Date of Award
5-5-2011
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Educational Leadership, Ed.D.
First Advisor
Amany Saleh
Committee Members
Ashraf Elsayed; George Foldsey; John Beineke; Joseph Nichols
Call Number
LD 251 .A566d 2011 J57
Abstract
Laser-like attention has been focused on training principals since the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001, which emphasized student achievement. This dissertation examined the perceptions of principals on how their leadership preparation programs helped them develop the skills necessary to be competent and ultimately successful in their jobs. Additionally, this study investigated the claims that universities have done a below average job of adequately preparing principals to successfully lead schools and that universities are no longer suitable to meet the demanding expectations of principals. Counter to these claims is the notion that it is impossible to determine the effectiveness of the vast number of principal preparation programs across the county or that one program is any better than another. However, all of these educational leadership programs have one goal, which is to recruit and prepare the right individuals to successfully lead our nation's schools. This goal is paramount considering that current research on educational leadership highlights the notion that the school leader is second to the teacher in having the greatest impact on student achievement. The Southern Regional Education Board's (SREB) 13 Critical Success Factors were used to assess what principals should know and be able to do and they served as the dependent variables for this study. This quantitative study employed a descriptive survey method. The method of data collection used an Internet survey. A list-based sampling frame method was used to determine the sample for this study. The participants for this study included 1,257 public school principals from nine states in the Southeastern portion of the 16-state SREB region. This study, indicated that principals were least prepared to innovatively support good instructional practices that lead to increased student achievement. The principals also indicated that they were not satisfied with the quality of mentoring they received from their preparation program. Conversely, principals were most satisfied with the degree to which their preparation program included faculty who were knowledgeable and competent instructionally. Likewise, they were satisfied with how well their preparation program prepared them to communicate with stakeholders.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Jones, Phyllis Michelle, "The Perceptions of Principals Regarding the Effectiveness of their Preparation Programs in Southeastern United States" (2011). Student Theses and Dissertations. 925.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/925
