STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCHOOL LEADERSHIP AND SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS

Abstract

This study is designed to find out if there is any correlation between school effectiveness and school leadership; and to establish if there is any significant difference between the leadership style of principals of effective schools and that of less effective schools. The leader behaviour of 18 principals (9 from effective schools and 9 from less effective schools) were measured using the Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) developed at Ohio state university by Stogdill. School effectiveness was expressed in terms of academic achievement scores in national examinations in Singapore. The results of the study show that. there is high correlation between leadership styles of principals and school effectiveness. A factor analysis of the leadership variables indicates that task-orientation and human relations-orientation emerged as distinct dimensions in the leadership styles investigated. Furthermore, it is established that the differences in the scores of 6 subscales (Representation, Persuasion, Structure, Consideration, Role Assumption, and Production Emphasis) between effective and less effective schools are statistically significant. The overall conclusion is that effective principals tend to be assertive and and instructional leadership on the part of principals tend to be associated with school success or effectiveness.