Academic Leadership and Management Skills of Private School Administrators under New Normal Conditions

AUTHOR(S)

Marylou Delgado Austria & May Rhea Siapno Lopez, EdD

ABSTRACT

School leadership and management skills contribute to students’ academic performance, which requires knowledge, preparation, technical training, and continued professional development to facilitate the interactive participation of teachers and students. It is an evolving and influential process that leads to achieving the desired purpose. This study determined the academic leadership and management skills of the eighty-seven (87) private sectarian school administrators under new normal conditions. The following are the leadership skills of private school administrators, namely: Assessment for Learning, Programs Development, Implementing programs for Instructional Improvement, and Supervision. Management skills include Managing School Operations, Fiscal Management, Technology in the Management Operations, Triage, Transition, and Transformation. Each part consists of ten (10) indicators for which the respondents shared their perspectives in the conduct of this study.
This study used the descriptive-correlational research method to assess the level of competence of private school administrators in terms of academic leadership and management capabilities. A survey instrument was developed and used to gather findings in the study. The instrument was designed to help the researcher create a profile dealing with questions on administrators’ leadership and management skills. The instrument used was validated by a pool of five (5) experts in their field of specialization using the criteria developed and revised in 2020 by Meimban. The content validity of instrument results showed that the questionnaires designed are highly valid. The personal factors such as age, sex, civil status, highest educational attainment, length of service as an administrator, area of specialization, monthly income, and relevant seminars relative to academic leadership and management are categorized using the frequency count and percentage distribution.
Based on the analysis of the results, findings showed that the private school administrators are educationally prepared and had attended relevant training required for their positions as administrators in their area of specializations. In addition, the private sectarian school administrators are predominantly female, mature, and single. The following are the recommendations based on the findings of the study, namely: the private schools have to set a minimum requirement of at least Masteral Degree for the teachers to cope with the demands in the academe, sustain and maintain a high level of academic leadership and management skills, conduct benchmarking with other institutions to adopt ways and strategies for improvement, create a faculty development program that will include pieces of training and seminars, and pursue further studies to uplift the profile of the institution. Also, there is a need to conduct further studies on academic leadership to include more variables in wider scopes using different data gathering instruments to cross-check the findings of the study.