School characteristics and educational outcomes: Toward an organizational model of student achievement in middle schools

Empowerment is defined and measured in terms of teachers' power to control critical decisions about leaching and learning conditions. This research fi rst considers the relationship, between school climate and teacher empowerm ent and then the relationship between teacher empowerment and school effect iveness, which includes measures of mathematics and reading achievement in 86 middle schools. The results support the pivotal importance of teacher em powerment in rite effectiveness of schools. Finally, a theoretical model is proposed to explain the linkages between organizational characteristics an d student achievement.