The educational system requires a conducive environment that fosters growth and ensuring that the school's mission is clearly defined, along with managing instructional program, and developing school climate and learning. The problem addressed in the study was that although past research suggests instructional leadership can influence teachers and students and indirectly influence the academic environment and academic outcomes, a qualitative study in the area of instructional leadership has not yet been conducted for principals in Cumberland County, North Carolina middle schools. The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the instructional leadership of Middle school principals in Cumberland County, NC, schools. Previous research measured instructional leadership quantitatively but have never looked at instructional leadership in a holistic perspective without utilizing the PIMRS Likert scale. Constructivism was applied as the theoretical framework to understand the perception of middle school principals. The qualitative case study utilized purposeful sampling to select six middle school principals from Cumberland County. The study was guided by one research question. The data were collected from the selected participants who met the minimum requirements, using the Zoom application due to COVID-19 regulations. The participant's responses were analyzed using thematic analysis with the help of NVivo software. Themes from the research indicated that instructional leadership was critical in completing the school goals and improving the success of the schools. The participants acknowledged that instructional leadership qualitatively was critical especially when monitoring school progress, implementing educators and maintaining high visibility. The study implied that instructional leadership needs to be viewed holistically in order to gain a full perspective of what is needed for educators, students and the community to thrive and be successful. Future recommendation is that schools do not solely rely on data but view student success in a qualitative way. [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.]