Daily decision-making experiences of the elementary principal are handled differently and test ethical standards. The manner in which these situations are handled affect the efficiency and credibility of the position and may ultimately affect the school program. What are some of the ethical dilemmas facing elementary principals in the course of their duties? What do these administrators perceive to be the decisions of their colleagues in given ethical situations? What do these same administrators perceive to be the most ethical decision? By first discovering and then comparing the responses of various elementary school principals, a general picture of the predispositions of the participants may be formulated. These results may then be used to heighten the awareness of ethical aspects housed in daily situations encountered on the job. This is a descriptive study of the predispositions of elementary principals in Virginia with respect to ethics. A cadre of ethical dilemmas were written using personal experiences, conversations with professionals in the field, and adaptations of scenarios from other studies. The scenarios were field tested to determine clarity of the ethical situations, the choice responses, and the survey directions. A random sample of elementary principals was selected using The Virginia Educational Directory (1992). Using suggestions from Mail and Telephone Surveys by Dillman, a mail survey was used to collect data from three hundred elementary principals. Survey responses were tabulated to compare the differences between what elementary principals perceived to be the most used and the most ethical decision for problem situation. In analyzing the results (1.) in some cases, there was an inverse relationship between what principals perceived to be the action taken by most principals in problem situations and the action perceived to be the most ethical, (2.) some administrators might have been influenced by factors other than their own ethical beliefs when making decisions, (3.) with two exceptions, there was little agreement on what was deemed to be the one best ethical action in the situations presented, and (4.) when facing a decision with potential personal consequences some administrators made choices on factors other than ethics. / Ph. D.

The problem in this study was to ascertain the demographic characteristics and the tasks performed by elementary assistant principals in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Additionally, this study sought to ascertain how elementary assistant principals were assigned to their positions, what their career aspirations were, what training had contributed most to their success, what their greatest hindrance had been, how their tasks had been assigned to them, and the changes they had seen in the position in the past as well as what changes they anticipated in the future. The Elementary Assistant Principals survey was mailed to elementary assistant principals in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Three-hundred and four questionnaires were mailed and two-hundred and six were returned. Seventy-four percent of the respondents returned the questionnaires. The findings in this study reveal that elementary assistant principals in the Commonwealth of Virginia are typically middle aged males and they are involved in many of the tasks generally associated with elementary administration. The primary tasks of the assistant principals were in student discipline, student transportation, textbook inventories and administering the schools special education program. Elementary assistant principals in the Commonwealth of Virginia were least likely to be involved in tasks related to the school’s financial activities. Fifty task items were distributed across six functional categories including: community relations, curriculum and instruction, staff and personnel, student activities, school management, and student services. Conclusions based on the results of this study indicate the importance of the principal in the training assistant principals through on-the-job training. A critique of this research study, as well as recommendations for further study are also included. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this research study was to examine the perceptions of Virginia's elementary principals concerning the concept of merit pay for classroom teachers. The problem for investigation was: what are the attitudes of these principals toward merit pay for classroom teachers? To identify these perceptions, a fixed-response-form-questionnaire, Survey on Perceptions of Elementary Principals on Merit Pay for Classroom Teachers, was developed by the researcher. The questionnaire was designed to gather information in six areas of concern: demographics of respondents, outcomes expected if a plan were adopted, opinions for or against merit pay plans, means for evaluation of teachers, resistance expected among teachers, and the most acceptable form of plan. Reliability was established at .85. In a random selection, 300 elementary school principals (26%) were mailed surveys, 269 surveys (89.66%) were returned, 31 (10.33%) principals did not respond. An attempt was made to contact each nonrespondent by telephone to see if there were any particular reasons why the survey was not answered. Nine nonrespondents were contacted, and 8 of them indicated a lack of time as the reason for not responding. Because of the high response rate, it was felt that nonrespondents could not have biased the data, therefore, attempts to administer the survey by telephone were not made. Respondents felt that teachers would become more competitive and less cooperative. Parents would make requests that their children be placed with teachers receiving merit pay, and teacher-filed grievances would increase. Respondents believed in the concept of paying more effective teachers higher salaries, but they were reluctant to recommend the adoption of a merit pay plan. Respondents felt that principals should be the main evaluators of teachers, but they endorsed the use of teachers' peers and outside evaluators. They felt that teacher associations would oppose merit pay. Of the three forms of above-the-scale compensation defined for the study, principals surveyed felt that teachers would find differentiated staffing the least objectionable. It was concluded that, given the attitudes of Virginia's elementary principals, it is unlikely that a merit pay plan can be successfully implemented in Virginia. / Ed. D.

Principals today are faced with more pressure, more change, and more conflict than ever before (Gmelch, 1978). The principal is, by the nature of the job setting and the circumstances which surround it, particularly vulnerable to stress (Landes, 1978). The purpose of this study was to measure, analyze, and compare the degree of stress perceived by public elementary and secondary school principals in Virginia as being related to selected job events. It was hypothesized that: (1) There would be no difference between elementary and secondary principals on the degree of perceived stress; (2) There would be no difference between the various categories of selected demographic variables on the degree of perceived stress; and (3) There would be no interaction between levels of the principalship and the selected demographic variables on the degree of perceived stress. A series of two-way Analysis of Variance procedures were used to test the hypotheses. Data for the study was obtained from 350 elementary and 267 secondary principals in Virginia using the Principals' Stress Inventory (Conley and Hinkle, 1979). It consisted of 39 administrative events which were categorized by the researcher into five sub-scales: (1) Administrative Constraints; (2) Administrative Responsibilities; (3) Interpersonal Relations; (4) Intrapersonal Conflict; and (5) Role Expectations (Swent, 1978). The following conclusions were made based upon the findings: (1) The principalship was more stressful for secondary principals than elementary principals relative to Scales 1 through 4; (2) The demographic variables, race, age, and length of experience in education influenced the degree of stress perceived by principals. It was found that the white, youngest, and least experienced principals in education perceived greater stress relative to Scale 3; (3) The variable, percentage of white student enrollment in school, also influenced the degree of perceived stress. Principals of schools with high percentages of white students enrolled had a low degree of perceived stress relative to Scales 1 and 4; and (4) Events associated with Scale 2 were more stressful for elementary principals with low percentages of white students enrolled in school than for secondary principals with comparable enrollment. / Ed. D.