Black students. However, results could not be cross-validated from the sample to the population. Furthermore, race/ethnicity did not moderate the relationship between graduation rates and CQ and its subscales. Limitations included a lack of power related to the small sample, the use of a course metric (graduation rates) with limited variance as an outcome variable, and the challenges inherent in investigating an indirect relationship such as that between principal and students. This study has begun the task of filling the CQ gap in the educational leadership literature, and recommendations for greatly needed additional research are made.