The relationship between instructional leaderhip of school principals, academic optimism and student success

The aim of this research is examine the relationship between school principals' instructional leadership behaviors, academic optimism and students' academic achievement in Anatolian high schools. In the study, to determine the instructional leadership behaviors of school principals through teacher perceptions "Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale" and to determine academic optimism level of schools "School Academic Optimism Scale" were used. The perceptions of teachers concerning the principals' instructional leadership behaviors and academic optimism were presented as mean and standard deviation. Differentiation status of these indicators by different variables was analyzed by using t-test and one-way ANOVA. To analyze the correlation between the variables, two way Pearson Correlations were used. The mediating effect of school academic optimism between instructional leadership and students' year-end achievement scores was tested with two level structural equation modeling (SEM). In the study, according to teachers' perceptions, school principals' instructional leadership behaviors and school academic optimism were found to be at high levels. When the direct relationships were examined, a significant relationship was found between instructional leadership and academic optimism, academic optimism and student success, while a negative significant relationship was found between instructional leadership and student success. The study concluded that academic optimism has a mediating role between instructional leadership and student success and that instructional leadership indirectly affects academic success.