Instructional Leadership in Practice: What Does It Look Like, and What Influence Does It Have?

Abstract

Literature on school reform has emphasized the need for principals to expand beyond their traditionally administrative role and become instructional leaders. This article examines the relationship between the practice of site-based instructional leadership and the professional development that teachers received in the context of a district-wide reform effort in San Diego City Schools. Using data from teacher surveys and school-based interviews, we find a connection between aspects of principal instructional leadership (coherent school-wide vision and leaders' engagement in instructional improvement) and selected research-based characteristics of effective teacher professional development (coherence and focus on content and curriculum). We conclude by addressing some of the tensions and limitations associated with a particular vision for site-based instructional leadership.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The research for this article was supported through generous grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Atlantic Philanthropies. We gratefully acknowledge the support from our funders, the time and participation of the SDCS district and school staffs, and the many contributions of the data collectors and analysts on the full research team, without whom this work would not have been possible. We also thank Marshall Smith and Gary Sykes for their thoughtful reviews of earlier versions of this article. The authors, however, bear sole responsibility for the findings and interpretations reported herein.

Notes

¹These scales are aligned with the scales presented in Quick et al. (this issue), using data from teacher logs of professional development experiences, rather than the end-of-year surveys as were used here, although they are not exactly the same. Quick and colleagues examined coherence and relevance of professional development separately, using two different scales. Survey data were not sufficiently detailed to support this separation.

Note. ELA = English Language Arts. For all of the items in the Coherent Schoolwide Vision scale, 0 = disagree strongly and 3 = agree strongly. For all of the items in the Coherent and Relevant PD scale, 0 = not at all and 3 = largeextent. Means and standard deviations were calculated using sampling weights, so these figures are population estimates. In calculation of respondents' scale values, responses for missing items were imputed using a regression-based procedure. The Ns for the coherent and relevant ELA professional development (PD) items are about half of those for the coherent schoolwide vision items because whereas the latter set of items were administered to all respondents, the former set were administered to only half of the respondents (the other half received items regarding mathematics PD).

²Although items related to school leadership were answered by all surveyed teachers, the items related to professional development were split among the sample: Half answered questions about professional development in ELA and half answered about professional development in mathematics. Given the district's consistent focus on ELA instruction and professional development throughout the course of the reform, our survey analyses focus on the relationship between leadership and ELA professional development.

Note. ELA = English Language Arts. Means and standard deviations were calculated using sampling weights, so these figures are population estimates. In calculation of respondents' scale values, responses for missing items were imputed using a regression-based procedure. The Ns for the ELA professional development (PD) items are about half of those for the leadership items because whereas the leadership items were administered to all respondents, the ELA PD items were administered to only half of the respondents (the other half received items regarding mathematics PD).

³As previously mentioned, we focus primarily on the role of the principal in this article. However, it is important to note that some of the survey items used to develop the scale for engagement in instructional improvement include questions about the leadership team, which included the vice principal and other administrative staff.