The Principal's Leadership Role in Effective Site-Based Managed Elementary Schools

This thesis is being archived as a Digitized Shelf Copy for campus access to current students and staff only. We currently cannot provide this open access without the author's permission. If you are the author of this work and desire to provide it open access or wish access removed, please contact the Wahlstrom Library to discuss permission.The purpose of this study was the investigation of the principal's leadership role in effective site-based managed elementary schools. The project was accomplished in two phases. In the first part of the study, a fifteen question survey was developed to identify those elementary schools using the site-based management process effectively or not effectively. The questionnaire's face validity was established by a panel of experts in the field of education. The top thirty-four and bottom thirty-four schools for the second phase of the study were drawn from the ninety-nine principal and site-team responses to the initial questionnaire. Those sixty-eight schools invited to participate in the second portion of the study were asked to complete the Kouzes and Posner Leadership Practices Inventory - Self and Other. The Mann-Whitney U test and the! test of proportions were used to analyze the research data. The findings included: (1) the perceptions of both principals and site-team members in the top and bottom performing groups differ on two leadership practices, "inspiring a shared vision" and "encouraging the heart"; (2) there were no differences in the principal's perceptions of three practices, "challenging the process, enabling others" and "modeling the way;" (3) there was a significant difference between the perceptions by the site-teams in the top and bottom groups on the above leadership practices; ( 4) there was a difference in the training provided site-team members in the top and bottom groups; (5) there were no differences in principal training, length of time the process had been in place, age or gender of principals, or size of school/school district. The following were among the conclusions: (I) in schools where the site-based management process was effectively implemented, site-team members perceived their principal's leadership skills as more highly developed.; (2) in schools where the site-based management process was effectively implemented, site-team members had received more training in the implementation of the process. This study has implications for schools already involved in the site-based management process and those anticipating the implementation of the process. This study also has implications for principal and teacher training programs in colleges and universities