Best Practices in Educational Management and Leadership: Identifying High Impact Competencies for Malaysian School Principals byDr.

Sazali Yusoff, Abd Razak Manaf, Rosnarizah Abdul Halim Abstract Competency of a leader is vital in setting the direction of an organization, especially when the organization is a school. Competency is a measurable characteristic of a person that is related to effective performance in a specific job, organization or culture. Specific competencies of a school leader are needed in ensuring that the school under his or her care is achieving and continue to achieve. In this paper, the word competency is defined as a measurable characteristic of a person that is related to effective performance in a specific job, organization or culture. In this context, Institut Aminuddin Baki (IAB), Ministry of Education, Malaysia has developed a Growth-Oriented Training and Development (GOTD) framework, High Impact Training Initiatives (HITI) and Leadership Competency Assessment (LCA) in its attempt to produce high impact school leaders. To operationalize these frameworks, IAB has developed an instrument (KOMPAS) to evaluate headteachers competencies based on six domains namely; Policy and Direction, Instructional and Achievement, Change and Innovation, People and Relationship and Resources and Operation. In this study, IAB administered the KOMPAS instrument throughout the country to 315 school principals and 140 Ministry of Education Officers. The instrument used in this has a value of - Cronbach of 0.96. The result of the research shows that the high impact competencies for school principals in Malaysia are Quality Focus, Curriculum Focus, Problem Solving, Decision Making, Managing Change, Financial Management, ICT Management and Performance Management. To be fully-equip and up-to-date to the relevant knowledge, skills, and aptitude in order for them to lead and manage the school effectively.

Reference: Yusoff, S., Senin, A., Razak, A. M., & Rosnarizah, A. H. (2011). Best Practices in Educational Management and Leadership: Identifying High Impact Competencies for Malaysian School Principals.Retrievedfromhttp://iab.academia.edu/SAZALIYUSOFF/Papers/111441/Best_Practic es_in_Educational_Management_and_Leadership_Identifying_High_Impact_Competencies_for _Malaysian_School_Principals