Effective Instructional Leadership Requires Assessment Leadership

Principals can play a pivotal role in the improvement of student learning by helping teachers develop and use sound classroom assessments that will strengthen instruction and student learning. The typical teacher will spend a quarter to a third of her or his available professional time involved in assessment-related activities. If they do it well, both teachers and students gain access to evidence that can be used in making sound instructional decisions; if they do it poorly, learning will suffer. In spite of this, little of principals' preparation time is spent learning about assessments. © Phi Delta Kappa International, Inc.