To explore the principal's role as instructional leader in school improvement strategies, this research brief focuses on characteristics of effective schools, a profile of effective principals, and a discussion with Dr. Steven Bossert, Associate Laboratory Director for Research and Development at Far West Laboratory in San Francisco, California, about an organizing framework for examining the instructional management role. Limitations on the inquiry include effective school researchers' inability to determine cause and effect relationships with certainty and the difficulty of identifying exactly the combination of factors that make up effective schools. Effective school characteristics identified involve instructional management factors (such as time on task, class size, curriculum content, and evaluation of student performance) and school climate factors (such as discipline, safety, staff development, and parent participation). A profile of an effective principal emerges from a consideration of his or her role in four areas: goals and production emphasis, power and decision-making, organization/coordination, and human relations. Dr. Bossert answers questions about the principal's role in an effective school, procedures to enhance creative instructional management practices, and general characteristics of effective principals. A table outlines the four areas of principal leadership; two figures provide a framework for examining instructional management and an instructional management model. (PB)