EFFECTIVENES OF PRINCIPALS’ INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP INSELECTED PREPARATORY SCHOOLS OF EAST HARARGE ZONE

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the current status of instructional leadership effectiveness and to investigate some of the factors that affect its provision in Preparatory Schools of East Hararge Zone. The study was conducted in 5 Preparatory Schools selected from 20 wordeas by using a combination of stratified and random sampling techniques. Ten school leaders, 104 teachers and 5 supervision staff were used as the subjects of the study to obtain the necessary data. Questionnaire, document analysis and unstructured interview were the instruments used for data collection. The data collected through the questionnaire were analyzed using percentage, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and t-test statistical analyses procedures. Findings from the data analysis revealed that most school leaders are not effective neither in each dimension nor in their overall instructional leadership role. of the personal characteristics treated, only experience as department, a leader and number of credit hours taken in educational fields appeared to have significant relationship with instructional leadership effectiveness (ILE). Organizational characteristics, availability of instructional resource, professional norm that greatly value leaders’ participation in curricular and instructional issues, and larger teaching staff size contributed positively to ILE, whereas greater role diversity lowered their ILE. Generally, expectations of higher officials on activities other than instructional leadership or matters that are secondary to ILE as well as high degree of financial and supply delivery problems and delay of substitutes and deployment of teachers have significantly influenced ILE in the negative direction. Following the findings and conclusion drawn, recommendation are made. that REB in collaboration with zone and district education department should define the instructional leadership roles of leaders clearly in terms of the five dimensions, provide trainings in the area, revise and improve the selection and appointment criteria of leadership positions, reduce and improve the organizational and district/zone/ factors debilitating instructional leadership role of the leader