Effective school leadership today must combine the traditional school leadership duties such as teacher evaluation, budgeting, scheduling, and facilities maintenance with a deep involvement with specific aspects of teaching and learning. Effective instructional leaders are intensely involved in curricular and instructional issues that directly affect student achievement (Cotton, 2003). The writer of this paper acknowledges that school principals should play the role of instructional leaders, not just a school manager. The reality is that are many demands on a principals time and management skills making it difficult for most of them to spend time in classrooms, when performing teacher evaluation. Principals often make sure that teachers have the opportunities for professional developments, since they themselves rarely have any time to directly affect their teacher’s growth. The approach of sharing instructional leadership with teachers can present some organization challenges.
The writer understood from this course that Communication is critical in a principal’s job. A leader must be clear, consistent in communication with students, staff, parents and community which, is imperative to the role of a principal. Similar to the teaching and reinforcement of math and reading skills, policies, procedures, and expectations need to be taught, practiced, and reinforced to students and staff.
The writer acknowledges that the reinforcement of policies and procedures with discussions regarding their purpose also helps in communicating expectations with students and staff members. When communicating with staff, technology provides leaders s with the tools and ease to communicate with all members on a daily basis. Although the principal is ultimately responsible for building decisions, successful principals delegate, consult, and collaborate with staff. With many duties to