High student achievement a result of effective school leadership

The success of any organization lies on the effectiveness of its leader. Much like any other institution or company, schools need strong leadership in order to excel. Schools with strong leadership promote good teaching and high level of learning. Effective school leaders recognize and assume a shared responsibility not only for students’ intellectual and educational development but also for their personal, social, emotional and physical development. Moreover, effective school leaders collaboratively create a vision of success for all leaders and use their skills in communication, cooperation, and community building to ensure that the vision becomes a reality.

What makes an effective leader in education?

Effective school leaders share the following qualities:

1. They have a vision for success.

2. They set high expectations for student achievement.

3. They build capacity for leadership.

4. They demonstrate ethical and moral leadership.

5. They nurture and support a learning community.

6. They acknowledge and share responsibilities for high academic achievement of all students.

What is good leadership made of? In today’s climate of great expectations, school leaders especially principals are the focus on improving teaching and learning. They need to be educational visionaries, instructional and curriculum leaders, assessment experts, disciplinarians, community builders, public relations experts, budget analysts, facility managers, special program administrators and expert overseers of legal, contractual and policy mandates and initiatives.

A big load to carry

The job requirements sound overwhelming. But they also signal that the field has begun to give overdue recognition to the critical role and mounting demands on school principals. But are present and future principals getting the professional preparation they need to meet them?

Growing consensus on the attributes of effective school principals shows that successful school leaders influence student achievement through two important pathways — the support and development of effective teachers and the implementation of effective organizational processes. This consensus is increasingly reflected in preparation and licensing requirements, which generally subscribe to a set of common expectations for the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of school leaders.

Evidence suggests that, second only to the influences of classroom instruction, school heads make a strong impact on student learning. Principals’ abilities are central to the task of building schools that promote powerful teaching and learning for all students.

In recent years, research has reinforced the critical nature of the principal’s job, of which there are three aspects:

1. Developing a deep understanding of how to support teachers

2. Managing the curriculum in ways that promote student learning

3. Developing the ability to transform schools into more effective organizations that foster powerful teaching and learning for all students.

Moving to improve

Principals who participated in a preparation program that is concept-driven and consisting of a yearlong and carefully mentored program received higher performance evaluation ratings by supervisors and were perceived by teachers as being more effective in managing their schools, according to a recent study.

Therefore, ongoing, career-staged, and seamless professional development is essential to a principal’s progress. Training activities should build on prior learning experiences and continue throughout the stages of a principal’s career. It is therefore important that closer links should be made between teacher preparation, administrator preparation, and administrator professional development in order to provide a continuity of learning experiences framed around the principles of effective teaching and instructional leadership. — LILIA VENGCO, former principal, La Salle Greenhills and La Salle Canlubang