Principal leadership practices: A correlation study of specific instructional leadership practices and student achievement on the Tennessee Gateway Tests

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of instructional leadership practices performed by the principal and the academic achievement on the Tennessee Gateway Tests by his/her students. The researcher sought to determine if a relationship between specific leadership practices performed by the principal and overall student achievement on the three gateway tests, English, Math, and Biology, exists. High school principals whose school fell within one standard deviation of the mean school size and one standard deviation of the mean in socio-economic status were surveyed. Data for this quantitative study were collected using the Instructional Leadership Practices Survey, developed by the researcher using the current literature regarding instructional leadership practices. The responses to the survey were used to analyze instructional leadership practices performed by a principal using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Data collected from the State of Tennessee report cards for each school involved in the study were also used in order to attempt to draw a correlation between leadership practices and student achievement. The findings indicated that there was not a relationship between the specific principal leadership practices and student achievement on the Tennessee Gateway Tests. The findings also indicated that the average high school principal in the State of Tennessee spends less than 10 hours per week monitoring instruction.