There are four major domains of responsibility as key for school leadership to improve student outcomes:

• Supporting, evaluating and developing teacher quality
• Goal-setting, assessment and accountability
• Strategic financial and human resource management
• Collaborating with other schools

 

 

School leaders have to be able to adapt the teaching program to local needs, promote teamwork among teachers, and engage in teacher monitoring, evaluation and professional development. In addition they should be involved in setting strategic direction, optimize their capacity to develop school plans and goals, monitor progress, and use data to improve practice.

 

 

School leaders should have good financial management skills, provide financial support services to schools, influence teacher recruitment decisions to improve the match between candidates and their school’s needs and become involved in matters beyond his school borders.

 

 

Based on the above stated domains the school leaders have a strong impact on the quality of teachers and teaching whom are in charge of students’ achievement. Quality of leadership matters in determining the motivation of teachers and the quality of their teaching. This feeds in to the teacher’s performance which directly affects student performance.

 

 

Many studies done to measure the impact of leadership on students’ achievement showed that the effect of leadership practices appears to be smaller in high schools than in primary. This was expected because based on the four major domains stated above the pathway which leadership makes a difference to students should be built strongly in the foundation stages of the school. Students in primary phases are developing most of their major skills. They are mostly affected by the qualification, motivation and enthusiasm of the teachers and school administration.