Leadership is an important aspect of all social endeavors. In schools, talented leadership is important to student achievement. School leadership affects all facets of education: teacher motivation, shaping the conditions and the environment in which teaching and learning occurs, and interaction with the community.

In many school systems, effective school leadership is far from the average. It is often simply expected that the school leaders are either lacking or ineffective.

Here are some essential good practices in leadership development.

• It is based on data from research on school effectiveness and the needs of school leaders. This ensures that the modules are custom made to the real-life demands of school-level practice directed at improving effectiveness.
• There’s a strong focus on improving instruction, in particular, the use of data to diagnose the learning needs of students, providing feedback to teachers on teaching practices and planning professional development.
• It includes field experiences and other practical aspects. This displays principals to strategies which help them to improve practices at the school they lead. It also helps the trainees to follow on what they have been taught in the context of their own school and provides an opportunity to implement some of the innovative ideas shared during the training
• Mentoring, coaching and feedback from more seasoned or even retired principals recognized to have done well as school leaders.

By: Rufina E. Ramos|School Principal IV|Balanga Elementary School|Balanga City, Bataan