Schools benefit from principals who can empower, motivate, and support stakeholders in providing high quality learning opportunities and accepting responsibility for improved academic results. Nurturing this sense of professional competence and accountability is difficult, often requiring fundamental changes to the learning culture of a school. A growing body of evidence underscores a significant and positive relationship between principal leadership and student learning and achievement. In-depth study of a principal's leadership, within the context of a highly challenged, high-performing elementary school helped to deepen the understanding of specific instructional and/or transformational behaviors and practices that instigated and sustained organizational change efforts where they were needed most. This qualitative study sought to understand how the principal of a high-achieving urban elementary school facilitated and managed fundamental changes in the schools learning culture. The study investigated one urban elementary school's efforts to implement a structured, school-wide educational reform focused on improving learning results for all students at the school. The researcher examined the reforms through case study methods, employing critical incidents interview techniques, individual and focus interviews, observations of key reform-focused meetings and activities, and analysis of various relevant artifacts. Focus groups with teachers, individual interviews with the principal and 12 additional stakeholders from across the school, observations, and document analysis comprised the main sources of data in this study. The researcher used constant comparative method to analyze the data gathered and determine emerging categories, themes, and patterns. Findings suggest how the principal of a now high-achieving urban elementary school reinvented her role as principal, instituted new norms of collaboration, ensured universally high expectations for all, and provided data-informed, job-embedded professional development, as means to overcome obstacles and improve student outcomes and achievement. Now more than ever, urban principals are challenged to understand and apply these key leadership behaviors and practices in order to build productive learning cultures for teachers and students at their schools.

Describes a variety of leaders hip responsibilities that have an effect on student achievement.

As the inaugural issue in the Leadership for School Improvement (LSI) Special Interest Group (SIG) Book Series, this volume serves as a reflection on the foundations of the field of school improvement. Contents include connections between school improvement and the agency of principals, districts, universities, and policy. This volume will be placed in the school improvement literature with examinations of evolution, trends, policies, and future foci in the field of school improvement. This book is rich in research and literature about school improvement, school effectiveness, and school reform policy and implementation and thus holds significance for educational practitioners, scholars, and policy makers at all levels.

Exceptional management skills are crucial to success in educational environments. As school leaders, principals are expected to effectively supervise the school system while facing a multitude of issues and demands. Multidimensional Perspectives on Principal Leadership Effectiveness combines best practices and the latest approaches in school administration and management. Exploring the challenges faced by principals, as well as the impact of new managerial tactics being employed, this book is a comprehensive reference publication for policymakers, academicians, researchers, students, school practitioners, and government officials seeking current and emerging research on administrative leadership in educational settings.

This volume provides a succinct up-to-date summary of global research on principal instructional leadership as it has evolved over the past 50 years. The book’s particular focus is on the development and use of the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS). The PIMRS is the most widely used survey instrument designed for assessing instructional leadership for research and practice. It has been used in more than 250 studies in more than 30 countries around the world. The authors provide a detailed conceptual and data-based description of the rationale and development of the instrument as well as the ways in which it has been used in practice. The book also provides, for the first time, a comprehensive assessment of the scale’s measurement properties. This represents essential information for future users of the instrument across different national contexts. Finally, the volume outlines an agenda for improving future research on the role of principal instructional leadership in student learning and school effectiveness.

Leadership and School Quality is the twelfth in a series on research and theory dedicated to advancing our understanding of schools through empirical study and theoretical analysis. Hence, the chapters include analyses that investigate relationships between school organizations and leadership behaviors that have an impact on teacher and school effectiveness.