The purpose of this study was to examine the role of high school assistant principals in Indiana. In this descriptive study, the researcher examined (a) the job responsibilities and duties of the high school assistant principal, (b) the degree of involvement in the job responsibilities and duties of the high school assistant principal, (c) the degree of job satisfaction for areas of administrative responsibilities, and (d) the areas of responsibility that high school assistant principals were provided the most and least training to prepare them for the principalship.The study was limited to the population of high school assistant principals in Indiana public schools. Out of 492 high school assistant principals, 271 responded to a paper or on-line version of the survey instrument used in this study. The survey instrument included 141 forced responses divided into four sections: Duties and Responsibilities, Job Satisfaction, Preparation, and Demographics.Of the six administrative areas in this study, high school assistant principals reported having a greater level of responsibility for duties in the area of school management and the lowest level of responsibility in the area of community relations. In terms of job satisfaction, assistant principals reported being most satisfied with the performance of duties related to student activities and least satisfied with duties related to curriculum and instruction. Assistant principals reported being the most prepared to perform duties related to student activities and least prepared for those duties related to curriculum and instruction. The demographics gathered from the study revealed that most high school assistant principals in Indiana were male, white, married, served over five years in this position and in the next three to five years plan to remain in their current position.Conclusions and recommendations of this study focused on developing a consistent definition of the role of the assistant principal in Indiana. In addition, if assistant principals are content in making this a career-oriented position, then state officials, universities, and school districts, must collaborate to provide a system of training and development of well-rounded knowledgeable leaders for the future of our high schools in Indiana. / Department of Educational Leadership

It is generally recognized that the assistant principal’s position is a launching point for a career in school administration. The scarcity of research and literature pertaining to the role of the assistant principal led the researcher to compare the actual tasks being performed by public school assistant principals to their ideal job expectations. Assistant principals throughout Indiana participated in the study. The sample consisted of 283 assistant principals, who completed a 59-item survey developed by Kriekard (1985). From the sample, 152 responded via email (53.7%), while another 131 (46.2%) responded by mail. The overall response rate was 54%. The study sought to distinguish what job responsibilities were expected and performed by secondary assistant principals based on the six task areas in the survey. These included: Management of Schools, Leadership in Staff Personnel, Community Relations, Instructional Leader, Student Activities, and Pupil Personnel (Kriekard, 1985). Using SPSS as the statistical program, the results of this study indicated that assistant principals today are still performing many of the same duties that assistant principals performed in the 1960s. Significant results were found within the tasks areas of: Management of Schools (.000), Leadership in Staff Personnel (.000), Instructional Leader (.000) and Student Activities (.000). This suggests a significant decrease from actual job responsibilities as compared to the expected job responsibilities. Significant differences were also found within the independent variables of age, school setting, and career aspirations using T-test and ANOVA procedures. These findings were discussed and future research was suggested. / Department of Educational Leadership