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Secondary educational leadership: A study of three high schools
Abstract
The purpose in this study was to discover how secondary school principals exert leadership in their particular school settings. The perceptions of the teachers and the principals as to the effectiveness of the principal's leadership were examined at three different public high schools. The sample populations came from three midwestern, suburban, public, high schools. The effectiveness of the principal was measured with the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI-Self and LPI-Other) surveys. Five leadership practices were assessed by the two surveys: challenging the process, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, modeling the way, and encouraging the heart. The LPI-Other survey was given during the second semester of the 1991-92 school year to a randomly selected sample of 25 percent of the teaching staff at each site. The LPI-Self was given to the principal at each site at the same time. Twenty-five percent of the respondents to the LPI-Other were randomly selected at each site to be individually interviewed. The interview focused on the leadership practices identified by the LPI. Information obtained from the interviews was used to interpret data obtained in the LPI-Other and LPI-Self surveys. Findings of the study were: (1) Five leadership practices identified in the Leadership Practices Inventory were found to be significant in the establishment and maintenance of a successful relationship between the principal and the faculty. (2) The more frequently principals were perceived to do the practices identified in the Leadership Practices Inventory, the more likely they were perceived to be an effective leader. (3) The higher a principal's scores on the Leadership Practices Inventory, the higher the degree of professional credibility the principal had among the staff. (4) The higher a principal's scores on the Leadership Practices Inventory, the greater the degree of commitment was among the faculty. Staff members were generally more satisfied with the strategies employed by the principal.
Subject Area
School administration|Curricula|Teaching
Recommended Citation
Larson, Ted Alan, "Secondary educational leadership: A study of three high schools" (1992). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9237666.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9237666