Inputs, Comments on Article on Education

Article: Instructional Leadership Behavior of Papua New Guinea high school principals: a provincial case study

Boe, Lahui-Ako


Reflection points/inputs by: Ramon George Atento (Nov 7, 2005)


While I believe that every piece of literature I have read (so far) pertaining to educational leadership and administration have always been at least interesting and at most entirely useful, thanks to our most able professors, there are some good points about this research that points towards being better instructional leadership, that is, a focus more on what we should be in the first place.

Again, while I believe these checklists are often incomplete, inadequate and most of the times, inappropriate as to setting, there are alignments in our settings (PNG and RP) that make us want to embrace the checklists given by the author for good leadership - collaboration, communication, feedback, influence and professionalism.

Further, again, there is the insistence on certain points that are nevertheless not entirely new to us, being practitioners in the educational leadership: vision, shared leadership, risk-taking (once classified by Barth, 2000 for his Model of a good school), a focus on people, education aspects of school rather than purely technical perspective.

Again, we see the same complaints of the surveyed PNG principals (the author, and presumably, the teachers themselves) that there is a serious lack of principal training. Add to this the repeated insistence that the principals lack time to do their job well). The same is true for the other literature that we read. For example, Parkay and Hall (1992) although focused on the Beginning Principals and Leithwood and Montgomery (1986) have moaned consistently in their studies for lack of principal training.

America and Britain have their shares of wantokism, our version of the padrino system ("blood is thicker than water", or "it's not what you know but whom you know"). But, with due respect to the system – and the expertise of the principals chosen, I do believe that the principals themselves are not (all) completely illiterate in management, or worse, simply there because they know somebody from up there. It is also summary executionism to put them all to the waste basket for lack of expertise, creativity, eadership, responsibility, etc.

One thing I notice is that teachers (the author of the article is a teacher) mostly criticize their principals to death for heaven and hell and everything in between. I was a teacher then and we too criticized the system we were in. Looking back, I realized now that I was a Theory Y (or Z) person in a Theory X environment - with a leader who would rather think of us as likened to factory workers and what-have-you. Bottom line, we were dismissed back then as meaningless and insignificant. There was no sharing of leadership or teacher empowerment. To prove my point, we were experiencing a yearly teacher turn-over rate of about 30-40% I guess. Last year, at least ten of us left. I heard now that they are doing badly with the new ones for incompetence and uncaring attitude.

Then, I became a leader myself. Although my present set-up is a lot lower in stature than my former school in terms of facilities, curriculum implementation and evaluation. (The system is far worse - an unexistent manual of operations etc.) - teacher turn-over rate has been practically zero for the last four or five years. Plus, the students in my new school rated their teachers better than we were rated back in my former school (though not significant). What was the reason for that? I have my opinions on this but they are untested, uncorrelated and too much for this write-up so I would rather not talk about it here. Perhaps in summary, I would point out here that the success and failure of the school, though influenced greatly by the availability of an instructional leader (Lipman, 1985) - cannot be solely accounted by it. The teachers play an important role. I keep on saying this because new principals (those of us who care, mind you) were caring teachers too. Barth (2000) described us as teachers who thought they can change the system. Perhaps, we can, but not during our beginning year (Parkay and Hall, 1992)

I will put it this way. The article focuses on complaints of teachers (31 vs 5?) to their principals. Usually principals are outnumbered this way, even more. Bigger schools have the ratio in the hundred I guess. Now, may I contend that of these 100 teachers, perhaps not the best will rise to be principal. But he/she is not certainly one among the lower half of the norm. The only lacking factor in the newly hired principal is this: lack of training. S/he is not ready to be a principal because s/he has been a teacher/area coor/assistant to whomever. There was no prior knowledge of how it is down there.

I just watched a movie (documentary) about Robert McNamara, secretary of defense to Kennedy and Johnson during the Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam War. His "lessons" (of the 11) has this as numero uno: "Emphatize with the enemy". Put yourself in his shoes. Elsewhere, Sun Tzu remarked, "If you know yourself and your enemy, you will not fear the results of a hundred battles". We must know where we stand, and where our staff stands. Hence, there are theories on motivation (content and process theories), and countless checklists on how to influence, coerce and make your staff follow you to the ends of the world. But when you are down there (at the fifteen foot line, with no more time remaining, two shots, the opponent leads by one) you throw the statistics behind you. So what if you are Rick Barry or Larry Bird?
So what if you made the last two hundred free throw baskets consecutively, that is, without missing a shot?

Without some knowledge of how they stand more or less, it is always crisis management. It is always like war management. In war, as the movie I talked about above points out, the leader (presumably the general or the secretary of defense) often commits a mistake. And several thousands of people, including civilians, might be killed. Sure you can commit them but you can never ever repeat the same mistake. You could erase a country in the globe for that.

The problem with leadership is not always about the principals, although talking to my classmates, Patricia, Andy, and May among others, one will certainly battle the theory in my mind. But, as I am fond of being at the other side all the time, principals cannot be all wrong. I was educated in UST, where our patron saint, my favorite, St. Thomas Aquinas maintained that even the "dull and ignorant has something to say", and that we must regard not the person speaking but the truth spoken. Hence, we must say that as Hume, and Kierkegaard and Sartre are athiests (for the summary executioners), for the wide-eyed thinkers - including our venerable John Paul II, they too have something to say. They cannot be all wrong.

The only thing that we have to recommend here is that somehow principals should open their eyes on the most pressing things around them - the direction of the school, the VMGO, and the communication of this direction to the staff. I believe that most principals are regarded in a shallow manner by his/her teachers because of this lack of communication of goals. Dr. Munoz somehow alluded to this fact when she talked about a study (hers, from what I remember) that it is an essential factor in leadership that the principal has interpersonal skills.

Another thing is the motivation and attitude of the staff. This will be the focus of our report. It is one thing to have good teachers. If you have two good teachers in your school, that's equivalent to twenty more because they can influence their peers to do better (I remember the song "Stout-hearted men" from grade school: Give me ten and I'll soon give you ten thousand more). But expectancy theory prompts us, if they know not where this competency and caring will amount to, either they will stop being motivated (they will have negative attitudes) or they will simply find a new environment. Somehow, I got from Dr. Habulan's lectures last term that mostly, Theory Y people are the people who are most prone to get out of a bad system the quickest possible way. It's in their veins. They are the easiest to motivate (being intrinsically motivated) but they will leave immediately (or will start to not care) if there is no expectation of a reward (monetary, or otherwise).

Moving to procedural matters however - What despaired me in the article the most is the lack of consistency on the statistical treatment. And one thing that is of my essence is that I cannot trust something that has no statistical basis to begin with. In the first place the methodology used for rating is inconsistent. I was reading to the article - 30 plus and all - hoping that a redemption will come towards the end. But, 30 pages and at least 1.5 hours after -I came to the end. What?

Firstly, the author used a 5-point Likert scale to rate the instructional leadership styles of the principals in PNG. It's a good plan. But then, he (?) converted this to unsatisfactory (1,2,3) and satisfactory 4,5)

While this is probably okay towards the end (when we are about to get the means, interpret and all), this is a no-no in statistics. In the hierarchy of scales, interval (Likert) comes a step higher than the quasi-nominal satisfactory/ unsatisfactory (like Yes/no, Male/Female, Pass/Fail). It would have been better to retain the 5 point scale and get the average. Then, at least compare the self=ratings of the principals and the teachers - find the correlation perhaps (or find if there are significant differences - add.). Then, and only then, can you convert this to satisfactory and unsatisfactory in the final analysis.

As if it is not enough, he then turned towards analyzing through the frequency table (unsatisfactory versus satisfactory). This he did without any mention of any non-parametric study (chi-square would have been appropriate), nor any statistical referencing (critical values) etc. In the first place, summarizing the 1,2, and 3 as unsatisfactory and 4,5 as satisfactory will naturally skew the distribution to the right. Normal (and classical) probability will put the odds at 3 to 2 that the principals will be rated unsatisfactorily.

I did the mathematics back home (hence, the long input), and this is what I got:

Using a non-parametric stat (Chi-Square, I have no choice that's the only thing available for the data given)

Table 2: Defining community goals – X2 = 5.45 not significant
Table 3: Managing curriculum and instruction X2 = 19.88 significant
Table 4: Positive Learning Climate X2 = 58.32 significant
Table 5: Feedback X2 = 1.95 not significant
Table 6: Assessment of progress X2 = 1.79 not significant

So there you go, the results were significant only (at 0.05) in the "managing curriculum and instruction" (which is, sadly, the very core of instructional leadership nevertheless), and "giving positive learning climate" (again, very important if not essential as instructional leaders, from the lectures and sharing of our Dr. Mich Munoz)

Towards the end, the author was maintaining that the results point to being significant towards unsatisfactory rating, but the big question is how? Having mentioned no statistical test, we can dismiss his results as insignificant and likened to a high school report. My students last year in high school fared better – as they were introduced to SPSS for WIndows - and the reliability measurements.

This pains me but as I am a positive person, I viewed it this way. If an article such as this can make its way to the web, and the journal (?) where it was published, we too can! I can do better than this guy! Hence, I am all the more inflamed to do better in every way and be the best that I can be.

The other things will surely be shared by my classmates.



References:

Agresti, A & Finlay, B. (1986). Statistics for the Social Sciences. San Francisco CA: Dellen Publishing:

Barth, Roland (2000). Improving Schools from Within. New York: Mc-Graw-Hill.

Clavell, J. (1983). The Art of War by Sun Tzu. New York: Doubleday Press.

Fisher, RA and Yates, F. (1974). Statistical Tables for Biological, Agricultural and Medical Research. London: Longman Group.

Leithwood, Kenneth and Montgomery, Deborah. (1986). The Principal Profile. Ontario: OISE Press.

Lipman, JM, Rankin, RE and Hoeh, JA Jr. (1985). The Principalship Concepts, Competencies and Cases. New York: Lomgman.

Lunenburg, Frederic and Ornstein, Allan (2000). Educational Administration: Concepts and Practices (3rd edition). CA: Wadsworth, Thomason Learning

Mc Gregor, Douglas. (1960). The Human Side of the Enterprise. NY: Mc-Graw-Hill.

Ouchi, William. (1981). Theory Z. Reading, Massachussetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing.

Parkay, Forrest and Hall, Gene E (1992). Becoming a Principal: The Challenges of Beginning Leadership. Massachussetts: Allyn and Bacon.

Development Program for a High School

1. Philosophy and Objectives. Since the Philosophy must be formulated in the light of the clientele, we must first investigate whether the clientele finds the school objectives and philosophy as something that benefits them.

a. Determine the needs of students

b. Determine the objectives of parents in sending their children to us.

c. Determine the needs of the community as to its classification, its present work needs, and what sets it apart from other communities.

d. Review the philosophy and objectives of the school, and conduct a self-evaluation, using a survey on parents, teachers, administrators and even students, specifically to test whether they think that the philosophy and objectives of the school are pertinent and working or not. If not, it should be replaced with a working philosophy, which will be imbibed by the school, its officials and teachers, and the students themselves.

e. After reviewing (or formulating) the philosophy and objectives of the school, it should be written to the students’ handbook and stated in the bulletin. Teachers and students alike will memorize it. All activities will be centered to its objectives. Parents will be informed of them and the community will be given copies of it, in order to tell them of the school’s ideals and objectives. It is the belief of the proponent that many prospective students will be won by the school, if we formulate our philosophy and objective correctly and fittingly – that is, to the needs of the community.

f. Every statement of the philosophy and objectives of the school must be centered on the development of the intellectual, moral, social, and physical aspects of the learner.

g. Following the mandate of the Constitution, we shall “inculcate patriotism and nationalism, foster love of humanity, respect for human rights, appreciation of the role of national heroes in the historical development of the country, teach the rights and duties of citizenship, strengthen ethical and spiritual values, develop moral character and personal discipline, encourage critical and creative thinking, broaden scientific and technological knowledge, and promote vocational efficiency”.



2. Faculty. The faculty, needless to remark, is that which will either make or break a school. In fact, of the 23 points in PAASCU accreditation, Faculty and Instruction – which is also dependent on the Faculty – make up 10. Clearly, what determines school quality is the strength of the Faculty and their Classroom Instruction (James O’ Donnell, SJ). In connection with this, it is the conviction of the proponent that education starts for the teachers. Teachers need to be educated more than the students, because they are the ones modeling the school for us. They are our representatives to the students, and the outside world. Hence, improving the faculty and the classroom instruction is the priority of any reasonable school.

a. Determine the philosophy of teachers. Test their loyalty to the institution. If a teacher’s philosophy is not at par with the philosophy of the school, tell the teacher concerned. Remind him or her that we must all look towards the same directions.

b. Have an initial faculty evaluation, both by the principal and the students. Test the attitude of students to the faculty as a whole, using the instrument made by Atento and Quinto (2005).

c. Determine if there is a need for additional faculty or lesser faculty.

d. Determine the qualifications and preparedness of faculty. Convince the faculty that in five years time, the school will be undergoing accreditation, so they must be academically prepared. Convince on taking up units in masteral education

e. Determine the goals of faculty.

f. Determine the problems encountered by faculty in their teaching.

g. Determine the degree of mastery of teachers in their subject.

h. Conduct seminars on professional development of the teachers.

i. Research for journal articles and research materials for professional reading of teachers

j. Determine the length of service of faculty in teaching, including the years from other schools.

k. Improve the faculty selection. Give better test instruments geared for classification and research on the faculty – whether the faculty is competent and his/her strengths and weaknesses.

l. Gauge professional performance of faculty.

m. Design doable and affordable faculty improvement program.

n. Review and comment on the teaching assignment, load, and salary scheme of faculty

o. Determine and evaluate the school policy on tenureship, leave of absence, dismissal and retirement provisions.

p. Organize activities meant to educate the teachers and transfer in them the true ideals of being a teacher.




3. Instruction.


A school should manifest deep concern for the quality of instruction offered to its students and give evidence of efforts to make instruction effective.

a. Design a system of preparation of test questions, meant for content validation by the principal.

b. Review and improve diagnostic examinations being given to incoming students.

c. Prepare a study for correlating results of diagnostic examinations to performance of students.

d. Let the teachers prepare TOS for every examination.

e. Teach the teachers on how to study the results of their examination through descriptive statistics, and item analysis for difficulty and discrimination.

f. Design a system of follow-up for students who graduated and are already in college.

g. Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum. Present improvement for development of curriculum. Seek the help of the veteran teachers in re-designing the curriculum ultimately.

h. Let the teachers submit their subject matter budget for the year and prepare a curriculum matrix from this. (from grade 1 to fourth year)

i. Help the teachers in realizing the need to improve the classroom teaching procedure through effective strategies, varied methods and affordable but efficient materials and teaching aids.

j. Seek the suggestions of teachers in improving the teaching materials and aids for use in classroom instruction.

k. Initiate a series of in-house seminars meant for improvement of the faculty in:

1. Writing and Executing Effective Lesson Plans
2. Teaching Methods
3. Teaching Strategies
4. Classroom Management
5. Test Construction
6. Item Analysis
7. HOTS and Critical Thinking


l. Review the present textbooks being used. Tell the faculty to design their own modules for review and publication for the next year. Textbooks then will be discarded and merely used for reference.

m. Design instruments to gauge students’ critical thinking, or document its existence through observation.

n. Implement strictly the punctuality and attendance of teachers. Make a system of substitution for teachers in case of absences. Tell the teachers to prepare a weekly module as evaluation procedures in case of their absence.

o. Let the teachers prepare the school register daily, to check for students who are always absent.

p. Review class schedules and length. Review the number of students per classroom.

q. Tell the teachers to design student-centered activities.

r. Study on how to gauge and document student-preparedness and participation.

s. Study on how to gauge critical thinking and scientific attitude among students.

t. Review the grading system employed by the school.

u. Design a rubric for the components of the grading system.

v. Let the teachers prepare rubrics for project grades and recitation/character and homeroom grade for uniformity.

w. Computerize the grading process and propose a computerized grading system from class record to grading sheets, to consolidated sheets, to cards, to permanent records and report on promotions.

x. Review the extra-curricular activities. Implement better activities geared towards scholarly development of students: oratorical contests, fora and symposia, dramatics, students' publications and science exhibitions.

y. Propose a better educational guidance to students. Interview students on their inclinations and aspirations, their goals and career preferences.

z. Organize a better remediation program for students who have a need for it.

aa. Formalize the system of parent communication. Open the doors to parents and convince them that we must work hand and hand to improve the quality of education, especially on their children.

bb. Identify the gifted students and give them special requirements and tasks to stimulate their mind.



4. Library

The school library (and audio-visual center, if there is) is not a mere storage place for books and materials. It is a dynamic institution for teaching the love and use of books and other instructional materials. To be really effective, the library must be vitally correlated with the objectives of the school. Therefore, provision should be made for the early orientation of the students to the library and audiovisual center

a. Let the librarian review the books and try to correlate the books the school has with the objectives of the school.

b. The librarian is expected to note the attendance of students during break times and vacant periods. This analysis is done to gauge the students’ love for books and learning.

c. Impose on the need for teachers to give challenging assignments, which will make use of the library materials, and other reading materials such as periodicals, magazines, and research materials.

d. Encourage the teachers to list down better library materials, books and teaching materials, and rate them as “immediately needed” or “needed”, so that a proposal for their order may be done.

e. Analyze the qualification, academic preparation and salary scheme of the library personnel

f. Evaluate and propose an improved library funding

g. Let the students evaluate the library and materials through a survey.



5. Laboratory


a. Evaluate the space of classroom whether there is an adequate space and provision for demonstration and exhibits appropriate for the Science, Technology and Home Economics (THE), and Computer Education courses.

b. Inspect whether there is adequate laboratory facilities for Science, THE and Computer subjects

c. Inspect whether there is adequate equipment and supplies for each of the laboratory courses offered by the school.

d. Evaluate the maintenance procedures and improvement programs for laboratory facilities and equipment.

e. Document laboratory experiments and students’ work for exhibit purposes. Design experiments that are affordable, replicable, original, and can be improved on.

f. Analyze experiments, whether they are using the resources of the community, and catering for its needs. Also, analyze whether they are using the scientific method, and in line with the mission vision of the school



6. Physical Plant

a. Inspect whether the site is indeed adequate for the attainment of the school’s objectives.

b. Inspect whether the site is located in a wholesome environment, free of moral and physical hazards and unsanitary conditions.

c. Inspect whether the size of the school meets the requirements of the present and prospective enrollment of the school.

d. Inspect whether it is easily accessible to the clientele of the school.

e. Evaluate whether the campus is well planned and adequate for the social, physical, cultural and religious interests of the school. Also, whether it is provided with adequate facilities for all curricular and co curricular activities

f. Inspect whether the buildings are of reasonably permanent, earthquake and fire resistant construction. Evaluate whether the same insures a sufficiently quiet atmosphere and the safe and convenient circulation of the school population.

g. Ascertain whether the plant conforms with the socio economic conditions of the community in which it exists

h. Evaluate the buildings if these are well illuminated and ventilated and provided with a sufficient water supply.

i. Inspect if there are adequate drinking and sanitation facilities.

j. Check for provisions for bulletin board space, precautions against fire, proper disposal of waste, custodial staff services and facilities.

k. Inspect whether classrooms are large enough to accommodate the enrollment therein (about one square meter per student). Also, whether these are adequately equipped with furniture and blackboards. Further, lighting, ventilation, aesthetic appearance, and freedom from noise should be satisfactory.

l. Check the institution’s provision for adequate facilities for food service.

m. Check for adequacy of provision for clinic for medical and dental examinations.

n. Check for adequacy of provision for administrative offices, a faculty room and other auxiliary services.

7. Student Services

a. Improve the entrance tests for prospective students. Identify their needs, learning styles, multiple intelligences, attitudes, personality, motivation, confidence, aptitude and readiness for each level, informing with parents the strengths and weaknesses of each, and suggesting on the means and ways to improve the student’s performance.

b. Define ways to predict student’s academic performance based on the testing program

c. Evaluate the physical and medical examinations of students.

d. Appraise the guidance program of students that should reflect the philosophy and objectives of the school.

e. Develop an orientation program for new students, and a reorientation program for the old students.

f. Organize and develop a student inventory service, containing vital information for each student, including psychological tests, aptitude test results etc.

g. Evaluate the testing service of the school, and suggest ways to improve it.

h. Appraise the counseling service of the school and suggest ways to make it efficient.

i. Improve the remediation program and the enrichment service offered by the school

j. Improve the vocation and career orientation of students, giving vital assessment of counseling on students’ career preference.

k. Initiate the follow-up service of the school for its graduates.

l. Appraise the student activity program and the student council.



8. Administration

a. Suggest on the ways to improve the administration of the school, based on the standards set by the PAASCU.


9. The School and the Community

a. Prepare a survey intended on the community the school serves, its needs and resources.

b. Analyze the school relationship with the community and seek ways to improve it and document the process.

c. Inform the community of the school’s mission and vision, its philosophy and objectives, its programs and services.

d. Develop the social awareness of students by inculcating in their minds the need to know the community where they are in.

e. Provide a program of activities for students’ immersion in the community.


10. Enrolment

a. Find better ways to attract new clientele. Apply the knowledge we have of the community’s needs to attract new students.

b. Start an all-out campaign to raise the enrolment by at least 30% a year for the next 5 years.



11. Student Discipline

a. Apply the students’ test and psychological results to find ways to handle the students.

b. Educate the students on the role of discipline to success.

c. Seek the help of teachers and parents to maintain discipline.

d. Improve the rules and regulations of the school and let the students and teachers know about them.