Time management of elementary, middle and high school principals

Campus administrators have been given a tremendous responsibility, including responding to demands from faculty and staff members, parents, central office and students. During the past decade, dramatic changes have occurred in education at all levels. According to Cunningham (2000), these changes include an increase in the involvement of federal and state governments in the daily operation of schools, legislation providing for due process for students and staff, as well as demands for equity, equality effectiveness and efficiency. All of these changes have resulted in revisions to the role of the public school principal and increased responsibilities for educational leaders. The purpose of this researcher in conducting this study was to determine the ways in which west Texas elementary, middle and high school principals spend their time at school. Given the differences that exist among these three school levels, a secondary purpose of this study was to ascertain whether statistically significant differences were present in the way that west Texas school principals spend their time as a function of school level, school setting, the gender and ethnicity of the principal. This researcher examined school principals from elementary, middle and high school in west Texas who were employed during the 2002–2003 school year. This researcher utilized a descriptive survey approach and examined if there was a statistically significant difference using multivariate analyses of variance statistical procedures. Results of this survey indicate that high school principals, regardless of gender and ethnicity, work more than 50 hours a week; and that principals at all levels, regardless of community type, gender, or ethnicity spend basically the same amount of time on most tasks. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research were presented