How school leadership and innovation shape instructional pathways to student achievement across nations: Evidence from multilevel structural equation modeling and decision tree analysis
Burak Aydın , Marjolein Fokkema , Nurullah Eryilmaz , Daniel Muijs , Ronny Scherer , Marcus Pietsch
{"title":"How school leadership and innovation shape instructional pathways to student achievement across nations: Evidence from multilevel structural equation modeling and decision tree analysis","authors":"Burak Aydın , Marjolein Fokkema , Nurullah Eryilmaz , Daniel Muijs , Ronny Scherer , Marcus Pietsch","doi":"10.1016/j.stueduc.2025.101521","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Educational leadership, innovation and teaching play essential roles in shaping student achievement. However, extant literature primarily has relied on linear modelling approaches and has not focused on substantively testing a theory. The present study employs multilevel structural equation modelling (ML-SEM) and multilevel decision trees (MLM trees) to investigate associations between school leadership, team innovation, cognitive activation and student achievement using PISA-TALIS 2018 linked data across seven countries: Australia; Colombia; Czech Republic; Denmark; Georgia; Malta; and Türkiye. The ML-SEM findings indicated no significant indirect effects from leadership on achievement. The MLM trees highlighted country-specific patterns in associations between school leadership, innovation and student achievement, revealing potential nonlinear relationships. These findings suggest that the relationship between leadership, instructional practices and achievement is highly context-dependent. The study contributes to the literature by offering a comparative analysis of ML-SEM and MLM trees, highlighting traditional linear models’ limitations in educational research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47539,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Educational Evaluation","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 101521"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Studies in Educational Evaluation","FirstCategoryId":"95","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191491X25000781","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Educational leadership, innovation and teaching play essential roles in shaping student achievement. However, extant literature primarily has relied on linear modelling approaches and has not focused on substantively testing a theory. The present study employs multilevel structural equation modelling (ML-SEM) and multilevel decision trees (MLM trees) to investigate associations between school leadership, team innovation, cognitive activation and student achievement using PISA-TALIS 2018 linked data across seven countries: Australia; Colombia; Czech Republic; Denmark; Georgia; Malta; and Türkiye. The ML-SEM findings indicated no significant indirect effects from leadership on achievement. The MLM trees highlighted country-specific patterns in associations between school leadership, innovation and student achievement, revealing potential nonlinear relationships. These findings suggest that the relationship between leadership, instructional practices and achievement is highly context-dependent. The study contributes to the literature by offering a comparative analysis of ML-SEM and MLM trees, highlighting traditional linear models’ limitations in educational research.
期刊介绍:
Studies in Educational Evaluation publishes original reports of evaluation studies. Four types of articles are published by the journal: (a) Empirical evaluation studies representing evaluation practice in educational systems around the world; (b) Theoretical reflections and empirical studies related to issues involved in the evaluation of educational programs, educational institutions, educational personnel and student assessment; (c) Articles summarizing the state-of-the-art concerning specific topics in evaluation in general or in a particular country or group of countries; (d) Book reviews and brief abstracts of evaluation studies.