School leaders play an important role in creating a caring and supportive environment in which teachers can be successful. In this dissertation in practice (DiP), the scholar-practitioner examined an active learning environment that demonstrated how school leadership took strategic measures for improving student participation in a national examination. The participants included an administrator, the principal, the three teachers from the identified department, and Grade Nine parents of the identified program within the high school in the district. The problem identified was that for two consecutive years, a department within a junior high school did not register one student to take the national examination/achievement examination. The school leaders were not using effective measures to ensure that Grade Nine students were systematically taking the national examinations in the identified subject. A professional development session was held with the teachers and a training session was held with the parents. The Six-week intervention involved a series of strategic measures facilitated by the leadership of the school. Six weeks following the training session, fifteen students registered and took the National Examination, of which fourteen of the registered students obtained passes of Grades A-D (representing 93%) and one student failed the subject. This is a significant rebound after the two-year hiatus within the department. Ultimately, the renewed goal of the school is to have 100% of the students enrolled in the program taking the national examination which is the exit examination for Grade Nine students. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]