Leadership Practices and School Effectiveness in Private Schools of Saddar Town, Karachi: A Quantitative Analysis

Abstract

School leadership is felt to be one of the key aspects that contribute to the improvement of schools, teacher development and teaching and learning. The present study is quantitative in nature and analyzed that there are differences in leadership practice scores between age groups, years of service, academic qualification and professional qualification among the principals and school leaders of private schools of Saddar town in Karachi. A quantitative study of 60 female, leadership respondents in a private school was conducted to obtain data. The tools of this questionnaire included general demographic and 24 Likert-type items related to leadership skills, activities, characteristics and professional development. Data was subsequently analyzed by descriptive statistics, Shapiro-Wilk test for normality, F test for equality of variances, and independent-samples t test. Results showed no statistically significant differences in leadership practice scores by age, t (60) = -0.74, p = .463; years of service, t (60) = 1.29, p = .201; academic qualification, t (60) = -0.42, p = .675; or professional qualification, t (60) = -1.78, p = .080. The difference between B. (moderate) and all the other comparisons was the between B.Ed. and M.Ed./MS/M.Phil. respondents. The results showed that variation in the leadership practices of the sampled private-school leaders cannot be attributed to their demographic status. The article points towards the need for structured leadership training, instructional coaching, school-based decision making, and data-driven school improvement to enhance school efficacy in the private education system in Karachi.