School Head’s Instructional Leadership Practices in Public Schools

Abstract

This mixed methods study examined the instructional leadership practices of public elementary school heads in Talakag I District, Division of Bukidnon. Anchored on the National Competency-Based Standards for School Heads and the theory of deliberate practice, it assessed the extent to which school heads performed four competency strands assessment for learning, program development and adaptation, implementation of programs for instructional improvement, and instructional supervision identified the difficulties they encountered, and described how they addressed these challenges. Fifteen school heads from 17 public elementary schools participated through a survey using the DepEd instructional leadership evaluation instrument and semi-structured interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation, while qualitative data underwent thematic narrative analysis. Findings revealed very high levels of instructional leadership across all strands, with overall means from 4.25 to 4.53 “Always Practiced”, indicating consistent use of assessment data, curriculum review, program implementation, and clinical supervision with feedback and technical assistance. Despite this, school heads reported challenges such as teacher resistance to change, competing administrative demands, limited time for classroom observation, and difficulties sustaining innovation. To overcome these, they maximized Learning Action Cells and other professional development activities, strengthened collegial supervision and mentoring, encouraged collaboration among teachers, and modeled openness to change. The study concludes that while instructional leadership is generally strong, targeted support is still needed to help school heads manage workload, deepen teacher buy-in, and sustain instructional improvements.