Table of Contents

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3

Effective leadership defined…………………………………………………………………… 4

Effective school and leadership………………………………………………………………. 5

Implication of Effective leadership in schools in Saudi Arabia………………… 6

Recommendations…………………………………………………………………………………. 7

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 9

Introduction

Over the past few years, various schools in Saudi Arabia and all over the world have established initiatives to hire and train school leaders. What these activities signify is an acknowledgement that school leaders have a strong, if indirect, impact on the quality of

 education and student improvement. Although many have wanted to discuss the relationship between school effectiveness and leadership, few have provided the measures that schools in Saudi Arabia and all over the world can take to change their methods of leadership development.

Initiatives to enhance school leadership are not vague: research validates both a restricted number of skilled school leaders in Saudi Arabia to operate s0chools and the significant tasks these people can play in enhancing the quality of education and learning. Yet the issue goes over supply and availability of school leaders (Kruse, 2008). Studies also indicate that most of the present and potential school leaders do not have the competencies essential to manage the present schools. Experts have discovered that 30 percent of school leaders think that the quality of leadership has gone down significantly over the past few years. One potential source of this problem is the evolving nature of the school leadership. 

In Saudi Arabia, for instance, school leaders are tasked to do mainly managerial responsibilities. Experts however believe that schools of this generation will need a new type of school leaders, whose primary roles will be identified with regard to instructional leadership that concentrates on empowering teaching and understanding (Daniels, 2000). The goal for Saudi Arabian schools is to restructure their systems of licensure and school leader development to generate and provide incentives to school leaders that possess these types of competencies.

More than ever, in the current environment of increased expectations, school leaders especially in Saudi Arabia are being pressured to enhance teaching and learning. They have to be academic visionaries, educational and curriculum leaders, evaluation experts and role models. They are tasked to manage the various desires of parents, pupils and government units, and they have to be aware of increasing scope of pupil needs. 

While that job description looks too big, at least it signifies that the society has started to provide acknowledgment to the important role and increasing demands on school leaders. But are the current school leaders in Saudi Arabia obtaining the proper preparation they need to satisfy them?

This essay will discuss the relationship between leadership and school effectiveness, the important roles of school leaders in achieving school effectiveness, and excellent recommendations for Saudi Arabian schools to pursue to make their schools more effective and productive.

Effective leadership defined

Effective leadership pertains to the capability to properly integrate and optimize accessible resources within the inner and outer environment for the accomplishment of company or societal objectives. An effective leader is normally somebody that leads well and other individuals just comply since they think what they do are the best things to do. 

Excellent leaders lead well and simply convince others to join them. Being true to promises is another aspect of effective leadership (Crowther, 2008). They believe in other people and never miss to give credit to somebody when they observe that they are performing well. Effective leaders acknowledge their faults and whenever they commit inaccuracies. Everybody is human and commits errors at one point in time. It’s the way an individual handles the error that provides them a specific leadership attribute. An effective leader can acknowledge when they are mistaken and by doing so, enables individuals to feel at ease asking them for support and recommendations.

Excellent listening capabilities are a huge component of effective leadership. An individual who is ready to listen to issues or problems a worker or a colleague may have will provide them more data (Reiss, 2006). Thus, the effective leader can make a logical choice.  An effective leader provides motivation and encouragement. Effective leadership pertains to asking or requesting an individual to accomplish a specific task, not ordering them. Excellent leaders make suggestions to follow.  They are ready to get involved in the situation. They understand that they are more than just the head of the group.

Effective school and leadership

Increasing consensus on the characteristics of school leaders indicates that they affect school effectiveness through two significant routes— the assistance and development of effective school leaders and the application of excellent school procedures. This consensus is mirrored in licensing needs, which usually subscribe to a series of ordinary expectations for the understanding, competencies, and perspectives of school leaders (Weatherley, 2000). Even with the emerging body of proof, more studies are important to identify the effect and relative value of leadership in such important aspects like curriculum, evaluation, and adjustment to local matters. 

Establishing a cooperative environment has been pertained to as the single most significant element for effective school leadership enhancement efforts. Almost all traditional school leaders advocate for more chances for teacher cooperation. School effectiveness is likely to be best where teachers and school leaders function together, in small units and all over the school, to determine sources of progress and then struggle altogether to attain school development. Making and maintaining school effectiveness demands creating a significant group of school leaders within the school who are ready and capable to serve as change agents.

Schools are well known for possessing a huge list of goals to improve their effectiveness that alter consistently, are checked irregularly, and leave the school leader without a clarified understanding of what is essential for them to prioritize in their schools (Wagner, 2005). Effective school leaders know the significance of prioritization and help guarantee that all areas of the school are knowledgeable of and in accordance with the school’s development initiatives to enhance its effectiveness. They know that all areas of the school are interlinked and that it is necessary to align school objectives with excellent standards and targets.

Implication of Effective leadership in schools in Saudi Arabia

Based on experts, school leaders in Saudi Arabia have a quantifiable, though indirect,

 impact on school effectiveness and student accomplishment. Leadership seems to specifically

 affect the quality of education in Saudi Arabian schools (Deal, 1999). School leaders in this country give sense and direction to curriculum and control the school properly to aid pupil learning. School leaders also assess teachers and make choices regarding their classroom tasks. When classroom lessons are inferior in Saudi Arabian schools, or when huge numbers of teachers are lecturing irrelevant subjects, main accountability lies with the school leaders.

Effective leadership in schools in Saudi Arabia implies that school leaders know teaching and are respected by their students, parents and other important stakeholders (Klimek, 2008). Moreover, these school leaders are ready to make themselves and others accountable for pupil accomplishment and improving the capability of educators to satisfy this objective. As experts say it, the most common impacts of effective leadership in schools in Saudi Arabia include: (1) there is an improvement in the competencies and understanding of the individuals in the school; (2) there is a shared culture of expectations regarding the utilization of those competencies and understanding; (3) the different components of the school function together in an effective way; and (4) school leaders are responsible for their roles in the attainment of collective outputs. 

How every school leader in Saudi Arabia will do these roles will inevitably differ. Nonetheless, studies indicate three major modes of school leadership that promote school effectiveness. 

• School Leader as Entrepreneur— Excellent school leaders create and maintain a concentration on instructional development and pupil learning while safeguarding educators from the negative influences of the external environment.
• School Leader as Organizer—Effective school leaders bring to their schools qualified people and creative concepts, policies, and instructional methods that can enhance the

 quality of education while sustaining an excellent reform plan (Fullan, 2003). They also motivate educators, parents, and community people to cooperate in school development

initiatives.

• School Leader as Instructional Expert—Effective school leaders establish informationbased expert communities that male all people responsible for pupil learning and school development. They accomplish this by balancing time and financial assets to establish professional capabilities and understanding.

Recommendations

To enhance school effectiveness and leadership in Saudi Arabia and all over the world, policymakers must have to acknowledge that majority of leadership programs and regulations in their areas were established years ago and cannot generate the type of leaders needed by schools of the present time. Further, since majority of the hiring, training, and professional improvement of school leaders occurs in local areas and communities, lawmakers in Saudi Arabia must be tactical and logical regarding how they interfere in the aspect of leadership improvement in schools. Where Saudi Arabian schools have the most advantage—and where they can make the most influence—is in the way their school leaders are certified or licensed, prepared for leadership, and given the necessary training to enhance their leadership competencies.

To enhance the process of preparing and improving school leaders in Saudi Arabia, lawmakers should concentrate on three major aspects—licensure, preparation, and professional improvement. 

• Licensure—Saudi Arabian schools should eliminate obstacles for qualified people to going into the profession and shift toward a more performance-based method of validating and giving incentives school leaders (Kise, 2007). 
• Preparation— Saudi Arabian schools should enable and widen optional preparation programs and establish a comprehensive and defensible method of accreditation for policies and organizations that help school leaders to improve and attain their best potentials (Bolman, 2002). 
• Professional Development— Saudi Arabian schools should utilize the policies of government No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law to evaluate professional development activities in underperforming areas and shift toward a system of research-oriented professional development. 

Conclusion  

Saudi Arabian schools can take measures to enhance school leadership and effectiveness, particularly in the aspects of licensure, preparation, and professional development. Lawmakers must decide appropriately and immediately for Saudi Arabian schools to establish a new breed of top-quality of school leaders. By adhering to the measures tackled and by paying attention to the

 setting where these school leaders will function, including compensation and working aspects, lawmakers can accomplish this objective and make significant development to enhance school effectiveness and student understanding in each school in their country and schools all over the world.

If school leaders are to establish the circumstances that result to school effectiveness, lawmakers must take into account the studies on school and leadership methods that are connected to school effectiveness (Donaldson, 2006). By discovering methods to aid their school leaders – by synchronizing training to job roles, by providing assistance and enabling them to be involved in significant leadership activities, by making excellent and sensible differences between the roles of the schools and the  task of the school leaders, and by guaranteeing that school leaders have the resources essential to accomplish their tasks, Saudi Arabian schools are right on track to supporting school leaders concentrate on their most important role: making the school as effective as it can be.

School effectiveness to a certain extent is reliant upon integrating teaching techniques and sources to the necessities of pupils. It follows that centralized systems of Saudi Arabia must allocate authority in many areas of education to levels near to local areas. School leaders must become more than simple followers that comply to commands coming from the country’s capital. Decentralization of school leadership in Saudi Arabia is necessary in any plan targeted at enhancing total school effectiveness. Various nations in Asia like Indonesia and Thailand have already started to decentralize specific school leadership roles to great results.

REFERENCES

Bolman, L. (2002). Reframing the Path to School Leadership.  Corwin Press; 1st edition

Crowther, F. (2008). Developing Teacher Leaders: How Teacher Leadership Enhances School Success.  Corwin Press; Second Edition

Daniels, H. (2000). Rethinking High School: Best Practice in Teaching, Learning, and

Leadership.  Heinemann

Deal, T. (1999). Shaping School Culture: The Heart of Leadership.  Jossey-Bass; 1st edition

Donaldson, G. (2006). Cultivating Leadership in Schools: Connecting People, Purpose, & Practice.  Teachers College Press; 2^nd edition

Fullan, M. (2003). The Moral Imperative of School Leadership.  Corwin Press

Kise, J. (2007). Differentiated School Leadership: Effective Collaboration, Communication, and

Change Through Personality Type.  Corwin Press

Klimek, K. (2008). Generative Leadership: Shaping New Futures for Today’s Schools.  Corwin Press

Kruse, S. (2008). Building Strong School Cultures: A Guide to Leading Change.  Corwin Press; illustrated edition

Reiss, K. (2006). Leadership Coaching for Educators: Bringing Out the Best in School Administrators.  Corwin Press; illustrated edition

Wagner, T. (2005). Change Leadership: A Practical Guide to Transforming Our Schools. 

Jossey-Bass

Weatherley, C. (2000). Leading the Learning School.  Network Educational Press