The objective of this study was to assess the practices and problems of implementation of school improvement program in secondary schools of Kembata Tembaro Zone. For this purpose descriptive survey research design was employed. For the study 5 woredas and 8 secondary schools were included through simple random sampling. From these sample schools,175 teachers were selected by using simple random sampling, while 52 school improvement committee were selected by using availability sampling, 8 parent-teacher and students association coordinators,5 woreda education office experts and one zone education department experts and supervisors were included through purposive sampling. Questionnaires were used as main tool of data collection. pilot test was conducted. Interview was used to substantiate the data gathered through questionnaire. Document analysis was also part of data collection for the study. Frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and independent sample t-test were employed to analyze quantitative data while narrative analysis approach was used to analyze qualitative data. The findings of the study showed that to solve teaching-learning problems and inbuilt supervision have not been conducted among colleagues to share experiences to one another, school leadership and management domain the leaders have made clear shared vision, mission and goal for teacher on students’ achievement and school leaders commitment to improve students’ achievement was found low; school environment domain, safe, stable and attractive for teaching and learning process, teachers and students have access to standard latrines with water designated for female and male students were unsatisfactory. Lack of awareness about the school improvement program among the school community, low level of stakeholders’ participation to the program, low level of supervision towards monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, shortage of material resources, lack of follow-up and supervision on the implementation of the program and inadequate planning of school improvement plan were major problems of implementation of school improvement program. Therefore, it was could be recommended that schools improvement committee, supervisors, school leaders, woreda and zone education office to promote practical involvement of all stakeholders by creating adequate awareness and training to implement school improvement program effectively in schools, woreda, zonal education office and school management bodies need to provide the necessary school facilities, need to avail secondary schools with important financial, material and human resources and should timely supervise and support the school leaders before starting the implementation of school improvement program to achieve the intended objective of the program. Keywords: education, leadership, schools DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/13-17-03 Publication date:October 31st 2023
