The judgments of superintendents, principals and teachers, pertaining to instructional leadership competencies needed and actually being demonstrated by middle school principals in randomly selected Indiana middle schools

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to obtain the judgments of superintendents, principals and teachers toward instructional leadership competencies for middle school principals.A questionnaire containing thirty-two instructional leadership competency statements was mailed to 796 teachers, 120 principals and 120 superintendents randomly selected from Indiana school corporations. Respondents were asked to select the level of need and actual demonstration for each competency statement. Judgments were obtained as to how each referent group viewed the way the principal should be functioning and how the principal was actually functioning in the area of instructional leadership.Returns were divided into four enrollment categories and questionnaires from principals with less than three years experience in the position were not utilized for the study. A total of 300 teachers or thirty-eight percent, sixty-two principals or fifty-two percent and sixty-eight superintendents or fifty-seven percent completed usable questionnaires.The results were analyzed by using Kendall's W and Spearmans Rank Order Correlation Coefficient in order to answer the following research questions.1. What instructional leadership competencies as provided in the questionnaire were judged by superintendents, principals and teachers to be needed for middle school principals?2. What instructional leadership competencies as provided in the questionnaire were judged by superintendents, principals and teachers as actually being demonstrated by middle school principals?3. What was the extent of agreement among superintendents, principals and teachers concerning instructional leadership competencies as they presently were judged to exist and as the competencies ought to exist for middle school principals?4. What dimension of the instructional leadership competencies--technical, human, conceptual--was judged by superintendents, principals and teachers to be significantlymore important?5. Were the instructional leadership competencies of the middle school principalship in a small middle school judged to be significantly different than those observed in larger middle schools?Findings indicated there was significant agreement among teachers, principals and superintendents as to needed and actually demonstrated instructional leadership competencies for middle school principals. Competencies in the areas of staff selection, assignment and supervision of teachers were ranked in the top ten needed competencies.The results indicated a need for principals to possess skills more from the conceptual and technical dimension rather than from the human dimension.The evidence further indicated significant agreement between the competencies needed and demonstrated by principals in small middle schools when compared to the instructional leadership competencies needed and demonstrated by principals in larger middle schools.