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A MEASUREMENT OF INSTRUCTIONAL AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP OF THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL: ITS RELATIONSHIP TO CLOSING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP

Dowling, Colette M.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1167929339

Abstract Details

2007, Doctor of Education, University of Akron, Educational Foundations and Leadership.
Even though the role of the assistant principal originated in the 1800s, it has been given very little attention in the literature. Little, if anything, has been done to define this role or to provide training for those who serve in this capacity. In most school systems, the assistant principalship is the training-ground for the principalship and it also is the starting position for the majority of assistant principals who expect to move upwards into other areas of school administration. In addition, the last two decades have brought about changing job pressures and expectations for the principal and the assistant principal. Because the assistant principal is frequently more actively engaged in the lives of students than is the principal, this administrator also helps to establish the culture of the building. Therefore, it seemed relevant to study the role of the assistant principal to determine the typical range of duties engaged in and to identify how school districts might profit from the more effective use of this valuable resource. This study investigates the relationship between the assistant principal’s instructional and transformational leadership style and student achievement. Student achievement was measured on the Ohio report card by the Adequate Yearly Progress rating, the Performance Index score and the school’s Designation. Designation is the most representative of the three state scores because this score combines multiple measures of both the Adequate Yearly Progress score (AYP) and the Performance Index. An ex post facto design was utilized for this study. Participants, consisting of 100 assistant principals from rural, suburban and urban school districts throughout Ohio, were asked to complete a questionnaire that was developed by the researcher and entitled the Leadership Questionnaire for the Assistant Principal (LQAP). The questionnaire asked each respondent to rate the amount of time they spent during their work day engaged in a range of instructional and transformational leadership behaviors. Student achievement results for each building in which the assistant principals worked were then gathered from the Ohio Department of Education and correlated with the level of instructional and transformational tasks that the assistant principals reported. Three of the hypotheses tested were found to be significant. When both instructional and transformational leadership style were combined, they accounted for a significant amount of variance in predicting the school’s performance on the Designation rating. In addition, instructional leadership alone predicted the school’s Designation rating independent of transformational leadership. Transformational leadership alone predicted the Designation independent of the instructional leadership. According to the reported behaviors of the assistant principals, the amount of time this administrator continues to spend on discipline and traditional managerial tasks persists. They often receive no leadership training and have little or no opportunity to engage in instructional and transformational leadership activities. Results from this research suggest that if the assistant principal were trained in leadership skills and if their duties allowed them more opportunity to serve their school as instructional and transformational leaders, they might be a greater influence on student achievement and possibly help to close the achievement gap.
Suzanne MacDonald (Advisor)
216 p.
assistant principal; instrucional leadership; transformational leadership; achievement gap; education foundations and leadership

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Dowling, C. M. (2007). A MEASUREMENT OF INSTRUCTIONAL AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP OF THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL: ITS RELATIONSHIP TO CLOSING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP [Doctoral dissertation, University of Akron]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1167929339

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Dowling, Colette. A MEASUREMENT OF INSTRUCTIONAL AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP OF THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL: ITS RELATIONSHIP TO CLOSING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP. 2007. University of Akron, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1167929339.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Dowling, Colette. "A MEASUREMENT OF INSTRUCTIONAL AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP OF THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL: ITS RELATIONSHIP TO CLOSING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP." Doctoral dissertation, University of Akron, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1167929339

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by University of Akron and OhioLINK.