A deep reflection on the meaning of quality leads us to believe that it  is "a trait attributable to individual or collective entities where structural and functional components meet the highest suitability criteria expected of them and produce valuable results in a maximum degree, according his own nature" (Gento, 2002). Understood in a general sense, quality can be considered as "individual, authentic, comprehensive and supreme realization of the full potential of a specific being or entity."

The quality of an educational institution is the product of excellence components obtained in this institution. To this effect, it was considered that in each institution there are some specific "identifiers" and "predictor" of quality. The above would facilitate the identification of quality; the latter allow us to predict the possibility of such quality. This distinction is methodological and is made to facilitate the understanding of the overall system of an institution and its functioning (Gento, 2002).

In the quality model for educational institutions, educational leadership plays a key role as a quality indicator.

We understand that the leader is a person with the ability to cause the release, from the inside, of the internal energy existing in other human beings, so that they voluntarily make efforts to achieve, in the most effective and comfortable way, the targets they have decided to get in order to obtain their own dignity and from those who live within a specific environment and context that matters to them.

The exercise of leadership within an educational institution must be substantially educational. The main concern of this type of leadership should be to promote the potential of all institutional members aimed at achieving quality education, preferably within the total quality approach.

Purposes:  

According to a basic purpose, this research is aimed to obtain information concerning the following objectives:

To obtain information on the importance that students give to the components that could show the quality of institutions.

To obtain information on the importance that students give to the characteristics that make the dimensions of instructional leadership.

To correlate the importance and the evidence of the quality of educational institutions, and to correlate the evidence and importance of leadership in educational institution.

The quality of education is not only a concern worldwide, but a particularly need in Mexico (UNESCO, 2004). Furthermore, the research project will have its first steps at the University of Sonora, in a second moment in the state's universities. Gradually, the project will be extended to universities in the northwestern region of Mexico,  the first contacts have been carried out for this purpose.

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