THE IMPORTANCE OF IMPROVING EDUCATION QUALITY AND PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP IN IMPROVING SCHOOL COMPETITIVENESS

In facing school changes towards a more advanced direction, the principal as the education leader is one of the effective forces in school management who is at the same time responsible for dealing with these changes. A school principal must be able to initiate new thoughts in the process of interaction in the school environment by making changes to the demands of the times. To increase the number of prospective new students and in facing situations of competition with other educational institutions, improving the quality of education and leadership of school principals is needed to boost competitiveness. This study uses a quantitative approach with an ex-post-facto type, with a population of all teachers in Islamic schools in East Java, Indonesia. The data analysis technique used simple and multiple regression tests. From the results of this study, the authors conclude: 1) There is a significant effect of improving the quality of education on school competitiveness by 49.8%. 2) There is a significant influence of school principal leadership on school competitiveness by 53.5%. 3) There is a significant effect of improving the quality of education and leadership of school principals on school competitiveness by 53.6%.