The role of the principal as viewed by North Carolina's assistant superintendents for curriculum and instruction

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of the principal's role held by North Carolina's assistant superintendents. This investigation considered the independent variables of assistant superintendent's coworker relationships with principals, the size of the school system where employed, the school system's involvement in state-mandated pilot programs, the length of service in the role of assistant superintendent, active involvement in professional organizations, prior experience as a principal, and the individual perceptions of self as described in Brubaker and Simon's (1987) five conception framework. Data were obtained from surveys and open-ended interviews. The surveys were sent to 131 school systems in North Carolina on July 1, 1991, to be completed by the assistant superintendents who oversee curriculum and instruction. After two mailings and follow up phone calls, 98 were returned for a return rate of 74.8%. A chi square test was used to determine the significance of each independent variable at the .05 level