The problem of this qualitative study is to assess teacher perceptions of the leadership practices of female principals. The focus of this study was at the elementary school level. The data were collected from the teachers about their perceptions regarding the female principals with whom they work. This qualitative study was conducted by interviewing 8 teachers from 3 elementary schools in northeast Tennessee. The teachers were interviewed to understand their perceptions of effective leadership practices exhibited by female principals. During the data analysis, 7 constructs were identified after examining and coding the data for related themes. These 7 constructs were: (a) vision, (b) student growth, (c) staff development, (d) organization, (e) communication, (f) caring, and (g) community. In addition to the themes, participants shared perceptions of disadvantages, advantages, and effective leadership characteristics of female principals. Based on the research the following conclusions were drawn. Teachers want to have clear expectations, organization, and follow through in the school environment. This could be accomplished through clear communication and expectations by the principal. Teachers would also like a caring work environment that is created by a principal who listens, respects, and understands others. Each teacher has a variety of different responsibilities and they would like acknowledged. Most of the teachers want a school vision that is focused on providing a productive learning environment for all the students. Recommendations for future research included the following:Only teachers were interviewed in this study. Additional research in this area could be the study of principals' perception of effective leadership practices. This information could be used to determine the similarities and differences between what principals and teachers view as effective leadership practices.Interview teachers from middle and high schools to assess their perception of effective leadership practices. There could be a difference in the leadership practices of elementary, middle, and high school female principals.Additional research in this area needs to be conducted in a variety of elementary schools. This would provide a larger sample of participants.Interview teachers from elementary schools to compare their perceptions of male and female principals.

Principals are increasingly held accountable for student achievement outcomes. Existing research has found principal leadership indirectly affects student achievement (Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom, 2004). Principals face a problem when they are accountable for achievement outcomes and are dependent upon others and other variables to achieve those outcomes. Consequently, principals will benefit from a richer understanding of how their leadership indirectly affects student achievement. Using the Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education (VAL-ED) measurement of principal learning-centered leadership (Goldring, Porter, Murphy, Elliot, & Cravens, 2009) and the Omnibus T-Scale measurement of faculty trust in the principal (Hoy & Tschannen-Moran, 2003), researchers sought to better understand the relationship between the perceived learning-centered leadership of principals and faculty trust in those principals. Teachers from 59 schools in a suburban district in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States were surveyed to measure their perception of the learning-centered leadership of their principal and the faculty's trust in their principal. The data from these surveys were analyzed using bivariate and multiple linear regression analyses to determine relationships between these two variables and other significant control variables. Principal learning-centered leadership was significantly and positively related to faculty trust in the principal; principals in this study with higher learning-centered leadership scores had higher faculty trust in principal scores. The R2 was .609, indicating that approximately 60% of the variance in faculty trust in the principal was attributable to the principal's learning-centered leadership, school grade, and principal gender. Additionally, for the principals in this study every unit increase in perceived learning-centered leadership scores resulted in a 1.11 increase in faculty trust in the principal scores. The significance of the relationship was even stronger in schools with a C academic achievement grade. In C graded schools, every unit increase in principal learning-centered leadership scores resulted in a 2.31 increase in faculty trust in the principal scores. Principals with higher levels of learning-centered leadership were rewarded with higher levels of faculty trust. The influence of learning-centered leadership on faculty trust in the principal was even stronger in schools labels lower in academic achievement. Principals seeking to influence the trust their faculty places should engage in those leadership practices associated with learning-centered leadership.

This study examined the impact that school leaders have on teacher job satisfaction and student achievement. The threefold purpose of this study was to (1) compare transformational and instructional leadership theories, (2) examine the unique impact that school leaders have on student achievement and teacher job satisfaction after controlling for school context and principal demographics, and (3) find which specific leadership practices are associated with increased student achievement and teacher job satisfaction. Participants were 558 teachers from 37 elementary schools in the Intermountain West. Teachers completed the Teachers' Job Satisfaction Scale (TJSS), and were randomly assigned to complete the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) or the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS). Student achievement was measured by the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) and the Criterion Referenced Test (CRT). Multiple regression and hierarchical linear modeling were used to find the relationships between these measurements. Results indicated that instructional leadership explained more of the variance in student achievement and teacher job satisfaction than transformational leadership. Leadership predicted a meaningful but nonsignificant amount of variance in student achievement, and a large significant amount of the variance in teacher job satisfaction. The control variables of school context and principal demographics tended to explain more of the variance in achievement scores, while leadership explained a majority of the variance in teacher job satisfaction. The leadership functions that were associated with increased student achievement were monitor student progress, protect instructional time, provide incentives for teachers, provide incentives for learning, and contingent reward. The leadership functions that were associated with increased teacher job satisfaction were supervise and evaluate instruction, maintain high visibility, provide incentives for teachers, promote professional development, provide incentives for learning, and individualized consideration. The implications of these findings, as well as the limitations of this research, will be discussed.

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Public school principals' role requirements have undergone changes during standards-based reform and accountability (Copland, 2001; Daresh, 1998; Jones, 1999; Lashway, 2003a). This study was designed to identify the leadership role focus and behaviors of public school principals who were attempting to meet the challenges of this movement and to provide valuable information about the effects of accountability reforms on school leadership. Public school principals were subject to the mandated policy initiatives associated with the accountability movement. Private school principals, or lower school heads, were not subject to these federal and state policy reforms. The leadership role and behaviors of public and private elementary school principals working under these two distinctly different circumstances were compared. Accountability reforms called for public school principals to focus the principal's role on instructional leadership as the priority rather than managerial leadership. There was a need to understand if there were any significant differences in roles and behaviors of public and private school principals: (a) to inform public and private school policymakers and representatives who impact the educational system through local, state, and federal legislation; (b) to inform educational leadership training programs and licensing systems; and (c) to assist those who lead schools (Lashway; Portin, 2000). Public and private school principals in the state of Florida reported self-perceptions of their leadership role focus and behaviors using the Instructional Leadership Inventory (ILI), an instrument obtained from MetriTech, Inc. The data collection was conducted according to the elements of Dillman's (2000) Tailored Design Method for mailed surveys. The survey instrument was distributed to a sample of 501 public and private elementary school principals in the state of Florida. The data collection process resulted in a total of 263 returned surveys, a 52.5% total response rate. The public school response rate was 48.0%, or 168 returned surveys out of the 350 mailed surveys. The private school response rate was 62.9%, or 95 returned surveys out of the 151 mailed surveys. Comparison of the two groups, public and private, demonstrated that principals and lower school heads reported being similar in many ways in relation to the demographics and the work environment of the two groups. The differences in personal and professional characteristics were minimal. There were very few statistically significant differences between public elementary school principals and private lower school heads when looking at the ILI instructional leadership criteria. However, the findings revealed that there were considerable statistically significant differences between public elementary school principals and private lower school heads when reviewing the ILI managerial leadership criteria. Implications derived from these analyses support two areas of change in the leadership behaviors of public school principals. A significant number of public school principals reported that they spent considerable time on the managerial leadership behaviors of Monitoring Student Progress, Supervising Teaching, and Managing Curriculum, behaviors related to assessment and accountability. Public school principals reported using achievement test results in multiple ways to gauge the progress of the school toward school goals. These findings contributed to existing knowledge and provided new knowledge about principals' leadership role focus and behaviors based on data gathered during the age of the accountability movement. Recommendations include adjusting staffing to prioritize instructional leadership in the face of managerial demands, reducing public school populations through alternative strategies, enhancing the strength of community interest and support for the school, and furthering research aimed at a better understanding of the influence of external social and political goals, standards, and accountability on the middle management role of the school principal.

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The ever-changing role of public-school principals is complex and overwhelming. Because instructional leadership impacts teaching practices and student achievement, this important principal role should be cultivated with principals having sufficient time to engage as instructional leaders. A generic qualitative inquiry methodology was used to explore how the size of an administrative team impacts principals' instructional leadership self-efficacy. Exploration was achieved through 10 one-on-one, semi-structured interviews and one focus group interview. The data suggest that team size does impact an administrator's ability to serve as an instructional leader. Participants reported that larger teams provided more time for working with individual teachers and collaborative teams. Although interviewed administrators did not always abandon instructional leadership when there was insufficient time, they did often sacrifice personal time to fit it in. Administrators did not believe that they had enough time to be instructional leaders, regardless of the team size, but they shared that there was more time to develop their instructional leadership principal self-efficacy when working on larger teams. Larger teams also provided administrators with greater diversity of perspectives and experiences, which they said cultivated their self-efficacy. Consequently, an opportunity exists for district administrators to consider the specific needs of each campus, the exhaustive list of duties given to campus administrators, and the importance of instructional leadership when making staffing decisions about the number of administrators allotted to each campus.

Despite the fact that it is accepted that the role of the principal is central to the effectiveness of the school, the extent of that relationship remains a subject of continuing debate. Utilizing the statistical analytical approach of the meta-analysis, the study synthesized the quantitative data on the subject to determine the degree to which the level of school effectiveness reflects the influence of the school leadership. The review of the quantitative literature identified 38 studies that met the criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis, providing 339 effect sizes that formed the sample for the study. The following research questions guided this study: 1.What empirical evidence is there to confirm or support the notion that there exists a relationship between leadership and school effectiveness 2.As identified in the quantitative analysis of the available research, what is the strength of the relationship between leadership and school effectiveness? 3.Based on empirical evidence, what aspects, dimensions or clusters of leadership behaviors relate to school effectiveness? 4.Related to the above, how do these dimensions compare in their relationship to school effectiveness? The results indicated that there is a significant and positive relationship between school leadership and the level of school effectiveness, and that while all the leadership approaches yielded significant results, the instructional leadership behaviors of the principal registered the strongest relationship. / Ph. D.