In most schools, the individual charged with the responsibility for overseeing the general running of the programs and events is the principal. According to Lunenberg (1995), "the principal's job is to help the school achieve a high level of performance through utilization of its human and material resources. More simply, the principal's job is to get things done by working with and through other people" (p. 3). In this sense , he argued, principals are universal and are essential to schools of all types and sizes - wealthy, poor, rural, urban, large, and small.This article argues that the principal's tasks, especially those associated with instructional leadership, in meeting the needs and concerns of ever-changing schools are numerous, complex, and challenging. In this argument, the principal's instructional leadership roles, the major constraints in the ro le of the principal as an instructional leader, and the strategies for alleviating the problems are examined
