In today's restructuring secondary schools, principals have new instructional leadership responsibilities on top of already demanding management responsibilities. Not enough time exists for one person to address all these expectations successfully. Assistant principals can effectively share instructional leadership roles to increase a school's success as a learning organization for students and educators.

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Principals play major roles to ensure both teacher and teaching quality in classrooms. Understanding essential research findings on both teacher and teaching quality and their relation to student learning can help principals significantly improve student achievement.Improving teacher and teaching quality has become the "third wave" of education reform (Hirsch, Koppich, and Knapp 1998, 2). Increasingly, research confirms that capable teachers are the essential link between public aspirations for high-quality schooling and student achievement. Although 49 states now have statewide academic standards with highstakes assessments to ensure that all students have opportunities to achieve, teacher and teaching quality issues are becoming related policy challenges from the statehouse to the schoolhouse.Two broad areas define teacher quality: teacher preparation/qualifications and teaching practices. Using the terms teacher quality and teaching quality separately, however, permits clearer discussion and purposeful action. Teacher quality concerns the inputs that teachers bring to the school, including their demographics, aptitude, professional preparation, college majors, SAT and teacher examination scores, teacher licensure and certification, and prior professional work experiences. Teaching quality refers to what teachers do to promote student learning inside the classroom. Teaching quality includes creating a positive learning climate, selecting appropriate instructional goals and assessments, using the curriculum effectively, and employing varied instructional behaviors that help all students learn at higher levels. Research Links Teacher Quality to Student AchievementFor years educators debated the variables influencing student achievement. Early research suggested that school climate has little effect on achievement independent of family and societal background (Coleman et al. 1966). . Current research shows that student demographics are not the primary determinant of student achievement. Instead, a large body of inquiry confirms that what teachers know is the most important factor influencing what students learn. In a 50-state survey, Darling-Hammond (2000) found that student demographics (poverty, minority status, language background) are strongly related to student outcomes in reading and math at the state level. In predicting individual achievement levels, however, demographics appear less influential than teacher quality variables, namely, holding full certification and a major degree in the field. Similarly, teacher preparation is a stronger correlate of student achievement than class sizes, overall spending, or teacher salaries and accounts for 40% to 60% of the total variance in achievement after taking students' demographics into account (DarlingHammond 2000). This study suggests that states' policies on teacher quality may make important differences in student achievement.The 50-state survey found the following factors to be related to teacher quality and increased student achievement:• Verbal ability • C...

A 2005 national study surveyed 2,103 Troops to Teachers (T3) program completers and their school administrators using 21 research-based instructional practices and four effective classroom management strategies associated with increased student achievement to determine whether T3s were more effective in the classroom than traditionally prepared teachers with comparable years of teaching experience. Sixty-one percent returned completed surveys. Principals overwhelmingly (more than 90%) reported that T3s are more effective in classroom instruction and classroom management/student discipline—and have a more positive impact on student achievement—than traditionally prepared teachers. Moreover, T3s teach in high-poverty schools, teach high-demand subjects (special education, math, science), plan to remain in teaching, and increase the teaching pool's diversity.

Investigators randomly selected principals from Virginia's public schools to investigate the sign4ifcant relationship that exists between principal quality and student achievement. Two persons supervising each principal were asked to complete the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC)-based questionnaire about the principal. State achievement test data were entered for each principal's school. Those principals who had been in their schools fewer than 5 years were dropped from the study to better control for principals' effect on student achievement. Results find that principals who were rated higher on school leadership standards have schools with higher student achievement than comparable schools headed by lower-rated principals. Implications for increasing student achievement, professional development, and evaluation are discussed.