A study of parental opinion regarding the administrative role of principalship in school district 89

Includes bibliographical references.Problem: District #89 of Maywood, Illinois, is comprised of nine elementary schools, containing grades kindergarten through eighth, and one primary school with grades, kindergarten through third. The purpose of the study was to investigate the role of the elementary school principal as viewed through the eyes of the patrons, and obtain an evaluation of wherein these same patrons placed their values in terms of importance to each duty and responsibility performed by their elementary school principal. Procedure: Through the study of the literature, a check list was designed to investigate parental opinion regarding the administrative role of the principalship. The check lists were personally delivered to fifty homes located throughout each of the ten attendance areas, so as to obtain as equal and random sampling as possible. Of the 500 delivered, 493, or 98.6% the check lists were returned. The responses were tabulated by, The Data Processing Corporation. These responses were analyzed, and conclusions drawn according to the opinions expressed in the survey in terms of the number and percentage of respondents. Findings and Conclusions: Careful analysis of the compiled data has revealed that 49.3% of the patrons feel that the principal should be spending the majority of his time on duties such as, "Visiting the classrooms" guiding and advising teachers, conferring with teachers, providing instructional materials and supervision of instruction. Those same 49.3% indicate that the principal should not be burdened with duties regarding, "Working with the mentally retarded or exceptional child, evaluating behavorial records, working with community groups or preparing school budgets." The writer found that a possible cause for problems presently existing within the district to be the lack of communication between home and school. Due to the absence of communication, the total role of the administrator was not fully understood, nor the views and expectations of the patrons fully recognized by the administrator.M.S. (Master of Science