he nature of principals' roles has changed significantly in the past years. Their responsibilities from that of management to leadership become stressful and complex. They also have to provide time, resources and structure for meaningful professional development. Principals also have to keep the school community well informed, by establishing long-term relationship and developing program to ensure effective collaboration with the stakeholders. With all of these, principals have to keep abreast of the skills and competencies needed to have effective and successful schools.

This research on school leadership, human resource management and community partnership practices aimed to identify and address the need for improving principal's capacity to assume new roles and responsibilities in a decentralized system of public elementary schools in Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela and Quezon City. It answers the following questions: (1) To what level do elementary school principals exercise their competence as assessed by teachers and principals themselves in terms of school leadership, human resource management and community partnership practices?; (2) Is there a significant difference in the assessment of each of the two groups of respondents on the variables mentioned in statement of the problem number one? (3) What are the factors associated with the practices of school principals in the three domains; and (4) How may the findings of the study be utilized as basis towards improvement of School Based Management?

This study employed quantitative and qualitative research methods. For the quantitative study, the weighted mean in each strand for each domain is computed to get the equivalent qualitative label. T-test is also performed to get the significant difference between the assessment of the principals themselves and their School Based management coordinators. For qualitative study, the researcher used the questionnaire method

wherein the two sets of respondents, the principals and the SBM coordinators

were asked to enumerate the other activities in their school which they think are factors associated to the principals' practices. The researcher also conducted unstructured interview with the principals where in clarification and precision of the answers were shared and considered.

The research revealed that the public elementary school principals in the divisions of Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela and Quezon City need enhancement training for professional development. It also showed that there are motivating and hindering factors associated with the practices of principals with regards to school leadership, human resource management and community partnership. Some of the motivational factors that emerged are: intensified transparency, accountability and competitiveness, fair chances to every teachers to learn more, open communication between the principal and the teachers, coaching and mentoring and intervention for non performing teachers, consideration and understanding, community linkages and having Program on Awards and Incentives for Service Excellence (PRAISE) committee. While some hindering factors are: lack of knowledge in DepEd policies, orders and guidelines, traditional leadership strategies, communication skills, and inability to maintain community partnership.