Education, and Special Education

School principals have a significant impact on the academic achievement of their students (Leithwood et al., 2004; Marzano et al., 2005). This important responsibility is magnified by the fact that principals have a job that is increasingly complex and demanding (Copland, 2001; West et al., 2010). Recently, researchers and educators have voiced concern over whether current programs for principal preparation are sufficient to prepare school leaders for their challenging jobs (Hess & Kelly, 2005, 2007). When individuals are dealing with demanding circumstances, such as those encountered in a stressful job with high accountability, the self-efficacy beliefs of the individuals involved are a key factor in performance and success. Research is needed to better understand the self-efficacy beliefs of schools principals, especially how these beliefs are formed and sustained through professional development experiences. This mixed-methods study focused on the perceptions and sources of the self-efficacy beliefs of elementary school principals whose schools had demonstrated high levels of student achievement in comparison to similar schools. In the quantitative phase of the study, 40 high-achieving elementary schools were identified through analysis o