Since the introduction of accountability framework was introduced in 2003 and the school-based management policy that included parents as school managers was reinforced, a community model in Hong Kong secondary schools seems emerging. Drawing from a landmark study in Hong Kong secondary schools that looked into the impact of principal leadership on student outcomes using both cognitive and affective data, this paper begins with an examination of the empirical evidence that seems to support a positive prospect for a community model. Specifically, the leadership dimension that characterizes principals’ external communication and connection was most highly correlated with the dependable variable, the school condition Support for Students. However, using hierarchical multiple regression, this leadership dimension was also found contributed to only about 3.38% of the variance. This result contrasts with that quality assurance and accountability policy of schools tended to have a negative impact on support for students. Moreover, for some of the forty-seven principals investigated, their scores in this dimension were the lowest among all the seven leadership dimensions studied. These results suggest a mixed message. On the one hand, they indicate that a good communication and connection with parents and the community seemed to help principals provide better support for students. On the other hand, many principals are yet to prepare for the change in power structure in school management (Walker, 2004). In the interviews with the principals and key staff teachers, some strategies adopted by schools to attempt a community model were found. First, as most schools in Hong Kong also have strong affiliations with or under the governance of religious bodies or charitable organizations, some forms of external communication and connection to the community may have already existed. Second, some secondary schools were eager to build stronger connections with primary schools in the local

This paper begins with an account of the various measures for promoting the professional development of teachers and principals as the complementary strategy of the Hong Kong government when it introduced a new accountability framework in 2003. Then, drawing on the evidence derived from a landmark study in Hong Kong secondary schools that looked into the impact of principal leadership on student outcomes using both cognitive and affective data, this paper presents part of the findings that showed how principals also tend to emphasise the professional development of teachers and key staff as a way to strengthen alignment within the school and between school and government policies. Specifically, this leadership dimension was most highly correlated with the dependable variable, the school condition Alignment, Coherence and Structure. Using hierarchical multiple regression, this leadership dimension was also found contributed to about 20% of the variance. This paper further seeks for evidence in interviews with principals and their key staff to explore the significance of professional development in schools demonstrated continuous significant school improvement. Teachers reported that their principals could succeed to align school policies with the contextual demands imposed on the schools, such as medium of instruction policy and the New Curriculum Structure by setting goals for teaching and learning. While these principals could enhance teachers' aspirations and translate meanings for their work, teachers' achievements in administration and teaching further strengthened their confidence and reinforced their participations. Many current key staff teachers who took up new, and more, duties were not necessary those teachers who were previously responsible for more formal roles such as vice principals. Many effective principals reported that they led their staff to meet strategic goals in an accountability context by mentoring and training and development. This builds up

This study examines the impact of principal leadership practices on student academic outcomes in four Hong Kong primary schools. Given the increased accountability mechanisms confronting schools in Hong Kong, this study is based on the assumption that principal practices that respond directly to accountability policy or link to human resources development will be most influential. This does not necessarily contradict the assumption that principal leadership practices are generic and contextualised. This study will adopt a case study design. The data will be collected from 4 local schools with varied strategies, including online student math tests, and teacher questionnaire surveys. The student math test items will be selected from item banks of standardised tests. The questionnaires will be adapted from Walker and Ko’s (2011) and Leithwood and Jantzi’ s (2000) scales respectively, each covering extensively 7 dimensions with the number of items reduced to 33. The test scores will be aggregated and standardised, and used as student academic outcomes. The two questionnaires will be combined and used for the teacher survey. They will attempt to measure teachers’ perceptions of principal leadership practices and conditions in the schools. The individual responses of the participants will be aggregated to the person level and school level, and then subjected to descriptive, comparative, and inferential statistical analyses. Factors from both principal leadership practices and school conditions that synergistically contribute to student achievement will be indentified and verified, and effects specified. Given the limited number of schools in the sample, findings at the teacher and student levels will be triangulated and discussed as rich descriptions of cases. It is hoped that it will inform practitioners and researchers the interrelatedness between principal leadership practices, school conditions, and student achievement. The findings may also generate some indicative findings

This paper presents the findings of 47 Hong Kong secondary schools in a study examining leadership practices, school conditions and student perceptions within an environment of increasing accountability. While an accountability framework might be intended to promote effective school improvement, the approaches adopted by the policy makers often carried different unwarranted assumptions and resulted in conflicting and unintended consequences. The impacts of Hong Kong’s school accountability framework introduced since 2003 were evaluated in three aspects: whether more schools in the study have shown improvements in value-added performance between 2006 and 2008; whether these schools with most significant improvement and most significant declines as measured by the value-added changes differed much; and whether these schools became more accountable in their practices and showed more support for students.