Curriculum Leadership Practices and Perceived Curriculum Implementation Effectiveness Among Public School Heads in Three Schools Divisions

Curriculum reform depends on how school leaders support its everyday implementation. This study examined the relationship between curriculum leadership practices and perceived curriculum implementation effectiveness among public school heads in Albay, Ligao City, and Iriga City, Philippines. Guided by Hallinger and Murphy’s instructional leadership model, a cross-sectional descriptive-correlational design was used. Fifty school heads voluntarily completed a questionnaire containing 60 items across six subscales. Analyses included descriptive statistics, internal consistency estimates, Pearson correlation, and simultaneous multiple regression, supplemented by rank-based correlation, robust standard errors, and influential-case checks. Respondents reported very high leadership practices (M = 4.702, SD = 0.375) and implementation effectiveness (M = 4.678, SD = 0.359). However, 71.2% of item responses received the highest rating, indicating a ceiling effect. Overall leadership and implementation scores were strongly associated (r = .804, p < .001). The regression model explained 66.8% of the observed variance. Positive learning climate was the only dimension with a significant unique association (B = 0.535, β = .595, p = .002), a finding retained in sensitivity analyses. Mission definition and instructional management did not contribute significant additional variance after their overlap with learning climate was considered. Findings suggest that collaboration, recognition, inclusion, and professional learning deserve attention in curriculum support. Nevertheless, the voluntary sample, common source of measurement, unverified content validity, and overlapping predictors limit interpretation. The results describe perceptions rather than independently demonstrated effectiveness and cannot establish causation. Larger studies using validated instruments, teacher reports, observations, and documentary evidence are needed to test these relationships.