The purpose of this study was to validate a revised instrument measuring instructional leadership in public high schools. In addition, the study attempted to identify components of instructional leadership and to determine differences in the leadership functions performed by principals, assistant principals, and department chairpersons. Responses to the revised study instrument, Sources of Instructional Leadership (SOIL), were made by 300 certificated personnel in eight comprehensive high schools. Validation evidence was gathered in three phases: (1) responses by the entire sample to the Instruction-Related Contact (IRC) instrument; (2) responses of a subsample of 28 teachers from two schools to the Teacher-Initiated Contact (TIC) instrument; and (3) structured interviews with 12 of the 28 teachers. The validity of the revised SOIL instrument was supported by all three validation phases. The IRC instrument was most highly correlated with the SOIL instrument within roles, suggesting that the contact with teachers about instruction was strongly related to perceived leadership. Similarly, in the regression analysis, nearly half the variance in SOIL mean scores was accounted for by the IRC mean score for the same role. In addition, the coefficient of this variable was in general the only significant coefficient entered. The TIC instrument appeared to provide strong validation for the SOIL scores of the department chairperson, based on Spearman Rank Order Correlations, but was less effective for principal and assistant principal. The interview data provided validation for the relative ranking of roles on each item for the SOIL instrument, as well as the prediction of highest and lowest department chairpersons within a school. A factor analysis resulted in six or seven factors for each role, with the first factor accounting for the largest proportion of the variance. For the principal role the primary factor involved managerial functions in creating policies, facilitating communication, and securing resources to improve instructional programs. For both assistant principal and department chairperson roles, the primary factor involved direct instructional interventions. Descriptive statistics and ANOVAs provided evidence that the three roles perform different instructional leadership functions. Overall, the assistant principal performed the most important role, and the principal the least important.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/187871 |
| Date | January 1984 |
| Creators | Anderson, Carolyn Jean Sandel |
| Contributors | Cool, Brent, Rosser, Rosemary, Chilcott, Jack |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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