The assessment of instructional leadership in schools: implications for whole school evaluation

There is a growing consensus that at the core of school effectiveness and learner achievement is instructional leadership. Research evidence show that the rigid command and control leadership tendencies stifles individual and team creativity which may in turn deter platitudes about quality teaching and learning as well as learner achievement. This research has argued that to strengthen teaching and learning, instructional leadership should be nurtured through the establishment of a leadership development program. This program should focus on, amongst others, an in-depth understanding of school and classroom practices that could improve learner achievement. The overall aim of this research was to assess instructional leadership in schools and to ascertain its implications for whole school evaluation. To achieve this aim the quantitative research design was used. Data was collected from a range of post level one educators to deputy principals at Ekurhuleni West District by means of a structured questionnaire. The identification and conceptual meanings in respect of instructional leadership were achieved through the results of the empirical data, although it was difficult to find a succinct definition from the literature gleaned. Three successive factor analyses on the research instrument (the questionnaire) produced one factor, namely: • Academic standards consisting of 50 items with a Cronbach- Alpha reliability co-efficient of 0,990. This factor indicates a high reliability co-efficient correlation between the independent and dependent variables in this research- (instructional leadership and whole school evaluation). (Instructional leadership being the predictor variable (independent variable) and whole school evaluation being the criterion variable (dependent variable). This research has shown that the presence or lack of presence of instructional leadership would determine the kind of results that may be obtained from the process of whole school evaluation. Important findings from the literature review indicate that high achieving schools have principals that place instruction as their highest priority. These are the principals that set goals, understand instruction and curriculum, are results-driven, evaluate and monitor progress to bring about increased learner learning, become physically visible and accessible and promote instructional climate (Van Deventer and Kruger, 2003:248-254). The recommendations explicated in chapter five indicated that principals need the opportunity to explore and update skills in instructional leadership, curriculum development, supervision and school management.Prof. C.F. Looc