School Leadership Management and Students’ Engagement

Remote learning has made student engagement a major educational concern. Engagement has been a priority for education academics and administrators for years. This study determined the relationship between the extent of observed leadership management toward the high-quality development of rural schools in Lishui City in terms of school managers’ responsibility and decision-making, organization design, developing people, and improving instructional programs and student engagement. We used a quantitative research design utilizing a researcher-made validated questionnaire checklist with 130 teacher-respondents and 262 student-respondents from various rural school in Lishui City in August 2023. The findings revealed a low level of observed leadership management toward high-quality development in rural schools in Lishui City. Low student engagement was also observed, with no significant difference in student engagement when student-respondents are classified according to age and grade level, but a significant difference when student-respondents are classified according to sex. Leadership management aspects toward high-quality development in rural schools in Lishui City are therefore related to student engagement. Study recommendations focus on the development of activities that improve school leadership skills to further enhance student engagement.