The Role of Assistant Principals in Large High Schools in Texas

The purpose of this study was to determine the role of high school assistant principals as perceived by principals, assistant principals, and teachers. The population in this study consisted of the principals, assistant principals, and teachers in Class 5A high schools in Texas during the 1985- 86 school year. One hundred and twenty of the Class 5A high schools were randomly selected to participate in the study. One principal, one assistant principal, and one teacher from each school were asked to respond to the survey. A questionnaire was designed to measure the perception of the three groups under study and contained seventy-seven job responsibilities which were divided into six major areas. The six areas were school management, staff personnel, community relations, student activities, curriculum and instruction, and pupil personnel. Eighteen items were eliminated through clarity, appropriateness, and reliability studies. Each respondent was asked to rate the degree of involvement of assistant principals for each job responsibility listed in two columns labeled current and ideal. Five hypotheses were developed for the study. Three hypotheses were tested by a multivariate one-way analysis of variance with repeated measures, and two were tested using a univariate one-way analysis of variance. The .05 level of significance was used to determine if any significant differences existed. This study concluded that currently assistant principals have had moderate to considerable involvement in all six areas of job responsibility. The three groups in the study differed significantly in their perceptions about the current role of assistant principals. The four areas that showed a significant difference were staff personnel, student activities, curriculum and instruction, and pupil personnel. Results from the study indicated that principals and teachers agreed that ideally assistant principals should have more involvement in all six areas of job responsibility. Assistant principals indicated that ideally they should have more involvement in school management, curriculum and instruction, and staff personnel. When the ideal role was further analyzed, the three groups only showed a difference in the area of student activities