Principal instructional leadership and secondary school performance

• Principal instructional leadership can be direct (focused on improving teaching) or indirect (focused on creating the conditions for optimal teaching and learning). • In secondary schools, principals are more likely to focus on indirect instructional leadership than they are in primary schools, because middle leaders such as heads of department take on much of the direct instructional leadership. • In the study reported in this article, principals in both higher and lower performing schools were rated higher for frequency of both direct and indirect leadership behaviours than principals of mid-performing schools. • However, principals in schools that were improving in performance (regardless of level) were displaying more frequent direct leadership behaviours than principals from the other schools. • This may reflect the need for effective principals to respond appropriately to the conditions at their specific school.