Scholarly Journal Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Scholarly Journal Review - Essay Example The paper also states that the definition of this model is highly evolving in response to the changing needs of our schools in the global education reforms. Introduction The emergence of the instructional leadership model is known to have brought about improved educational outcomes in schools in contrast to the earlier leadership models, which have been used in our schools today, that is, situational leadership, contingency theory, and trait theories. This model focuses on the manner in which teachers as well as the school administrators apply the educational leadership to improve performance in schools. Conceptualizing instructional leadership The instructional leadership model has been identified with a strong, effective, and directive leadership, which is focused on curriculum and instructions from the principal, as one of the characteristics of elementary schools, effective at teaching schoolchildren from the poor urban communities. The instructional leadership focuses mainly on the principal as the center of expertise, authority and power in any school. The importance of this role of the principal was inferred from studies that examined change implementation, schools improvement, school effectiveness, as well as program improvement. The two articles concludes that the â€Å"leadership skills† of the schools’ principal are one of the key contributing factors in explaining successful, school improvement and school effectiveness. After reading the above articles, the following are some of the areas I learnt about conceptualizing instructional leaders in our schools especially in secondary schools since this is where most principals apply (Cuban, 1997). Instructional leaders are goal oriented and they only focus on student academic outcomes. Their mission is to ensure that the curriculum is best for the students; they too ensure that the students’ performance can be assessed; hence, this has helped many students in performing better in the ir education. The instructional leaders are also seen as culture builders in the sense that they try to create an academic press which focus on high standards for students as well as for teachers. This ensures that the schools like other sectors have their own culture centered on their improved performance. This ensures that the students have set goals and objectives, hence, work towards achieving those goals. This makes the schools performances improve. The growing concerns on effective schools focusing on poor urban schools in need of a substantial change, then makes the instructional leaders to be conceived to be strong and directive leader. They have helped the poor urban schools in performing better; hence, students are in a position to achieve good grades than they did before. It is the principal’s role to work with staff in order to ensure that the school has clear and measurable goals, which are focused on academic performance of the students. The principal also ensur e that the above mentioned goals are widely known and also supported throughout the community. This statement does not mean that it is only the principal who defines the school mission alone but he/she ensures that the school has a clear academic mission and then communicates it to the staff The instructional leadership also focuses on coordination and control of the schools curriculum as well as monitoring the student’s progress in classrooms. Here, the leader is deeply engaged in the schools instructional