School principals' managerial behaviours and students' achievement

Abstract

PurposeThis research investigates the impact of managerial practices implemented by Italian school principals on students' outcomes, using micro-data provided by the National Evaluation Committee for Education (INVALSI) for 2013/14 school year.Design/methodology/approachEmploying an educational production function, the authors regress a set of student and school's characteristics, enriched by information from a questionnaire filled by school principals to estimate student's score at grade 8 (last year of junior secondary school), also taking into account student's prior achievement (at grade 6 – first year of junior secondary school).FindingsIndicators about managerial practices have positive coefficients, but low statistical significance. Stronger associations between management variables and test scores are detected for low-SES schools.Originality/valueThe research presented here is particularly innovative in the Italian context, where little evidence exists about the impact of managerial skills in education, though institutional reforms are leading towards a strengthening of school principal's leadership role. In this paper, the authors move a first step by describing managerial practices and their diffusion in different schools and geographical areas within the country. The authors focus the attention on the role of managerial practices (what principals do) and not on the managerial skills (what principals are able to do).

Spiritual Leadership: Konsep Baru dalam Kemampuan Manajemen Kepala Sekolah

“…Kepala sekolah sebagai bagian sistem pendidikan perlu memiliki kemampuan untuk melakukan manajemen yang baik. Kemampuan melaksanakan manajemen yang baik menjadi salah satu prediktor mencapai tujuan pendidikan sekolah, seperti hasil belajar yang berkualitas dan kinerja sekolah secara menyeluruh (Agasisti, Falzetti, & Soncin, 2020;Ganaden, 2020). Artinya kemampuan kepala sekolah dalam mengelola sekolah menjadi hal yang penting dan dibutuhkan untuk mencapai tujuan pendidikan yang diharapkan.…”

An Assessment of Teacher Motivation in Determining Academic Performance of Secondary School Learners in Kenya

“…The academic performance of students is evaluated based on the effectiveness of principals in implementing administrative practices measured by students' performance in standardized tests where the learners are expected to perform well (Agasisti et al, 2020).The Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) which lays more emphasis on skills development in evaluating learning outcomes has now been introduced in Kenya by the government to replace the summative evaluation (KCSE) examination which focuses on cognitive evaluation leading to much competition with incidences of examination irregularities (Amutabi, 2019). A study by Mutua (2022) on the impact of management practices of principals on instructors' performance of duties in Kathiani Sub-County established that principal's motivation of teachers influenced teacher job performance which consequently influenced learning outcomes.…”

Instructional Leadership, Differentiated Instruction, Community of Practice, and Student Wellbeing: Based on the Perspective of the Principal Strengthening Training Policy

“…Education is an intriguing sub-sector in this context because quality improvement must be considered and prioritized. The difficult part of evaluating the effectiveness of school management is determining how the principal affects academic achievement (Agasisti et al, 2020).…”

“…The principal's leadership has an indirect impact on the capacity of the school, the redesign of sociocultural and structural processes, the promotion of professional learning communities, and the enhancement of learning quality (Gu & Johansson, 2013;Leithwood et al, 2017;Purnomo et al, 2021;, teacher and student characteristics (Moolenaar et al, 2010), teacher commitment (Koh et al, 1995), school climate (Price, 2012), and improving teacher innovation (Buske, 2018;Dami, 2021). At the same time, the direct influence is connected to administrative strategies such as enhancing the effectiveness of school organization, emphasizing learning assessment, and quality assurance (Agasisti et al, 2020). Students learning outcomes and wellbeing are influenced both directly and indirectly.…”