From Principals' Actions to Students' Outcomes: An Explanatory Narrative Approach to Successful Israeli Schools

This article attempts to identify the causal relationships between principals' behaviors and students' achievement by using an explanatory narrative that traces the chain of events from principal actions to student outcomes. This is applied to the study of five successful Israeli schools and reveals the series of stages from principals' actions to student outcomes. The narrative explanation about principals' impact on students' outcomes was found to hold two parallel chains of events of two central subjects: the principal and the teachers. The research showed how principal behavior can have a positive impact on student outcomes. The data show that despite different emphases and personal styles, the same narrative explanation clarified the process in all schools. The narrative explanation suggests to principals what to do to improve their students' achievements, where to start, and what stages are foreseen along the way.