Supporting Secondary Principals as Instructional Leaders: A Study of How School Division Central Office Administrators Are Supporting Secondary Principals in the Commonwealth of Virginia

The purpose of this research was to ask secondary school principals in the Commonwealth of Virginia about their perception of support from school division central office administrators in functions that promote school improvement and instructional leadership. More specifically, this study aimed to determine how school division central office administrators are supporting principals as instructional leaders. This research was conducted with principals from secondary public schools in Virginia, in the 6-12 setting. The participants were provided a survey relating to four school division central office administrator functions that are linked to supporting instructional leadership and assisting school improvement. Secondary principals shared their perceptions by responding how their central office administrators were supporting them in the four identified functions, as well as how they rated the importance of each function. In addition, this study was designed to determine if there was a relationship between how secondary school principals’ rank the importance of each function and their years of experience as a principal, and school division size. These secondary principal perceptions were also observed by schools that were accredited versus non-accredited