Running head: Standards for Supervision Volume 11 Issue 1 2017 AMAE Open Issue Editors Patricia Sánchez The University of Texas at San Antonio Antonio J. Camacho AMAE, Inc. Associate Editors Julie L. Figueroa Sacramento State Lucila D. Ek The University of Texas at San Antonio Association of Mexican American Educators Journal A peer-reviewed, open access journal Journal Website: http://amaejournal.utsa.edu http://amaejournal.utsa.edu/ Niño, Hernandez, Valles, & McPhetres Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Open Issue, Vol. 11, Issue 1 | 4 Latina/o School Principals as Instructional Leaders Juan Manuel Niño The University of Texas at San Antonio Frank Hernandez Southern Methodist University Fernando Valle Texas Tech University Jon McPhetres University of Rochester Abstract Focusing on the fundamental purpose of schools as student learning, this exploratory study attempts to better understand the role of Latino principals’ activities that are centered on the teaching and learning process. Specifically, the authors were interested in comparing the instructional leadership literature (what do instructional leaders do) and analyze the time and tasks that describe how Latino principals spend their time, and then compare these activites to Yosso’s (2005) cultural wealth model. Findings from our study revealed how principals create structures to prioritize instructional time by focusing on the relational aspect of the profession. Top activities where Latina/o principals spend most of their time include 33% in classrooms, 25% connecting with students, 23% pushing paperwork, 18% planning, 16% in meetings, 15% teaching training, and 14% in professional development. Additionally, our study highlights barriers for Latino school leaders indicating activities to reduce their time in meetings, student discipline, paperwork, and teacher administrator discipline. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24974/amae.11.325 http://dx.doi.org/10.24974/amae.11.325 Latina/o School Principals as Instructional Leaders Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Open Issue, Vol. 11, Issue 1 | 5 Introduction The term instructional leaders can be used to describe a principal’s major role in public schools today, yet the accountability demands of high stakes testing occupy principals with technical aspects of the profession which fail to focus on the major purpose of schools, centered on academic achievement. According to researchers and practitioners (Backnor & Gordon, 2015; Gordon, 2005), the main goal and focus of a school is student learning. So, how does the principal shape and prioritize his or her administrative commitments to focus on increasing student learning? As instructional leaders, principals oversee the educational experiences that promote the most effective and exceptional manner to instruct students. As schools become more accountable for their student’s success, a principal has to be sensitive about students’ cultural backgrounds, value students’ prior learning experiences, and engage in dialogue with all educational stakeholders to build a community of learners in schools. The position is a vital link in helping ensure students’ academic success in a time of infatuation with testing and accountability (Waite & Nelson, 2005), and maximize the ability of the position (Weller & Weller, 2002). Focusing on student learning as the fundamental purpose of schools, this study attempts to better understand the role of Latino principals’ activities that are centered on the process of teaching and learning. Specifically, the authors were interested in comparing the instructional leadership literature (what instructional leaders do) with the time and tasks that describe how Latino principals occupy their day. Then compare these activities to a framework (Yosso, 2005) developed to address types of capital that educational leaders can use to frame their interactions with students and his or her organization. In other words, to what extent do Latino school leaders’ tasks align with instructional leadership behaviors based on current literature and how do these tasks line up with Yosso’s (2005) model of cultural wealth. One final important note to make is that the literature on educational leaders and instructional leadership has not often included leaders of color in general or Latino school leaders specifically. Consequently, our task here is to compare our findings with the literature and also develop baseline data on Latino school leaders. Literature Review Recently, the Wallace Foundation (Turnbull, Haslam, Arcaira, Riley, Sincalir, & Coleman, 2009) developed a time/task analysis tool that allows principals to keep track of their time as closely as lawyers may track their billable hours. The project, School Administration Manager (SAM), addresses the issue that the multitude of management responsibilities deprives the school of a valuable instructional- leadership resource: the principal’s time. In this national project, each participating school hired a SAM to assist the principal with administrative and managerial tasks. However, the Wallace Foundation found Niño, Hernandez, Valles, & McPhetres Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Open Issue, Vol. 11, Issue 1 | 6 that most principals overestimate the amount of time they spend on instruction. After completing the time/task analysis, the Wallace Foundation study found that principals spent 70% of their time on non- instructional duties such as “managing buses,” “student behavior,” and “dealing with teachers and families,” and 30% on instructional related matters (Turnbull et al., 2009, p. 2). The SAMs nationwide study worked with 37 districts in 2008-2009. The original intent of the SAM position was for districts to hire an additional staff member for the managerial aspect of the principal. The responsibility shifted over time, however, to an existing teacher or office staff member who took on this additional role. The 75 principals who completed the first full year reported an average increase of almost five hours per week to instruction-related tasks. Findings suggest that in cases where SAMs, who did not have tasks delegated to him/her, the use of the principals’ time did not change. This study presents an interesting experiment in rethinking the role of the principal. The yearlong study did not radically alter the principal’s role. However, it demonstrated that there were other ways of envisioning how the principal can best serve the school. Other authors (Horng & Loeb, 2010) have argued that the literature over time has changed regarding instructional leadership. For example, traditional instruction leadership has been characterized as a focus on teaching and learning. That is, those principals with a strong instructional leadership focus spent their time and efforts on curriculum and instruction. Comparatively, that literature now concludes that instructional leadership should be focused in “organizational management for instructional improvement rather than day-to-day teaching and learning” (Turnbull et al., 2009, p. 66). According to Hoy and Hoy (2006), principals’ primary responsibility is to establish a school climate that is conducive to providing effective instructional practices. As such, the principal’s role is centered on establishing working relationships with teachers with the goal of improving the teaching and learning paradigm. Lunenburg (2013), similar to Horng and Loeb, (2010), contends that principals must shift the focus of instruction from teaching to learning so that principals and teachers form collaborative structures and processes to ensure instructional improvement. Additionally, Spillane, Halverson, and Diamond (2004) suggest instructional leaders construct an instructional vision so that discipline issues do not dominate instructional focus. However, given the current context of performance standards and accountability as a sole measure of learning, this can limit the scope of instructional practices. As a result of limited time for academic improvement, current leaders must develop the skills to collect and use multiple data sets to inform school decisions (King, 2002). Therefore, it is important to understand how instructional leaders set a culture of continuous learning to know how these instructional practices evolve to meet the changing demographics and serve diverse students needs. Latina/o School Principals as Instructional Leaders Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Open Issue, Vol. 11, Issue 1 | 7 Furthermore, Horng, Klasik, and Loeb (2010) collected data by direct observation of 65 principals in a week. The researchers then created a multivariate framework to run regression analyses to investigate the relationships between use of time and school outcomes. Findings indicated that time spent on organization management tasks was associated with positive school outcomes while time spent on day-to-day instruction had negative results. This study contends that a narrow focus of instructional leadership based on academics is not as productive as predicted. The authors contend that instructional leadership is more than working directly with teachers in the classroom. Hoy and Hoy (2006) believe the principal “is responsible for developing a school climate that is conducive to providing the very best instructional practices” (p. 2) and further explain that the principal leads the efforts for instructional leadership and is not solely responsible for the entire effort. Six ways instructional leadership is enacted include: 1) Strong focus that all students can learn (academic excellence); 2) Excellence and improvement are continuous, thus require continuous monitoring; 3) Teachers are the center of the instructional improvement; 4) Principals must provide support and find resources; 5) Principals must be intellectual leaders; and 6) Celebrate academic excellence. Hoy and Hoy’s (2006) vision agrees with Horng and Loeb’s (2010) view that instructional leadership is not solely about instructional methods and supervision, but that it includes managerial and other leader behaviors (i.e. creating positive climate, securing resources, etc.). Like Hoy and Hoy (2006), King (2002) identified 6 essential tasks that instructional leaders perform: 1) Lead learning; 2) Focus on teaching and learning; 3) Develop leadership capacity; 4) Create conditions for professional learning; 5) Use data to inform decisions; 6) Use resources creatively. King (2002) explains that instructional leadership techniques vary based on the needs of the campus. As such, a principal must know how to implement professional development programs that build professional learning communities to address curriculum, instruction, and assessment to fit the needs of the school. However, Lunenburg (2013) argues that alignment of curriculum with instruction and assessment is a key dimensional activity to properly be an effective instructional leader. Historically, initial leadership studies focused on personality traits of the top leader in an organization of great man theories. Spillane et al.’s (2004) framework centers on “…a distributed perspective on human activity presses us to move beyond individual activity to consider how the material, cultural, and social situation enables, informs, and constrains human activity” (p. 10). According to Spinalle et al. (2004), functions of an instructional leader include: 1) Constructing and selling an instructional vision; 2) Developing and managing a school culture conducive to conversations about the core technology of instruction by building norms of trust, collaboration, and academic press among staff; 3) Procuring and distributing resources; 4) Supporting teacher growth and development; 5) Niño, Hernandez, Valles, & McPhetres Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Open Issue, Vol. 11, Issue 1 | 8 Providing both summative and formative monitoring of instruction and innovation; and particularly 6) Establishing a school climate in which disciplinary issues do not dominate instructional issues. Zepeda (2013) invites principals to view themselves as adult learners and understand the foundations of instructional leadership. To her, instructional leadership is composed of the following elements: 1) Prioritization (of teaching and learning); 2) Knowledge of scientifically based reading research (SBRR) to assist in material selection; 3) Focus on alignment of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and standards; 4) Data analysis; and 5) Culture of continuous learning for adults. The following table presents common instructional traits found in the literature of instructional leadership. Building on the findings from the review, the table highlights the practices associated with how principals establish and define instructional roles and responsibilities. Table 1 Instructional Leadership Traits Hoy and Hoy King (2002) Lunenburg (2013) Spillane, et al. (2004) Zepeda (2013) (2006) Provide support and resources X X X X Focus on learning X X X X X Continuous monitoring X X Focus on teachers (growth and dev.) X X X X Build culture of collaboration X X X Use data to inform instruction X X X X Intellectual leader (culture of continuous learning) X X X X Align curriculum, instruction, assessment, and standards X X Celebrate excellence X Latina/o School Principals as Instructional Leaders Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Open Issue, Vol. 11, Issue 1 | 9 Latino School Leaders What is clear about the literature review is that very few studies that have been conducted look specifically at Latino leaders and the way in which they spend their time as principals. Consequently, missing from the educational leadership literature is the knowledge, skills, and time on task of Latina/o educational leaders. While some scholars (Hernandez, Murakami, & Quijada Cerecer, 2014; Hernandez & Murakami, 2016) have tried to capture the contributions that Latina/o school are making in US public schools, much more work is needed. Studies that investigated Latina/o educational leaders vary from parent involvement issues (Guerra & Valverde, 2008), to leading schools with English Language Learners (Delahunty, 2011; Madrid, 1985), and understanding pathways to the superintendency (Dillard, 2003). The majority of studies on Latino school leaders are unpublished dissertations with a focus on the Southwest United States (i.e. Carrion-Méndez, 2009; Cassidy, 2002; Davila, 2002; Enriquez-Damian, 2009; Gallegos, 2006; Garcia, 2010). Adding to the limited Latino/a educational leadership skills scholarship, Perez (2016) conducted a study focused on Latina/o social justice leadership and instructional practices in elementary schools with high numbers of English Language Learner and Economically Disadvantaged students. The study identified social justice leaders and examined instructional practices by Latino/a principals. The principals provided evidence of implementing tenants of social justice leadership in their daily work to narrow the learning and achievement gap, to build community, and used the understanding of diversity to add value of student learning in schools. As instructional leaders, Latina/o principals analyzed data to figure out specific learning goals and targets for ELL and underperforming students, and communicated these efforts clearly to staff. Additionally, differentiation was adopted with Response to Intervention (RtI) and found highly supported by social justice advocates (Theoharis, 2009). In another study, Boykin & Noguera (2011) found that teachers and principals who focused on daily academic vocabulary building and provided a variety of learning methods to build background knowledge were successful in closing literacy and opportunity gaps). Perez (2016) found the Latina/o principals outreach efforts were commonplace to inform families, include parents as valuable stakeholders, and make school’s learning and student achievement goals transparent. Latinas in Educational Leadership The research on Latina school leaders saw momentum in the 1980s but has slowed in the recent research in school leadership. The initial research on Latina leaders focused on structural barriers and on career mobility, barriers, and career paths (Armendariz-Housen, 1995; Avalos & Niño, Hernandez, Valles, & McPhetres Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Open Issue, Vol. 11, Issue 1 | 10 Salgado, 2016; Byrd, 1999; Carr, 1996; Fleming, 1991; Galloway, 1986; Madrid; 1985; Orta-Camilleri, 1999; Ortiz, 1982; Peery, 1998). Common barriers for Latinas include negotiating a balance in family, religion, community, and careers. An additional element in the work of Latinas has been their commitment to social justice leadership (Hernandez, Murakami-Ramalho, Quijada Cerecer, 2014; Méndez-Morse et al., 2015; Murakami & Hernandez, 2013). Latinas are also present in studies reporting on ethnic identity and its impact on management and leadership styles (Armendariz-Housen, 1995; Byrd, 1999; Trujillo-Ball, 2003). Armendariz-Housen (1995) demonstrated how Latina/o culture influences leadership development and roles. These discussions emanate from Latinas working as administrators in White male-dominated educational institutions (Armendariz-Housen, 1995; Carr, 1996; Loebe, 2004; Méndez-Morse, 2000; Ortiz, 1982; Ortiz & Venegas, 1978). In fact, the literature asserts that a relationship exists between Latina/o racial identity and leadership practices (Hernandez, 2015, 2012, 2005; Rodríguez, Murakami-Ramalho & Ruff, 2009). Other studies examine the relationship among culture, ethnicity, and gender on Latina leadership styles (Avalos & Salgado, 2016; Carrion-Méndez, 2009; Enriquez-Damian, 2009; Gallegos, 2006; Hernandez, 2005; Loebe, 2004). Indeed, there is a paucity of literature on Latinos and school leadership. As the demographics change and the Latino student population continues to grow, we must look carefully at approaches to leadership that mirror these changing demographics. Theoretical Framework There is a long-held belief from scholars of color that theoretical frameworks and research that addresses the sociohistorical conditions of people of color generally and Latinos specifically have been racist and have not been considered legitimate within the research community (See Anzaldúa, 1990; Collins, 1991; Scherich & Young, 1997). It is critical, then, that a appropriate and culturally relevant theoretical framework be used to examine Latino school leaders time on task. As such, we used Yosso’s (2005) community cultural wealth model as one way of looking closely at the work of Latino principals and how the use of their time aligns or does not align with Yosso’s work. Yosso’s (2005) six part cultural wealth model is comprised of six types of capital wealth that are often forgotten or invisible to others conducting work with Latino youth. The six forms of cultural wealth include: 1) aspirational, 2) linguistic, 3) familial, 4) social, 5) navigational, and 6) resistance. Aspirational wealth is the notion that students have hopes and dreams and look to parents, elders, and other community leaders to remind them of the importance of persistence in the face of inequities and unjust practices. It is this aspirational wealth were others provide consejos (advice) to keep dreaming and hoping for a brighter future. The second tenet of Yosso’s (2005) model is linguistic Latina/o School Principals as Instructional Leaders Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Open Issue, Vol. 11, Issue 1 | 11 wealth. Linguistic wealth is related to the ability of understanding the assess and strength in being bilingual, one’s ability to speak English and Spanish. This cultural wealth allows individuals to build bridges across communities and navigate multiple contexts that require dual language approaches. The third type of cultural wealth is familial wealth. This types represents social support that individuals get from their immediate and extended family members. Familial wealth often comes with wisdom and beliefs that family is critical and that all success is for the family. Social capital wealth is where individuals utilize their friendships, peers, and other social networks to learn and deveop social capital. Students may also develop strong relationships with other Latino peers and community leaders as they create more important networks. Navigational wealth refers to an individual’s ability to navigate different institutions including social and educational institutions. Navigational capital allows individuals to move within supportive and hostile work environments. Finally, resistant wealth is related to how individuals leverage social justice work conducted on their behalf to work through the challenges that they will experience. It prepares them to face and overcome the academic and social barriers that they will face as they nagivate society. This data will be filtered through this framework to give a more authentic voice to the ways in which Latino school leaders spend most of their time to complete instructional tasks. Methods This study, called the National Latino Leadership Project (NLLP), recruited 231 participants via email invitations, which described the study as a “Texas-wide survey of Latina/o leaders.” Participant e- mail addresses were obtained from the state education records organization which tracks school administrators based on a variety of demographic data. The survey took about 10 minutes to complete and questions utilized both short-essay responses as well as Likert-type scale formats; participants were not required to complete all questions and some participants skipped certain questions. The participants were 91 males and 125 females, ranging in age from 28 – 73 years (M= 47.45, SD= 9.04). The majority (58%) of the participants identified as Hispanic, with the rest identifying as Mexican (20%) and Latina/o (7%). Less than 1% (N = 2) identified as Puerto Rican, and 9% identified as “Other.” Eighty-six percent of participants were born in the United States, 10% were born in Mexico, and 3% selected “Other”. Of the participants born in the United States, 88% (N = 162) were born in Texas. Ninety percent of participants reported their ability to speak a language other than English, most often indicating fluency in Spanish. On average, participants reported that they speak Spanish with students, or with the families of students, about half of the time. Additionally, 76% of participants indicated that their ethnicity has “rarely” or “never” created barriers or problems in their work as an Niño, Hernandez, Valles, & McPhetres Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Open Issue, Vol. 11, Issue 1 | 12 administrator. In fact, 61% reported that their racial or ethnic background positively impacted their work as an administrator (16% responded “neutral”), with 66% indicating that this helped them connect with students (14% responded “neutral”). Participants were also asked to indicate the highest level of education they have achieved. Only 2% (N = 4) indicated their highest level of education as a bachelor’s degree; 63% indicated receiving a master’s degree; 16% indicated the education specialist certification, and 20% reported having earned a doctorate degree. The majority of participants (81%) currently served as school principals and 10% served as superintendents. Only 7 participants were assistant principals, and 11 participants indicated holding another administrative position. The participants were most likely to have earned their principal or superintendent certification at a public (83%) or private (10%) university; very few (N = 4) indicated earning certification from an online university or a liberal arts college (N = 1). Additionally, only 27% of participants (N = 57) indicated that they began their education at a community college. Likewise, most (75%) of participants indicated that they were “well prepared” or “very well prepared” when they began their current position. For the purpose of this article, we focused on the following research questions according to the self-reporting of Latino school leaders: (1) What activities do Latino school leaders spend their time enacting? (2) How much of their time is spent on instruction and how much time is spent on management? (3) What tasks do Latino leaders report wanting to do more or less of? (4) Are their current efforts impacting student learning based on the instructional leadership literature? Findings This study highlights how Latino/a principals spend their time in instructional leadership activities. The present data include both Latina and Latino principals’ perspectives. After disaggregating the data, the study found that the Latino principals reported spending most of their time performing the following activities: Latina/o School Principals as Instructional Leaders Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Open Issue, Vol. 11, Issue 1 | 13 Table 2 Activities Principals Spend Most Time SPENDING MOST TIME Planning 41% Connecting with students 36% In Classrooms 30% Paper work 27% Professional development 20% Teacher/administrator training 20% Supervising extra curricular activities 18% In meetings with parents or community 17% Student discipline 12% Teacher/administrator discipline 7% When asked what activities they would like to spend less time doing, the following results surfaced: Table 3 Activities Principals Would Like to Spend Less Time SPENDING LESS TIME Student discipline 83% In meetings regarding the school or district 81% Teacher/administrator discipline 80% Paper work 78% Supervising extra curricular activities 54% In meetings with parents or community 24% Teacher/administrator training 19% Professional development 13% Planning 6% In Classrooms 2% Connecting with students 1% Niño, Hernandez, Valles, & McPhetres Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Open Issue, Vol. 11, Issue 1 | 14 Finally, when asked what activities they would like to spend more time on, the following were the results: Table 4 Activities Principals Would Like to Spend More Time SPENIDNG MORE TIME In Classrooms 73% Professional development 70% Connecting with students 66% Teacher/administrator training 62% In meetings with parents or community 61% Planning 55% Supervising extra curricular activities 29% Teacher/administrator discipline 16% Student discipline 9% In meetings regarding the school or district 7% Paper work 0% After analyzing the results and reviewing the literature regarding instructional leadership practices of Latino and Latina school administrators, data suggest participants are interested in spending time on their own professional development as it relates to training and planning. Principals are also interested in spending more time with students, families and communities, and in classrooms. The data might also suggest that in order to be an effective instructional leader, principals must be in the classrooms working with teachers and students. For instructional leadership to be effective, it must be context specific and align with school and students needs. Additionally, most of the principals described professional development activities as workshops or trainings along with visits to other campuses for instructional practices. When compared, Latinos and Latinas had a statistically significant difference on one item, with 19% of Latinas spending the majority of their time on teacher and admin training, but only 8% of Latinos spend time doing this same thing χ2 (1) = 8.53, p = .003. Latina/o School Principals as Instructional Leaders Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Open Issue, Vol. 11, Issue 1 | 15 Discussion One important aspect of instructional leadership is knowing effective components of a strong curriculum. Hallinger and Murphy (2013) assert that the use of instructional leadership as a means for school improvement requires creative solutions to help principals fulfill these expectations. Barriers to instructional leadership practices include limited expertise with content standards. As Hallinger and Murphy (2013) point out, it is unrealistic for a secondary principal to know all the curriculum. One principal in this study noted, “Developing and aligning curriculum and assessments in high school courses is a challenge. The need to show student progress through data becomes a challenge when I have yet to see alignment across the state in these areas. How can I tell if my students are achieving the appropriate measurements at the appropriate dates, according to state graduation requirements of End Of Course Exams?” However, school leaders who join the administrative ranks need to view their role as leaders who transform schools into environments of learning through guidance and support (Weller & Weller, 2002). As such, participants from this study highlight the need to continue professional development to improve instructional practices centered on students’ needs. Some principals point out the instructional challenges leaders encounter when improving the teaching and curricular practices campus wide. As one participant stated, “One of the biggest challenges is to get all students on level. Students have academic needs and we try to provide research based interventions to students to get them on level.” While another participant noted, “The biggest challenges are working with students who come to school and do not know the English language and lack educational experiences.” Individuals in this position must not infuse themselves into managerial roles as they are better suited to maintain the status quo, but view themselves as educational agents who seek change, transformation, restructuring, and reform (Waite & Nelson, 2005). Principals need to become involved with improving curriculum and instruction by creating new projects to increase student achievement and designing essential environments for student learning (Holmes, 1999). Principals must know that a viable curriculum is a combination of opportunity to learn and time (Marzano, 2003) which focus on content, thinking skills and processes, and accountability to measure student achievement (Tyler, 1949). In preparing to lead for diverse schools, educational leaders must be culturally aware of the school’s students of color and poverty. Principals, as instructional leaders, need to be well versed with cultural relevant pedagogy to fully immerse the aspect of claiming leadership and ensure learning opportunities for all. According to Ladson-Billings (1995), educational leaders need to consider the academic success that all students must experience: “Despite the current social inequities and hostile classroom environments, students must develop their academic skills….literacy, numeracy, social….to Niño, Hernandez, Valles, & McPhetres Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Open Issue, Vol. 11, Issue 1 | 16 active participants in democracy (p. 160).” Also, schools must “develop and maintain student’s cultural competence by utilizing student’s culture as a vehicle for learning (Ladson-Billings, 1995, p. 161).” And finally, “develop a critical consciousness to challenge the status quo and critique social norms, values, and morals (Ladson-Billings, 1995, p. 162).” Normalizing practices and values in schools is one way to limit the opportunity for authentic learning. Implications for Research and Practice The continued challenge for K-12 school leadership insists on the effective balance of leading the daily complexities of managerial tasks and impacting teachers and students through instructional leadership. Effective instructional leaders are intensely involved in curricular and instructional issues that directly affect student achievement (Cotton, 2003). As society and students in the classroom become more diverse, so does the importance of understanding students on their own terms, and a failure to do this, or acquire the knowledge and skillset to do this could be detrimental to the success of millions of students (Ladson-Billings, 2013). Examining the time on task of Latino principals in this exploratory study impacts the direct needs of the school community, specifically addressing the instructional needs of culturally and linguistically diverse K-12 student populations. The time on tasks school principals spend has implications for all students, especially the most diverse populations. An effective principal can move a school and stakeholders toward vibrant growth for sustainable school improvement initiatives. Ladson-Billings (2013) further argues that the notion of the achievement gap casts blame on individual students, parents, schools and teachers without looking at the structural inequalities that have been at work since the establishment of the nation. Reimaging and reframing the principalship through affective, cultural, linguistic, and cognitive frames provides Latino K-12 school leaders an opportunity to dismantle the continued achievement gap and existing structural inequalities. Ladson-Billings (2013) further contends the achievement gap discourse suggests that each individual is responsible for his or her own educational circumstance. With this approach, Black and Brown students need to “catch up” to their White counterparts without acknowledging the ways that catching up is made near impossible by the many structural barriers the society has imposed on them. The structural inequalities and barriers imposed on students of color in our schools, which Ladson-Billings (2013) references, provides the charge for continued exploratory studies and development of constructs for Latino principals to explore their time on task performance and time spent as a possible barrier to support opportunities for equity, student achievement, and social justice frames in schools. Yosso’s (2005) cultural wealth model and framework provide the frame to drive this exploratory study and contribute to the work on Latina/o school principals and Latino educational Latina/o School Principals as Instructional Leaders Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Open Issue, Vol. 11, Issue 1 | 17 leadership leaders (Méndez-Morse, Murakami, Byrne-Jiménez, & Hernandez, 2015; Murakami, Hernandez, Méndez-Morse, & Byrne-Jiménez, 2016; Prieto, & Niño, 2016; Rodríguez, Martínez, & Valle, 2015). It is important to continue framing instructional leadership and the work of the principalship through cultural wealth models to provide actionable leadership competencies and constructs that impact students of color in public schools, and bring culturally relevant leadership to impact the persistent achievement gap between White, Black and Latino students. As population demographics continuously shift, so too must the leadership practices and school contexts that respond to the needs that accompany these shifts. It is the job of instructional leaders to develop and improve teachers’ craft in ways that result in improved student outcomes, but this must be done with cultural responsiveness (Khalifa, Gooden, & Davis, 2016). This study also intends to advance transformative leadership work in schools, further develop the theory of transformative leadership, and more importantly connect it directly to the work of school leaders, assessing its potential in practice to offer a more inclusive, equitable, and deeply democratic conception of education (Shields, 2010). Conclusion Today, a principal’s focus is multidimensional. The role continues to change. They need to be a visionary, communicator, instructional coach, and developer (Holmes, 1999; Spillane et al., 2004; Zepeda 2013). Instructional leaders of schools are required to construct community and foster a culture of collegiality, trust, and bond where a principal fosters a climate that motivates teachers to be innovative and critical thinkers. Furthermore, a Latino principal needs to help establish an environment where creativity and collaboration is valued to create an inclusive environment for students and teachers. Instructional leaders must model innovative practices, from building community and creating a shared leadership to challenging the status quo and giving autonomy back to the teaching profession. Additionally, Latino principals need to trust and form meaningful working relationships with teachers and celebrate the culture of school and community. By allowing teachers to instill life-long learning in students, Latino principals encourage the individuals, both teacher and student, to think critically and value the process of learning and not an end product. However, given the findigns from this exploratory study, many Latino principals still struggle with creating a balance with instructional practices and managing administrative responsibilities. As such, principals who spend time away from the classroom are not able to impact more directly curricular changes and advance social justice practices. It is our contention, that further studies investigate how Latino leadership on time and task efforts impact instructional improvement so that all students have an equitable opportunity of quality instruction. Such Niño, Hernandez, Valles, & McPhetres Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Open Issue, Vol. 11, Issue 1 | 18 information would help university professors better prepare aspiring and current leaders understand the demographic shift and cultural differences of communities. 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