Eric.ed.gov – Leadership for Indigenous Education: Culture-Based Communication and the Impact on Student Achievement in Hawaii

In this quantitative correlational research study, the degree to which a school leader’s culture-based communication style could predict student achievement outcomes in the Hawaii State Assessment (HSA) in reading and math in: (a) schools with a Native Hawaiian mission, and (b) schools without a Native Hawaiian mission, were examined. The population of the study was all 284 K-12 Department of Education schools in Hawaii and publicly funded charter schools. Within this selected population of K-12 schools, 20 schools and corresponding school leaders were selected from Hawaiian-missioned schools, and 20 from Western-missioned schools. Findings include that culture-based communication style of leaders only influences learner reading sores, where school leaders who use engagement culture-based communication style score significantly high than those who have leaders who use other communication styles. Learners under school leaders who use an accommodating culture-based communication style were likely to score less on reading scores (a decline of 0.28) compared to engaging leaders. The study has implications for school leaders in that communicating with a style that was congruent with the Native Hawaiian community may have a negative impact on student achievement in reading. The conclusions in study might help to close the performance gap by providing insights to indigenous school leaders that support the performance of their students.