Academic achievement--Evaluation.

The purpose of this study was to determine if teachers who use thinking and
leading actions have higher student achievement as measured by the teacher’s Value
Added Measure (VAM) score. A quantitative non-experimental design investigated the
relationships between teacher cognitive and behavioral agility and student achievement.
Cognitive agility, measured through the Strategic Thinking Questionnaire for Teachers
(STQT ), refers to the leader’s ability to use their repertoire of thinking skills. Behavioral
agility, measured with the Strategic Leadership Questionnaire for Teachers (SLQT ),
denotes the leader’s ability to use a wide array of leader influencing actions. Teachers
were surveyed and the data were analyzed through correlation and multiple regressions to
determine the relationship among the variables.
Although the cognitive and behavioral agility was not correlated with a teacher’s
VAM score, the results indicate that teachers do perceive themselves as leaders in their
classrooms. Educational leadership certification, higher degrees, and years experience of a teacher did moderate the relationship between local VAM and both cognitive and
behavioral agility. The sub-scales of systems thinking and transforming of the survey
instruments also were significant to the results. Theoretically, this study contributes to the
teacher leadership literature, focusing on the classroom teacher and their effect on student
achievement. Practically, with educational accountability changing the landscape, school
districts should train teachers to engage in leadership skills, reward teachers for earning a
Master’s degree in leadership, and work to retain high quality teachers who are leaders
within their classroom. Greater student achievement could be the result.

The purpose of this non-experimental study was to determine whether teacher
cognitive and behavioral agility relates to student achievement as measured by their
value-added model (VAM) score and their performance evaluation measured through the
Marzano instructional practice (IP) framework, and whether that relationship is
moderated by contextual variables. Cognitive agility, measured through the Strategic
Thinking Questionnaire for Teachers (STQ T TM), refers to the leader’s ability to use their
repertoire of thinking skills. Behavioral agility, measured with the Strategic Leadership
Questionnaire for Teachers (SLQ T TM), relates to the leader’s ability to use a wide array of
leader influencing actions. Teacher VAM score is the percent of the teacher’s students
that met or exceeded a statistically predicted score on the end of year assessment.
Teacher IP scores were also collected and were based on classroom walkthroughs, and
other factors, conducted by their respective school-based administrator(s). The study included 75 teacher participants at the middle and high school levels
and used correlational, linear regression, moderator, and mediation statistical analyses.
The research findings indicate that cognitive agility continues to be a significant predictor
of behavioral agility and that both cognitive and behavioral agility were significantly
related to VAM or IP in teachers over the age of 50. Additionally, VAM scores
significantly increased through the use of reframing and IP scores increased when
utilizing bridging leader actions. However, it was also found that VAM scores were
negatively correlated to the managing leader actions in the total population.