Elementary School Principal Inservice: Practices And Perceptions Related To Pupil Academic Achievement Among Selected California School Districts (Staff Development)

Purpose. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the relationships that exist between current practices employed by California school districts to provide inservice training for elementary principals and pupil academic achievement. Procedure. The extreme high and low school districts with respect to pupil academic achievement were identified using 1981 district scores and comparison score bands for the California Assessment Program, grade six test. The superintendents in all of the districts and all principals in a systematically selected sample of those districts were surveyed by mail to determine practices, policies and perceptions pertaining to inservice training for elementary principals. Content of the survey instruments was based on the recommendations from the Managers Report and research validated characteristics of effective inservice programs. Differences and relationships between the high and low achieving districts were determined using t-tests, point-biserial and Pearson product-moment correlations. Findings. In general, there was found to be no significant difference or relationship between district achievement level and the policies, practices and perceptions pertaining to principal inservice among either the district administrators or the principals. Based on five components on the principals\u27 survey, however, there was an indication that the principals in the high achieving districts perceive themselves to be more involved in planning, conducting and participating in inservice training activities than those in the low achieving districts. Implications for Further Study. (1) Replicate the study of principals\u27 perceptions using a larger sample or another method for selecting the sample. (2) Apply statistical methods to the data collected for this study to determine within group differences among the inservice components. (3) Explore the specifics of principal involvement in inservice planning and decision-making. (4) Replicate this study based on the identification of the high and low achieving schools throughout the state rather than districts. (5) Explore other variables which may differentiate the high from the low achieving districts (e.g., principals\u27 experience, training, administrative structure of the district, economic base of the area in which the district is located)