School leadership, accountability, and assessment reform in Hong Kong

Since 1991, the Hong Kong Government has affirmed its strong commitments to assure the quality of school education. The government has worked hard on reforming assessment and accountability to improve students’ learning outcomes. Basic competency assessments have been introduced alongside the implementation of school-based management. For accountability, different stakeholders were invited to join the incorporated management committees in schools. Furthermore, school self-evaluation and external school review have been adopted to assure school quality. A system for providing professional development to aspiring, newly appointed, and serving principals was introduced. School leaders play a significant role in accountability by monitoring change and providing leadership in raising the quality of school education. This chapter examines and discusses the challenges that principals are faced with. Insights are presented to help school leaders to improve their leadership. A need to shift to transformative leadership and integrated leadership is suggested. Copyright © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.