The purpose of the current study was (1) to determine if three observed variables (teacher academic press, parent academic press, and student academic press) would come together to create the latent construct school academic press and (2) to examine the utility of this construct along with instructional leadership and two control variables (elementary school level and socioeconomic status) in predicting academic achievement. A confirmatory factor analysis and a simultaneous structural equation based on a multiple indicator–multiple cause model were developed and tested that explained the relationships among these variables in 49 schools in one large urban district. Participants included 1,292 teachers who responded to an instructional leadership and academic press survey, as well as 980 parents and 4,782 students who responded to surveys of academic press. As predicted, instructional leadership, school academic press, and the control variables explained approximately 84% of the variance in student achievement, with school academic press making the largest contribution.
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