Policymakers have tried to link the principal to student outcomes, thus shifting the role of the principal from manager to instructional leader of the school. The significance of instructional leadership has increased especially since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act in January of 2002. However, a common definition of instructional leadership is difficult to locate in the literature. In this three-round Delphi study, 24 Virginia Title I elementary school principals defined the concept of instructional leadership in terms of the knowledge, skills, and behaviors that practitioners believe school principals need to be an instructional leader in Virginia elementary schools. The research questions were: 1. What do elementary principals perceive to be the specific knowledge necessary to be an instructional leader? 2. What do elementary principals perceive to be the specific skills necessary to be an instructional leader? 3. What do elementary principals perceive to be the specific behaviors necessary to be an instructional leader? The use of Maykut and Morehouse's (1994) constant comparative method generated themes and categories from the sorted descriptors submitted by the Delphi participants. The Delphi themes generated were (a) principal instructional leadership awareness, (b) focus on teaching and learning, (c) engaging stakeholders, and (d) building for instructional capacity. The final themes and categories produced during the Delphi process were compared to Robinson, Lloyd, and Rowe's (2008) five leadership dimensions. Results from Delphi III complemented Robinson et al.'s (2008) five leadership dimensions with the exception of Dimension 4: "promoting and participating in teacher learning and development" (p. 635). While Delphi participants provided descriptors supporting professional development, they did not emphasize instructional leadership participation with teachers in professional development opportunities. The final definition of instructional leadership which emerged in the study provided knowledge, skills, and behaviors that current and future practitioners may incorporate in their own leadership practices to influence student achievement. The instructional leadership definition may serve as a springboard to guide curriculum decisions in leadership preparation programs seeking to improve instructional leadership practices. The definition of instructional leadership may also be useful to policymakers seeking to implement legislation linking leadership to student achievement. / Ph. D.

In understanding leadership to be the single most important factor in shaping a school’s performance, and second highest factor influencing student achievement, it is a necessity for investigations to focus on what successful leaders do to have excelling schools. Research has alluded to the understanding that the principal can no longer serve as the sole instructional leader of a school. This need for collaboration within the organization places a weight on principals to incorporate others within the school decision-making process. This study examined how collective instructional leadership is currently influencing teacher efficacy in high performing central Kentucky elementary schools. Data were collected through individual principal interviews and focus-group interviews to gain perspectives about how collective instructional leadership is currently influencing teacher efficacy, individuals involved in collective instructional leadership, and actions leaders engage in to promote individual and collective teacher efficacy. The findings of this study identified themes to support a hypothesis around how collective instructional leadership is influencing teacher efficacy. Through the finding of this study a working model of collective instructional leadership was developed. Findings indicate the four working dimensions within the collective instructional leadership model will help raise both individual and collective teacher efficacy within schools.

The core purpose of school leadership is to provide leadership and management in all areas of the school to enable the creation and support of conditions under which high quality teaching and learning can take place and which can promote the highest possible standards of learner achievement. This study aimed to examine the roles of the school principals in monitoring teaching and learning in inner-city and township secondary schools in the Gauteng province. The study used a case study research design in which one inner-city and township secondary schools were purposely selected as cases for the study. The school principals, deputy school principals, heads of departments and educators were observed over a period of fourteen days in each school after which were interviewed. Both the observation and interview protocols were piloted. All interviews were tape recorded and confidentiality was assured. Interviews were transcribed and analysed through content analysis (Strauss1987).Emerging themes were used to create a comparative data set across the stakeholders’ content analysis. The analyses were then triangulated as a means of establishing the trustworthiness of the accounts. Observations and questions focussed upon the roles of the school principal in monitoring teaching and learning with reference to the school curriculum, the tools school principals use in monitoring teaching and learning and how school principals monitor teaching and learning in such schooling contexts. They indicate that the role of school principals as instructional leaders in monitoring teaching and learning is supervision which involves leadership roles in educator professional development, curriculum supervision, collegiality, care and response. They not only indicate the complex contextual roles of school principals in monitoring teaching and learning in the challenging circumstances in the inner-city and township secondary schools, but the mechanisms school principals use to monitor teaching and learning in such contexts. School principals minimally participate in the monitoring of teaching and learning and rely on feedback from classroom observations and learner data collected by the deputy school principals’, heads of departments/ subject heads and class educators to monitor learner performances in the schools.

Thesis advisor: Joseph O'Keefe / Effective instructional leadership is central to principal practice. Thus, the Massachusetts Model System for Educator Evaluation (MMSEE) mandates that all principals demonstrate proficiency in instructional leadership to be considered proficient overall. Given this mandate, it is imperative that central office administrators (COAs) support principals in this regard. Accordingly, this qualitative single case study examined how COAs in one Massachusetts district supported principals’ instructional leadership. Analyses of documents and semi-structured interview data found that COAs supported principals’ instructional leadership through professional development for supervising and evaluating teachers, preparation of school improvement plans, and increased staffing of assistant principals and academic coaches. However, principals reported interim feedback and summative evaluations as not supporting their growth as instructional leaders. To address this gap in support with instructional leadership, recommendations included assigning additional COAs to evaluate principals for consistent and targeted feedback, reviewing MMSEE performance expectations with principals, and including principal voice in the district decision-making process. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Doctor Educationis / The Department of Education of the South Mrican Government of National Unity has accepted democratic governance as one of the principles of its education and training programme. At school level, especially at historically black schools, there is also an increasing demand for meaningful involvement in the decision-making that affects school policy. Unfortunately educational leaders have generally not been empowered to make a meaningful contribution to the transformation of the schools into democratic teaching and learning organizations. This motivated the decision to undertake this thesis. The focus on the democratization of instructional leadership is meant to serve as an example and catalyst for the democratization of all other aspects of the school. In order to contextualize the investigation the main approaches to schooling in South Africa were interrogated against the background of the conservative, liberal and radical theories of democracy in western capitalist societies. The main finding is that, in spite of obvious differences, South African schooling is essentially another form of mass education used as the legitimating apparatus of state ideology. Within this framework Christian-National Education and liberalism form the dominant educational discourse in South Africa while the aspirations of the majority of blacks find manifestation in People's Education which embodies radical/nco-Marxist theories. In spite of the claims of it being basically neutral and value free, educational leadership in South Africa has generally been used to legitimate and reproduce the existing hegemony. An investigation of the positivistic, interpretive and critical research paradigms indicated that, given the South African context, critical action research with its emphasis on, amongst others, collaborative participation, empowerment and emancipation is the most appropriate means to effect the democratization of instructional leadership. Relevant theories and research findings from the literature on action research were then explicated and made applicable to instructional leadership. Special emphasis was furthermore placed on practicalities like the preparation of instructional leaders for action research, the role of facilitators, and the transformation of the instructional mission, and the structures and interaction patterns of the school. The relatively radical nature of the practical suggestions necessitated the identification of the various personal, professional, societal and political constraints which might impede the envisaged consensual and facilitative leadership. Without depreciating the substantiality and magnitude of the constraints, possible solutions are proffered to overcome these constraints. In the true spirit of action research, an effort is made to avoid prescriptiveness due to the uniqueness of each situation. The successful implementation of action research will eventually depend on the commitment and willingness of all the main role players and stakeholders to collaborate fully in the pursuit of democratic instructional leadership. It thus becomes imperative that what is legitimated as privileged school experience should not be an endorsement of a particular culture or ideology. Instead instructional leadership should aim at developing emancipatory forms of consciousness so that teachers and pupils can not only be consumers but also producers of knowledge, who can reject and/or mediate knowledge which serves to reproduce the existing social order.

No description available.

Background: Science poses a unique challenge to the elementary curriculum landscape, because traditionally elementary teachers report low levels of self-efficacy in this subject. Instructional leadership in elementary science therefore, becomes important for a successful integration of a new science education agenda. The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are K-12 science content standards available for adoption by states and school districts in the U.S. Principals are important actors during policy implementation since they are charged with assuming the role of an instructional leader for their teachers in all subject areas. Purpose: This study gathered self-reported survey data from public elementary principals that pertain to their background and experiences in science, and then relate these data to their levels of self-efficacy and instructional leadership capacity for science. The study answers the following three research questions: (1) What type of science backgrounds do elementary principals have? (2) What indicators predict if elementary principals will engage in instructional leadership behaviors in science? (3) Does self-efficacy mediate the relationship between science background and capacity for instructional leadership in science? Data Collection and Analysis: A questionnaire was created by combining two existing subscales to measure instructional leadership practices and self-efficacy in science, and also a series of objective questions to address principals’ background experiences and demographic information. Public school elementary principals serving in 13 states that formally adopted the NGSS through legislative action provided the data analyzed in this study (N = 667). The survey data were analyzed quantitatively for descriptive statistics to answer the first research question, inferential statistics through an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) hierarchal regression analysis to answer the second, and a mediation analysis to answer the third research question. Findings: The sample data show that 21% of the elementary principals have a formal science degree and 26% have a degree in a STEM field. Most principals have not had recent experience teaching science (75.86%), nor were they every strictly a science teacher (86.66%). The hierarchical regression analysis suggests that there is evidence that both demographic and experiential variables predict instructional leadership practices in science. The analysis also suggests that self-efficacy is a mediating variable for principals’ science teaching experiences related to instructional leadership behaviors. Conclusions: The data from this research reveal potential (a) leadership development opportunities, (b) training and recruitment needs of school districts, (c) areas in need of attention in principal preparation programs, and (d) directions for policy implementation to leverage principal capacity. The findings provide evidence to assist in identifying ways elementary principals could be better prepared to be instructional leaders for their teachers, especially in those settings where the implementation of the NGSS is underway.

This study examined the extent to which the role of the assistant principal is perceived to include instructional leadership behaviors. Specifically, this study compared the perceptions of instructional leadership practices of elementary, middle, and high school assistant principals from the perspectives of assistant principals, principals, and teachers. A nonexperimental comparative design was used. Quantitative data were collected via a version of the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale that was adapted for application to assistant principals. Analysis of variance, independent-samples t-test, correlation, and nonresponse bias analysis were conducted. Effect size and standard error were calculated. Results indicated that the mean scores given by principals were the highest given by any of the three role groups and those given by teachers were the lowest including the lowest seven mean subscale scores among all role groups. Analysis of variance and t-test results of survey responses indicated that, though statistically significant differences were identified regarding school level, gender of the assistant principal, and role of the rater, no practical differences were found. Results further indicated that there was a negligible relationship between experience and ratings of assistant principal instructional leadership. Recommendations include those related to suggestions for continued research on this topic as well as implications for the practice of instructional leadership for assistant principals.

Submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Masters in Education at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa 30 June 2015 / This study explores the role of the principal as an instructional leader in two successful township primary schools in challenging circumstances. It examines instructional strategies used by principals of the two schools that may account for high levels of learner achievement and explores how these successful leaders deploy leadership styles and management approaches to deal with prevailing challenging circumstances that affect their schools academically and other spheres of governance and management. Sixteen participants were involved including 2 principals, 4 Heads of department (HODs), 4 educators, 4 parents from the two schools and 2 district officials under who both schools account. Using qualitative approaches, triangulation of data was achieved through semi-structured interviews, observation and document analysis. The study found that the key instructional leadership approaches used by these principals were promoting teamwork, active participation, collective decision making, sharing of responsibilities, collaboration/collegiality and distribution of tasks amongst multiple leaders or people. The claims made by the principals were corroborated by educators, parents, members of the School Management Team (SMT) and district management teams. Data also indicated that the principals relied on a combination of different leadership styles and efficient and effective management approaches with their subordinates to garner the enthusiastic implementation of instructional approaches which are claimed to yield good learner outcomes in Annual National Assessment (ANA) tests. The study suggests that there might be a strong link between leadership styles and management approaches on one hand and learner performance on the other. Further, the data suggests that the application of appropriate management systems and relevant leadership styles can contribute to institutional resilience against the prevailing challenges which tend to depress performance in many schools in similar circumstances. The findings of the study have several important implications including:  Schools as organisations require the collective effort of all stakeholders in order to achieve their objectives or goals.  That ‘one size fits all’ form of leadership has no place in different environments but that more often than not, a combination of different leadership styles and management approaches should be explored in an attempt to realize a common vision of an organisation. The study makes specific recommendations for a more broad based research agenda to examine factors which contribute to resilience and success in schools operating in challenging circumstances. It also calls for more contextualised studies in specific schools to explore the leadership forms that have greatest potential for delivering better learning outcomes in schools facing challenging circumstances.

This study explored successful leadership practices in challenging circumstances within the context of two case study schools. It was a qualitative case study of two secondary schools that have consistently performed above national average over a period of five years for matric pass rate. These township schools are headed by a female and a male principal. The study provides greater insights into leadership practices in the schools. The study showed that shared leadership was not practiced in the case schools. Shared (distributive) leadership implied that principals in the case schools would be practicing collective forms of leadership. However, delegation, which was about authority and accountability residing with the principal, seemed more prevalent. The findings revealed that both principals saw themselves as delegating most of the tasks to their subordinates, even though these tasks belonged to the subordinates by virtue of their formal appointments. The case schools have two deputies who share administrative and curriculum responsibilities. The deputy principals are there to deputise and assist the principal - duties that are lawfully theirs. The same applies to the HoDs whose duties are to oversee curriculum delivery in the classroom. These are not a delegated function but an execution of their responsibilities. In both case schools, evidence shows that the schools are successful because of the initiative of individual teachers who exert themselves in the classroom.