Emma Bullock

Student achievement in the K-12 mathematics class-room is of concern to parents, teachers, and community leaders ascomplex modern technological innovations call for higher proficiencyin problem solving and mathematically creative minds are neces-sary to fill the vital, higher-paying jobs of today and the future.School leaders are expected to make decisions that will measurably,and in some cases, dramatically, improve student achievement inmathematics. However, school leaders do not make decisions in iso-lation; rather, they make decisions as part of a complex adaptivesystem (CAS). There is limited research concerning content-specificschool leadership and its effects on student achievement, particu-larly through the lens of complexity theory. This study focuses onthe relationships between students mathematics achievement andthe characteristics of school leaders, looks at the influences affect-ing the decisions and actions being made by school leaders, andthen seeks to understand how a school leaders decisions and actionsare associated with students mathematics achievement. Preliminaryquantitative results indicate significant positive and negative rela-tionships, including looping effects, between students mathematicsachievement and complex, diverse characteristics of school leaders.