Mississippi Association of Secondary School Principals News HI-Lites

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Support for Instructional Leadership: Supervision, Mentoring, and Professional Development for U.S. School Leaders - Findings from the American School Leader Panel

With school leadership second only to teaching among school-related influences on student learning, principals can play an important role in school success. But how do their districts promote their effectiveness, especially in improving teaching? Based on a survey of the American School Leader Panel, a representative sample of principals from across the United States, this report explores the prevalence and quality of three important on-the-job supports for school leaders: supervision, mentorship and professional development (as defined by at least a day focused on principals). The good news is that two-thirds of principals report receiving some support. The bad news is that more than two thirds (68 percent) report that they don't receive all three sources of help. Mentoring, for example, is typically available only to first- or second-year principals or those encountering difficulties on the job, and only a minority of principals report that their districts require mentoring, even for first-year (49 percent of respondents) or struggling principals (21 percent). Also, the prevalence of support a principal receives may depend on the size of his or her school district. Both mentoring and professional development are more readily available in larger and medium-sized districts than smaller ones. The value principals place on the support they receive is linked to whether the support emphasizes the key aspect of principals' job—improving teachers' instruction. For example, all of the principals (100 percent) who reported that their mentors focused on instruction to a great extent also said that they prized the mentoring. That compares with a minority (40 percent) of principals who said their mentors devoted little to no time to instruction

Similarities and Differences in Role Conflict, Role Commitment, and Job Satisfaction for Female and Male High School Principals

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of gender, role conflict, role commitment, and job satisfaction on the high school principal. Data were collected from high school principals in three midwestern states. The results indicated that there are differences between female and male high school principals in their personal and professional attributes as well as in role conflict. There were similarities between female and male high school principals in terms of role commitment and job satisfaction

Women High School Principals: Perspectives on Role Conflict, Role Commitment, and Job Satisfaction

This study is an investigation of women high school principals in terms of the challenges they face, role conflicts they experience, their role commitment, and their job satisfaction. The purpose is to describe women high school principals addressing the issue of the continued underrepresentation of women in the high school principalship. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from women high school principals in Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The findings indicate that role conflict impacts career decisions—respondents delayed entering the high school principalship until the demands of raising their children had lessened. Role conflict is inversely related to job satisfaction; the more role conflict, the lower the level of job satisfaction. The number of students in the school affects job satisfaction and role conflict. Women today may have more career mobility than in the past. Encouragement and mentoring are key factors in enabling women to become high school principals

Are School Superintendents Rewarded for “Performance”?

[Excerpt] This chapter presents analyses of the compensation and mobility of school superintendents in New York State during the 1978-79 to 1982-83 period. The focus is on school superintendents because they are the chief operating officers of school districts, their salaries are determined through individual negotiations with school boards, and their salary data were made available to us. In contrast, school principals\u27 salary data were not available to us. Especially in large districts, principals tend to be members of a union and their salary increases negotiated collectively, which limits the likelihood of observing individual principals\u27 salaries being related to measures of their school\u27s performance

Stand-downs, suspensions and exclusions : a dilemma for primary school principals : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Educational Administration, Department of Social and Policy Studies in Education, College of Education, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

The purpose of this study was to investigate how a selection of primary school principals managed and viewed the process of stand-downs, suspensions and exclusions. The researcher saw the need for such research because of the recent legislation that has changed the procedures for principals to follow, the growing public concern over the national statistics for disciplinary exclusions and the lack of research on disciplinary exclusions of primary age pupils or for principals' perspectives of the disciplinary exclusion process. The research involved two main research methods (survey and case-study) which included a postal questionnaire distributed to all primary school principals in a localised area, a review of their Education Review Office Reports, structured interviews of five primary school principals and a review of their Behaviour Management Plans. These data were analysed with the aid of computer software packages: MICROSOFT EXCEL for the quantitative data and QSR NU*DIST for the qualitative data; and techniques of thematic induction and dilemma analysis were used. The characteristics and behaviours of the primary age pupils receiving disciplinary exclusions in this study are an accentuated version of the trends of gender and ethnicity factors already identified for all New Zealand school pupils in the national database. This study also isolated other characteristics - the final year of school (either at primary or intermediate) and the transference of these pupils at-risk of disciplinary exclusions from school to school. Disciplinary exclusions can be attributed to many interacting complex factors related to individuals, families, schools and the direct impact of changing economic and educational government policies and legislation. It was evident that principals worked hard at maintaining and providing an education for extremely difficult pupils but these pupils presented a dilemma for principals. On the one hand, principals' comments showed that caring principals and hardworking teaching staff went out of their way to support and educate these seriously misbehaving pupils in their schools, but, on the other hand, principals perceived that they had no other choice but to use the disciplinary exclusion process. The concept of'dilemma' was developed further in this study with implications for principals' future practice and professional development and further research

Using school performance feedback: perceptions of primary school principals

The present study focuses on the perception of primary school principals of school performance feedback (SPF) and of the actual use of this information. This study is part of a larger project which aims to develop a new school performance feedback system (SPFS). The study builds on an eclectic framework that integrates the literature on SPFSs. Through in-depth interviews with 16 school principals, 4 clusters of factors influencing school feedback use were identified: context, school and user, SPFS, and support. This study refines the description of feedback use in terms of phases and types of use and effects on school improvement. Although school performance feedback can be seen as an important instrument for school improvement, no systematic use of feedback by school principals was observed. This was partly explained by a lack of skills, time, and support

Implementation of the National SAM Innovation Project: A Comparison of Project Designs

Compares increases in principals' instructional time and other benefits of hiring school administration managers specifically for the position to help principals with time management and of assigning the task to those who hold other school positions

Voices of Women High School Principals

This study presents the challenges women face in educational administration from the perspective of female high school principals. Eight women high school principals participated in the qualitative study that focused on their careers, the conflicts between their personal and professional roles, and the impact of gender on the high school principalship. The participants acknowledged the importance of encouragement and mentoring in their decisions to become high school principals. They continued to be affected by the male image of the high school principal. They sought support from other female leaders as well as offered mentoring to women aspiling to administrative positions. The participants recognized that role conflict was a factor contributing to whether or not women would pursue the high school principalship

How Successful Secondary School Principals in England Respond to Policy Reforms: The Influence of Biography

© 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This article examines how values embedded in the biographies of principals of successful schools influence their responses to systemic policy reforms. Drawing on examples from two secondary principals with similarly strong moral purposes but contrasting value positions, the research found that, despite differences in the cultures, practices, and students’ learning experiences in their schools, they directed and shaped—in remarkably similar ways—how and to what extent external policies were incorporated in preferred, values-led cultures and practices; and that leadership and school-improvement realities in their schools were different from those portrayed in “policy enactment” research in so-called “ordinary” schools