Given the demands on Indiana schools to continually improve student performance results on End of Course Assessments, it is important to define the organizational structures, instructional methodologies and leadership strategies that result in student performance increases. This study compared student performance results on the Algebra I End of Course Assessment, which is one key component of Indiana’s school accountability system, and principal leadership in the use of formative assessment strategies and related constructs.

This study was conducted utilizing both archival student data from the Indiana Department of Education website and survey data gathered from public secondary school principals in Indiana. Data from 118 respondents was examined to determine if principal leadership in the use of formative assessment strategies, professional development, data collection and analysis software, common planning, and strategic intervention structures resulted in improvements in student performance on the Algebra I End of Course Assessment.

Descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized to draw conclusions regarding principals’ perceptions of these constructs and the average percentage pass rate of students by performing one-way ANOVA tests for each construct as well as each individual survey question, resulting in 120 individual one-way ANOVA Tests.

Although data analysis indicates that differences in student outcomes do not result from the existence of the constructs being analyzed, results do indicate that principal leadership in some aspects of these five constructs result in student performance gains.