Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to outline the findings from a small-scale, exploratory, study of principals' instructional leadership practice in Malaysian primary schools. The dimensions and functions of instructional leadership, explicitly explored in this study, are those outlined in the Hallinger and Murphy's (1985) model.…

This study identifies specific coping techniques helpful to educators in handling the tensions of their jobs, clusters the reported techniques into coping categories, assesses the number and frequency of coping techniques used by educators, and identifies similarities and differences in coping responses. (Author/TE)

Arising out of the reform of school inspection are questions about whether inspections are necessary, how accountability and promotion are to be managed if they are not, and whether inspectors are justified in feeling insecure. (Author/WM)

A sample of elementary and high schools was investigated to determine principals' influence on student achievement test scores. Analysis of variance estimated principals' effects while controlling for environmental and organizational factors. Findings indicate that principals exert a small but important influence on school performance. (TE)