RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HEAD TEACHERS’ INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP PRACTICES AND THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN MACHAKOS COUNTY, KENYA

The performance of students in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination in Machakos County, Kenya has been low for the recent years. It is suspected that the head teachers may have ignored their instructional leadership practices which if put to consideration could help improve students’ performance. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between head teachers’ instructional leadership practices and students’ performance in KCSE examination. The study applied descriptive survey design. Stratified sampling technique was used to select 38 head teachers, 190 teachers and 345 students from 38 (42%) of target schools which were grouped as high performing and low performing categories. Pearson’s product moment correlation was used and the study found strong positive correlations between instructional leadership practices and the performance of students, where poorly performing schools are also rated low in the instructional leadership practice, and vice versa for schools performing well. The study therefore recommends in-service training on instructional leadership for head teachers to enhance balanced instructional leadership, for better academic performance. Article visualizations