Examining the Assistant Principalship : New Puzzles and Perennial Challenges for the 21st Century [1 ed.] 9781617356193, 9781617356179

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Examining the Assistant Principalship New Puzzles and Perennial Challenges for the 21st Century

A volume in International Research on School Leadership Alan R. Shoho, Bruce G. Barnett, and Autumn K. Tooms, Series Editors

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Examining the Assistant Principalship New Puzzles and Perennial Challenges for the 21st Century

edited by

Alan R. Shoho University of Texas–San Antonio

Bruce G. Barnett University of Texas–San Antonio

Autumn K. Tooms University of Tennessee

INFORMATION AGE PUBLISHING, INC. Charlotte, NC • www.infoagepub.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Examining the assistant principalship : new puzzles and perennial challenges for the 21st century / edited by Alan R. Shoho, Bruce G. Barnett, Autumn K. Tooms. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-1-61735-617-9 (pbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-61735-618-6 (hardcover) -ISBN 978-1-61735-619-3 (ebook) 1. Assistant school principals--United States. 2. High schools--United States--Administration. 3. School management and organization--United States. I. Shoho, Alan R. II. Barnett, Bruce G. III. Tooms, Autumn K., 1965LB2831.92.E94 2011 371.2’012--dc23                           2011035159

Copyright © 2012 Information Age Publishing Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. Printed in the United States of America

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all the assistant principals and deputy headteachers around the world who toil behind the scenes to support and facilitate the learning for students in schools. Through this book, your contributions are recognized and valued. We also want to acknowledge the importance of principals and headteachers who provide mentoring and support to their assistant principals and deputy headteachers.

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Contents Acknowledgment................................................................................... ix 1 Introduction............................................................................................ 1 Alan R. Shoho, Bruce G. Barnett, and Autumn K. Tooms 2 Factors that Influence the Preparedness of Teachers for the Vice-Principal Role............................................................................... 11 Suzanne P. Read 3 Critical Advice from Practicing Assistant Principals for Assistant Principal Preparation Programs................................... 35 Steven D. Busch, Angus J. MacNeil, and M. Sarah Baraniuk 4 Assistant Principals in Hong Kong: Their Responsibility, Role Alignments, and Job Satisfaction............................................... 59 Paula Kwan and Allan Walker 5 Challenges to School Leadership Practice: Examining the Assistant Principalship (Deputy Headship) in the United States, UK, and China............................................................. 81 Teri Denlea Melton, Barbara J. Mallory, Russell Mays, and Lucindia Chance 6 The New Urgency of Vice-Principalship: Ethical Decision Making.....................................................................111 Heather Rintoul 7 The Quiet Roar: Assistant Principals Leading for Social Justice................................................................................. 125 Christa Boske and Lillian Benavente-McEnery

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8 Sharing Instructional Leadership as Assistant Principals in an Accountability-Oriented Environment................................... 153 Anna Sun Biographical Sketches........................................................................ 181

Acknowledgment

Like any blind peer-reviewed publication, the contributions of many people beyond the authors and co-editors are critical to the development of an edited book. As co-editors, we want to recognize the invaluable contributions our peer reviewers made by reviewing manuscripts and providing substantive feedback to each author. Their feedback allowed the authors to refine and improve their manuscripts and make meaningful contributions to the work of assistant principals or deputy headteachers in schools. Louise Adler, California State University at Fullerton Betty Alford, Stephen F. Austin State University Tom Alsbury, North Carolina State University Peggy Basom, San Diego State University Paul Begley, Nipissing University Alex Bowers, University of Texas at San Antonio Sharon Brown-Welty, California State University at Fresno Bradley Carpenter, University of Texas at Austin Gary Crow, Indiana University John Daresh, University of Texas at El Paso Dan Duke, University of Virginia Fenwick English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Tom Ferry, Old Bridge Township Public Schools Gill Forrester, Liverpool John Moores University Ed Fuller, University of Texas at Austin Bonnie Fusarelli, North Carolina State University Lance Fusarelli, North Carolina State University Melanie Goodwin, Delran Township School District

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Helen Gunter, University of Manchester Gene Hall, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Charles Hausman, Eastern Kentucky University Ronald Heck, University of Hawaii at Manoa Liz Hollingsworth, University of Iowa Carol Karpinski, Fairleigh Dickinson University Sean Kearney, Texas A&M, San Antonio Muhammad Khalifa, University of Texas at San Antonio Paula Kwan, Hong Kong Institute of Education Joe LaRosa, Dennis Township School District Chad Lochmiller, Washington State University Gerardo Lopez, Indiana University Rosita Lopez, Northern Illinois University Catherine Lugg, Rutgers University Trevor Male, University of Hull Rodney Ogawa, University of California at Santa Cruz Ashley Oleszewski, University of Texas at San Antonio Gary O’Mahony, O’Mahony and Associates John Pijanowski, University of Arkansas Cindy Reed, Auburn University Rick Reitzug, University of North Carolina at Greensboro Cristobal Rodriguez, New Mexico State University Mariela Rodriguez, University of Texas at San Antonio Bill Ruff, University of Montana Philip Rusche, California State University at Northridge James Scheurich, Texas A&M University Michael Silver, Seattle University Howard Stevenson, University of Lincoln Amanda Taggart, University of Texas at San Antonio David Thompson, University of Texas at San Antonio Cynthia Uline, San Diego State University Kathryn Whitaker, University of Northern Colorado Elaine Wilmore, University of Texas at Permian Basin

Chapter 1

Introduction Alan R. Shoho, Bruce G. Barnett, and Autumn K. Tooms

This book series, International Research on School Leadership, focuses on how challenges affect the theory and practice of school leadership. For the second book in this series, we focused on the challenges facing assistant principals and deputy headteachers (these two terms are used interchangeably throughout the book). Because the professional lives of school leaders have increasingly impinged on their personal well-being, and resources have continued to shrink, it is important to understand how assistant principals share and divide their energy, ideas, and time within the school day. For these reasons, it is worthy to explore the rarely examined experiences of assistant principals and how they are prepared to become instructional leaders. By giving voice to assistant principals, we are also able to determine what aspects of leadership preparation are useful and what aspects need to be reconceptualized and changed. Unlike leadership books that have focused on conceptual considerations and personal narratives from the field, this book focuses on a collection of empirical efforts centered on various aspects pertaining to assistant principals and their experiences. Our goal was to create, from an international perspective, an edited book that examines the puzzles and perennial challenges that assistant principals experience. To accomplish this goal, seven substantive chapters were accepted after undergoing an extensive blind Examining the Assistant Principalship, pages 1–10 Copyright © 2012 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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peer-review process including several rounds of revisions prior to acceptance. The edited book is organized around three themes that emerged from the accepted manuscripts. The first theme examined issues of preparation for the assistant principalship. The second theme focused on international studies of assistant principals and deputy headteachers. In particular, these studies address the challenges of the assistant principalship from an international and cross-cultural perspective. The third and final theme examined ethical and social justice issues encountered by assistant principals in an era of high-stakes accountability. Given that the assistant principalship is often the stepping-stone to the principalship, it is critical to understand how the assistant principalship prepares one to assume the role of instructional leader who advocates for all students. The first theme, captured in two chapters, examines issues related to preparation for the assistant principalship. In chapter two, “A Study of Factors that Influence the Preparedness of Teachers for the Vice-Principal Role,” Suzanne Read investigates the experiences that most influence vice-principals for their leadership role within the context of Canadian schools. Specifically, the notion of incidental learnings about leadership was unpacked. Incidental learnings refer to a teacher’s early career exposure to various layers of leadership dynamics and mechanics, such as the politics of facilitating a faculty meeting, building a department’s teaching schedule, and de-escalating angry parents. In sum, the heart of this chapter considers how teachers construct their knowledge of the role of vice-principal prior to assuming the role and within the first few years afterwards. The literature is rife with references to the need of leadership preparation within school systems to socialize new and aspiring administrators, but there is a dearth of literature dedicated to how teachers understand leadership and how that understanding plays a role in their own trajectory toward leadership positions. Read utilized a quantitative approach to understand how secondary school administrators in Toronto framed and defined moments of incidental learning in their own careers and how that affected their trajectory and understanding of the responsibilities of a vice-principal. These administrators identified their service as curriculum leader as the most useful and influential preparatory activity toward the vice-principalship. Teaching, coaching sports, having a subject specialty, and teaching in different schools were also considered to be very useful in preparing for the vice-principal’s role. The most interesting finding of this study was the reported usefulness of certification courses (PQP I and II) in preparing participants for the vice-principalship. This is in startling contrast to findings in the U.S. literature, where novice vice-principals report being ill-prepared for the role and harboring mistaken preconceptions about the job that are in part fostered by the very preparation courses (e.g., principal licensure programs) that aspiring principals are obliged to complete (Browne-Fer-

Introduction    3

rigno, 2003; Cantwell, 1993; Hartzell, 1993; Peterson, Marshall, & Grier, 1987; Schmidt, 2000). Read also presents a thoughtful argument as to why the principal is an essential “linchpin” between good schools and teacher development. Finally, this chapter reminds us that despite these refinements to train aspiring administrators, the vice-principalship remains an ambiguous and unrecognized role with poorly defined tasks. This is primarily due to the extent to which vice-principal duties are assigned by the principal (under the Ontario Education Act, section 277.17(1), and Regulation 298, section 12(2)), thus contributing to the job’s unpredictability. In addition, it is still seen as a transitional stopover on the way to the principalship, despite growing evidence that it is a terminal career for a number of administrators, either through individual or organizational choice (Armstrong, 2004; Hartzell, 1993; Kelly, 1987). Thus, the lack of effort to address the differences in the complexities of the vice-principal’s role, as opposed to the principal’s, might lead to an inability to create constructive change within schools. In contrast to Suzanne Read’s quantitative methodology, Steve Busch, Angus MacNeil, and Sarah Baraniuk gathered evidence using qualitative methods; in particular, a cognitive interview protocol from practicing assistant principals for their chapter, “Critical Advice from Practicing Assistant Principals for Assistant Principal Preparation.” Collecting responses from 361 assistant principals over a period of eighteen months, the results were derived to answer the following question: “There is probably a lot of advice you could give to someone preparing to become an assistant principal, but if there was one single piece of advice you could give, what would you advise?” Based on the data collected, the results were divided into three categories: knowledge based, skill based, and attribute based. Approximately 43% of the advice was knowledge based. Knowledgebased advice encompassed four areas: preparation, difficulty of the job, decisions, and students and people. Specifically, preparation focused on modeling to be a life-long learner, learning the curriculum in order to assist teachers, and seeking the advice from mentors with experience. As noted by one assistant principal, “Every day, you can learn something.” The second knowledge base was learning the difficulty of the job and understanding the complexity and unpredictability associated with being an assistant principal. As one assistant principal illustrated, “Know that your time is not your own.” The third area addressed the importance of making decisions in a reflective manner that was in the best interest of students. The fourth and final area highlighted the significance of doing what’s best for kids and always putting students first when it comes to decisions. The second area of assistant principal advice focused on skill development. In particular, 37% of assistant principals highlighted the importance of skills

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like developing relationships, listening, flexibility, communication, high expectations, and organization. All of these skills, in contrast to knowledge-based areas, are considered “soft” skills. As noted by Todd Smith (2011), there is a growing appreciation for the importance of soft skills to the leadership effectiveness. Developing meaningful relationships with students, teachers, and parents by listening, being flexible, maintaining transparent communication channels, and following through on high expectations and school initiatives enhances the credibility and effectiveness of an assistant principal. By emphasizing a winwin approach to student issues rather than a win-lose confrontational approach, assistant principals model for other stakeholders the skills needed for creating a positive school environment. The third and final area of advice provided by assistant principals (20%) focused on personal attributes involving virtue, trust, being optimistic, not taking things personally, and being patient. Although easy to say and harder to accomplish, one assistant principal advised aspiring assistant principals to “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” This sentiment is captured in Richard Carlson’s (1997) book, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff . . . and it’s All Small Stuff. While this may be true, when in the heat of emotional discussions, logical common sense like Carlson’s can easily go out the window in the blink of an eye. Based on this chapter, leadership preparation programs should continually ask: Are we focusing on the right things to prepare assistant principals for the jobs and environments they will occupy? Some might retort that a preparation program should not be about preparing for a specific job. Yet while there may be some truth and sense to this, academics should be mindful and receptive to continual feedback from the field. Otherwise, university preparation programs may go the way of the dinosaur toward extinction or become an endangered species. The second theme of this edited volume is addressed in the next two chapters, which provide insight from an international and cross-cultural perspective of what assistant principals are experiencing. The first chapter by Paula Kwan and Allan Walker, is “Assistant Principals in Hong Kong: Their Responsibilities, Role Alignments, and Job Satisfaction.” Kwan and Walker are among the few investigators who have devoted a sustained effort to studying and understanding the role and responsibilities of assistant and vice-principals. In this study, they sought to determine what the general responsibilities of secondary school assistant principals were and if there was a gap between the ideal and actual roles assumed by assistant principals. In addition, this study examined the relationship between the job satisfaction of assistant principals and any gap in roles and responsibilities. Using survey methods, Kwan and Walker sent out a questionnaire to all secondary school vice-principals in Hong Kong and found that vice-principals devoted most of their time to staff management, which encompassed

Introduction    5

supervising teachers, followed by strategic direction and policy environment, and quality assurance and accountability. They also found that principals often use their assistant principals to deal with difficult situations involving teacher grievances and assignments. Their findings also support previous research on the scant involvement of assistant principals with financial and resource management issues. In assessing whether a gap existed between the ideal and actual roles played by assistant principals, the findings suggest that there is a misalignment between what assistant principals would like to do and what they are actually doing. In all areas assessed, except staff management, gap values were negative, indicating some cognitive dissonance between what they want and what they actually do. The areas with the largest gaps were resource management; leader/teacher growth and development; and teaching, learning, and curriculum. This is striking, given that Robinson, Lloyd, and Rowe (2008) found that leadership involvement in professional development was one of the keys toward improving student outcomes. Kwan and Walker found that time and financial issues were adverse factors in assistant principals being able to devote greater attention to these areas. In terms of job satisfaction and its relationship to the gap cited above, the findings suggest that the gap did not have an appreciable effect on one’s job satisfaction. The factors that did affect one’s job satisfaction were age and career ambition. The older and more ambitious assistant principals were more likely to display greater levels of job satisfaction than their younger and less ambitious colleagues. This finding might adversely impact the future of the principalship if this misalignment between ideal and actual roles of the assistant principals is not addressed, because like new teachers attrition, if younger and less ambitious assistant principals do not find satisfaction or meaning in what they are doing, then they may decide to leave the profession for greener pastures or become ineffective supports for their principals. Unlike the Hong Kong vice-principals study, which looked at one international environment for assistant principals, the next chapter by Teri Denlea Melton, Barbara Mallory, Russell Mays, and Lucindia Chance, “Challenges to School Leadership Practice: Examining the Assistant Principalship (Deputy Headship) in the United States, UK, and China,” compared the roles and responsibilities, challenges, and preparation of assistant principals in the United States, United Kingdom, and China. A succinct overview of historical developments in assistant principals’ roles and preparation in these three countries sets the stage for the study. Using a SurveyMonkey instrument, cross-sectional data were obtained from over 80 assistant principals/deputy heads in the United States, UK, and China. Because similar data were collected from all three countries, the authors contrasted the similarities and differences experienced by assistant principals in different

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cultural contexts. As has been repeatedly reported in the literature, managerial tasks tend to define the role of assistant principals in the United States. Conversely, UK and Chinese deputy heads are more likely to spend time engaging in leadership responsibilities and classroom teaching than their American counterparts. Interestingly, UK deputy heads appear to be involved in decision making and being members of school leadership teams far more often than American and Chinese assistant principals. Chinese assistant principals, on the other hand, spend over 50% of their time handling teaching responsibilities. Respondents in all three countries expressed concerns about managing their time and spending most of their time on student discipline, rarely being able to take on political leadership responsibilities or the budgetary affairs of the school. Although involvement in formal leadership preparation was far more common in the United States and UK, many respondents from all three countries indicated much of their development consisted of on-the-job training, and they longed for more job-specific professional development. Using these results, Melton and her colleagues provide tangible, practical recommendations for preparation, practice, and future research. In this global era of instructional and school improvement, they urge that preparation and professional development programs focus on instructional leadership skill development. While there is some evidence that this is happening in parts of the world (e.g., see Matthews, Moorman, & Nusche, 2007, for trends in leadership development programs in Australia), far more attention must be devoted to building assistant principals’ instructional leadership capacities if they are to impact school improvement and student learning outcomes. Similarly, the authors contend that if assistants and deputies are going to be expected to engage in instructional leadership, they will need to be relieved of their teaching responsibilities, especially in the British and Chinese school systems. They conclude by suggesting promising areas of research on assistant principals, such as examining their transformational leadership tendencies, how national and state mandates affect their roles and responsibilities, and examining productive ways in which principals guide and support assistant principals. The third and final theme for this edited book on assistant principals revolves around ethical and social justice issues. Three chapters illustrate the difficulties associated with assistant principals who model ethical and socially just practices in an era of high-stakes accountability. The first chapter in this theme, “The New Urgency of Vice-Principalship: Ethical Decision Making” by Heather Rintoul examines how vice-principals in Canada make sense and resolve ethical dilemmas. Very little appears in the literature about how vice-principals manage their ethical decision-making challenges (Marshall & Hooley, 2006). The lack of literature reveals an urgency to understand the inherent tension

Introduction    7

between “do the right thing” and the question, “do the right thing for whom?” For example, in a particular situation, the right thing for the school community may conflict with the needs/goals of the board. In another instance, the right thing for the individual may negatively impact the needs or rights of other stakeholders. Rintoul addresses this wooly challenge by investigating how 14 vice-principals construe and manage decisional dilemmas within the context of their schools and school communities. The qualitative study that is the heart of this chapter focused on vice-principals in both urban and rural areas of northern and southern Ontario, Canada. A qualitative case study methodology was employed using in-depth personal interviews to investigate and comprehend the decision-making processes of vice-principals contending with challenging school-based dilemmas. Results of Rintoul’s study demonstrated that vice-principals seek solutions that they frame as ethical via the insights garnered from their principals and governing board superintendents. Vice-principals do this while making attempts to keep the big educational picture in view, but their guiding and clear focus continues to be assessing and addressing the ongoing needs of their student constituents. Additionally, issues relating to funding and time constraints plagued their decision processes. An unexpected revelation from the work that grounds this chapter was the simmering interpersonal issues between genders as they related to decision making as exemplified around the topic of harassment. Harassment (intimidation, interference, threatening behavior, physical/verbal, gender, racially based, and sexually based) of females by males has traditionally received significant attention in society and in the literature. Yet harassment and intimidation (in this study, gender based) of males by females has been noted as much less, perhaps because males may feel uncomfortable speaking of these issues, viewing the reporting/speaking of such behaviors as unmanly. Similarly, issues of an interpersonal nature (in this study, based on race) between females and males often appear to fester in the background until such time that they are perceived to interfere with day-to-day decision making. Finally, it is of note that vice-principals felt that confrontation with a colleague could only make situations and accompanying tensions even worse, ultimately damaging the collegial working relationship. This ongoing male/ female power dynamic suggests an interesting area for compelling future research concerning the intersections of micropolitics in schools, decisions making, and relationships between different genders of school leaders. Given the challenges and job responsibilities facing assistant principals and deputy headteachers highlighted by Kwan and Walker as well as Melton and her colleagues, and the ethical dilemmas displayed by Rintoul, it is imperative for school districts and universities to work together in developing new ways to provide meaningful support beyond certification and degree

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requirements. In the seventh chapter, “The Quiet Roar: Assistant Principals Leading for Social Justice,” Christa Boske and Lillian Benavente-McEnery investigate the importance of the lived experiences of three assistant principals and how these experiences shape their leadership for social justice. Using a qualitative case study approach, Boske and Benavente-McEnery interviewed three assistant principals, who were nominated based on their reputation as social justice advocates. Although assistant principals are not generally viewed as catalysts for social change, this study contradicts the general perception and illustrates how three assistant principals used their lived experiences to move outside the shadows of their principal and promote socially just practices. As Boske and Benavente-McEnery explained, “Their lived experiences, ways of knowing and responding to the world provide a foundation for their work—to interrupt cultural myths, and deficitoriented practices that widen the gap between the haves and have nots.” As catalysts for social change, these assistant principals created enough space to build bridges between themselves and the students they served. These linkages allowed them to act as advocates for children and internalize the implications of social justice work in schools. The implications of this work support the notion that assistant principals are viable players in affecting positive change in a school environment. It is incumbent upon principals to take advantage of their assistant principals and insure that they provide meaningful experiences for them in order to develop and mature into future principals who practice socially and culturally relevant leadership. For leadership preparation programs, this study offers further evidence of the importance of providing powerful learning experiences that go beyond knowledge and skill development, as articulated by Busch et al., and allow aspirants to utilize their lived experiences in reflecting on their leadership. A recurring recommendation in the field of educational leadership is to conduct research on ways in which assistant principals are being delegated instructional leadership responsibilities (see chapter 5 by Teri Melton and her colleagues). An excellent example of this line of research is illustrated in the final chapter by Anna Sun, “Sharing Instructional Leadership as Assistant Principals in an Accountability-Oriented Environment.” Besides capturing the perceptions of current-day assistant principals in New York regarding their actual and desired roles and responsibilities, she compares these respondents’ views with Jeffery Glanz’s (1994) study of another sample of New York assistant principals reported in the mid-1990s. This comparison provides evidence to determine if the job is shifting as state and federal mandates (especially No Child Left Behind) pressure schools to become more publicly accountable for improving student learning. Employing a mixed-methods design, Sun used Glanz’s original questionnaire to collect

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the impressions of 133 elementary and middle school assistant principals in combination with semistructured interviews with 10 assistant principals. Results indicate that the top five duties assistant principals perform are student discipline, administrative paperwork, student counseling, teacher evaluation, and parent conferences (instructional leadership was ranked sixth). Interestingly, they also felt that they should be doing many of these top-rated duties, particularly instructional leadership (ranked first). When comparing the tasks assistant principals conducted in 1994 versus the present day, respondents indicated devoting more time now to instructional leadership (although they desire expanding this role), student counseling, teacher selection, and curriculum development. Their role as instructional leaders, however, is a two-edged sword. On one hand, they reported being more involved in instructional leadership, particularly collecting and analyzing state assessment of student achievement. On the other hand, they feared that the overwhelming emphasis on test preparation, administration, and analysis is negatively impacting teachers’ instructional practices (e.g., teaching to the test), student learning (e.g., ignoring social development), their use of time (e.g., devoting time to test management impacts other important tasks), and their interactions with teachers (e.g., policing teachers’ practices). Sun concludes by suggesting future lines of inquiry to determine how increased accountability and high-stakes testing are affecting the roles and duties of assistant principals. She advises that this comparative study be broadened by (a) obtaining the perceptions of parents, principals, teachers, and students regarding what roles assistant principals are and should be performing; (b) expanding the sample beyond New York State; and (c) examining the instructional leadership duties of high school assistant principals. Additional studies of this nature, especially ones that compare their present and former duties, will help policymakers and school systems better understand the shifts in assistant principals’ roles and how they can be used more effectively to manage and lead instructional improvements. Taken as a whole, this edited book highlights the importance and complexity of the assistant principalship. As noted in all the chapters, the assistant principal is a critical partner in creating a professional learning community that serves all students well. Often neglected or ignored in the literature, assistant principals are more than disciplinarians and student or building managers. In the best of all worlds, they provide the professional support and partnership with their principals to create high-performing schools. Unfortunately, as noted in some of the chapters, the ideal and actual roles that assistant principals exercise often create a gap that seethes with disillusionment and dissatisfaction. The challenge for the profession is to better align the roles and expectations of assistant principals so that they can experience the best of being a school leader.

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References Armstrong, D. (2004). Personal change and organizational passages: Transitions from teaching to the vice-principalship in a reform climate. Doctoral thesis. University of Toronto. Browne-Ferrigno, T. (2003). Becoming a principal: Role conception, initial socialization, role identity transformation, purposeful engagement. Educational Administration Quarterly, 39(4), 468–503. Cantwell, Z. (1993). School-based leadership and professional socialization of the assistant principal. Urban Education, 28(1), 49–68. Carlson, R. (1997). Don’t sweat the small stuff . . . and it’s all small stuff. New York: Hyperion. Glanz, J. (1994). Redefining the roles and responsibilities of assistant principals. The Clearing House, 67(5), 283–287. Hartzell, G. (1993). The assistant principal: Neglected actor in practitioner leadership literature. Journal of School Leadership, 3, 707–723. Kelly, G. (1987, October). The assistant principalship as a training ground for the principalship. NAASP Bulletin, pp. 13–20. Marshall, C., & Hooley, R. M. (2006). The assistant principal: Leadership choices and challenges. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Matthews, P., Moorman, H., & Nusche, D. (2007). School leadership development strategies: Building leadership capacity in Victoria, Australia. Retrieved November 21, 2010, from http://www.oecd.org/edu/schoolleadership Peterson, K., Marshall, C., & Grier, T. (1987). The assistant principals’ academy: Technical training and socialization of future leaders. NAASP Bulletin, 71(501), 32–38. Robinson, V. M. J., Lloyd, C., & Rowe, K. (2008). The impact of leadership on student outcomes: An analysis of the differential effects of leadership types. Educational Administration Quarterly, 44(5), 635–674. Schmidt, M. (2000). Role theory, emotions and identity in the department headship of secondary schooling. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16, 827–842. Smith, T. (2011). The importance of soft skills. Retrieved April 24, 2011, from http:// www.littlethingsmatter.com/blog/2011/02/08/the-growing-importance-ofsoft-skills/

Chapter 2

Factors that Influence the Preparedness of Teachers for the VicePrincipal Role Suzanne P. Read

Abstract Leadership succession is a major problem in many school districts due to retirements, fewer teachers entering administration, and administrators leaving the position owing to dissatisfaction or disillusionment with the job. Studies indicate that novice administrators are often ill-prepared for their roles by the formal preparation courses required by the school districts. In response to this finding, many postsecondary institutions and school districts are reviewing the content of certification courses, including soliciting information from users and other stakeholders. For example, in the United States, a study was commissioned in Tennessee to examine how well principals and viceprincipals felt they had been prepared for their roles as administrators by the state institutions (Petzko, 2008). In Canada, the Ontario College of Teachers conducted a review of the content, clarity, and structure of the Principal’s Qualification Program (PQP) through a survey of members.

Examining the Assistant Principalship, pages 11–34 Copyright © 2012 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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12    S. P. READ While there is a growing body of literature on novice administrators, very little is written specifically about vice-principals. This pilot study examined the activities undertaken by novice vice-principals while they were working as teachers and which of these activities prepared them for their new roles as administrators. It was restricted to facets of the vice-principal’s role involving well-developed interpersonal skills. In this pilot study, novice vice-principals completed surveys that listed activities in which they engaged while teachers, then ranked and reflected on their usefulness in preparing for an administrative role. It was found that the most influential preparatory activities for assuming the vice-principal’s role were service as curriculum leader or assistant curriculum leader, teaching, and completion of the PQP. Both incidental and deliberate learning about leadership are important to the novice vice-principal, however deliberate learning (such as completion of PQP Parts I and II) were more useful in certain situations, such as dealing with the police and social services. Having a subject specialty gave vice-principals legitimacy in their roles as instructional leaders within their schools.

Introduction Very early in their careers, teachers explore the notion of leadership, begining when they observe the actions of their principals, vice-principals, and more-experienced colleagues. They critique the behavior and motivations of these individuals, ranking them as good or bad, effective or ineffective, competent or incompetent. They form ideas of what good leadership entails, and their interactions with school leaders and administrators further influence these ideas. Such early observations may be termed incidental learnings about leadership. Eventually, some teachers decide to move from teaching to administration, engaging in specific activities that might lead to the front office. Thus, preparation for assuming an administrator’s role from that moment becomes a deliberate undertaking. How teachers become leaders within their organizations, and how they prepare or are prepared for specific and formal roles in administration, has become increasingly important, given the greater demands and expectations placed on principals and vice-principals. This phenomenon—leadership succession—requires careful recruitment, support, and retention of persons who are well prepared and qualified for the challenges they will face as administrators. Levine (2005) notes that society is undergoing rapid and tremendous changes, which in turn is causing changes in what schools do, how they operate, and how they are governed. Such societal changes dictate that our conceptualizations of what school leaders are and do must also change, as should the ways in which they are prepared to fill these dynamic and shifting roles (Grogan & Andrews, 2005). Thus, leadership in

Factors that Influence the Preparedness of Teachers for the Vice-Principal Role    13

general is of great interest to the school districts, the providers of principal certification courses (e.g., postsecondary institutions), and in Ontario, the College of Teachers (a regulatory body that governs the teaching profession by establishing standards of practice and conduct, controlling teacher licensure, accrediting teacher and administrator training facilities, maintaining professional records, and disciplining members). Undertaking the role of an administrator requires professional socialization, wherein one acquires and learns the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behavioral orientation needed for performing the role of the administrator (Cantwell, 1993; Greenfield, 1977; Marshall, 1985; Marshall & Greenfield, 1987). Professional socialization begins before the teacher enters the administrative ranks, continues for some years after, and often causes feelings of alienation, frustration, and stress (Armstrong, 2004; Cantwell, 1993; Greenfield, 1977; Schmidt, 2000). These feelings are related in part to the disconnect between the expectations of the newly promoted vice-principal and the reality of what he/she finds (Armstrong, 2004), and to a lack of preparation for the specific role of vice-principal, which itself has not been examined closely as occupying an inherent and purposive role within the school organization. Only recently has the literature attempted to characterize the distinctive nature of the vice-principal’s role, question whether the activities of a viceprincipal actually prepare one for a principalship, and the effectiveness of preparatory courses for the specific role of vice-principal (Browne-Ferrigno, 2003; Cantwell, 1993; Greenfield, 1977; Kelly, 1987; Marshall, 1985; Marshall & Greenfield, 1987; Schmidt, 2000). While some literature implies that viceprincipalships are good training grounds for aspiring principals (Fulton, 1977), most research indicates that neither employment as a vice-principal nor graduation from a principal’s preparatory course adequately prepares new vice-principals for their roles (Browne-Ferrigno, 2003; Cantwell, 1993; Hartzell, 1993; Kelly, 1987; Levine, 2005; MacDonald, 2004; Peterson, Marshall, & Grier, 1987; Schmidt, 2000; Smith, 1987). Although both principals and vice-principals are administrators, they operate in different organizational contexts, occupying different levels of leadership hierarchy, and performing different duties. As such, they are perceived differently by their subordinates and so face different leadership challenges (Hartzell, 1993). Research findings gleaned from successful business settings are commonly held as potential models for success in schools, including leadership development. Educational systems and institutions are viewed as simply another type of large organization, thus, one might find parallel lessons or patterns for success in one or the other. Educational organizations such as school districts, however, are in the “business” of teaching and preparing young minds for future adult endeavors, both for personal/individual achievement and society at-large. This places a greater moral burden on school districts to prepare

14    S. P. READ

future leaders. Fullan (2005) and Hargreaves and Fink (2004) have written extensively on issues of leadership succession and sustainability, noting that one measure of a leader’s success is the number of leaders left in the school upon the departure of that leader. The notion of mentorship has transferred extensively from the business world to that of educational leadership and is, in fact, one of the more important features of the innovative principal preparation courses in Texas sponsored by the Sid W. Richardson Foundation (Wilmore, 2000). In Ontario, the College of Teachers requires experienced principals to mentor the practicum of an aspiring administrator. This practicum may take many guises, either as a series of job-shadowing opportunities or a discrete project that contributes to the operation of the school/program/new initiative. In contrast to the typical business model, however, it is not the mentor who chooses the mentee, but the mentee who very often approaches the potential mentor to supervise and, sometimes, devise the practicum. A brief review of the literature on formal (state or provincial) certification courses reveals that districts and training facilities are concerned about whether the graduates of these programs are being exposed to content and ideas that are relevant to the 21st-century needs of our schools. Levin (2008) notes that in many school districts, insufficient attention is paid to leadership succession at all levels, to the detriment of the entire organization, and that much work is needed to be done to properly prepare and support administrators for the challenges that lie ahead. Of particular concern in North America are the predicted shortages of qualified school leaders. This is due to an anticipated increase in those retiring and a decrease in the number of persons entering school administration because the working conditions are thought to be a deterrent (Grogan & Andrews, 2005). To address the concerns of inadequate job preparation, some districts and postsecondary institutions have developed innovative administrator preparation courses that incorporate self-reflection and the use of journals, mentors, paid internships, and special emphasis on the development of communication skills. In many cases, partnerships have grown between school districts, private and public schools, universities, and community businesses so that candidates are able to earn a master’s degree in educational administration as well as state certification (Wilmore, 2000). Levin (2008) notes that in tandem with leader recruitment and development (preparation), districts must also pay attention to retention, which means knowing and defining the many needs and roles of the administrators and providing the appropriate support. Bray and Brawley’s (2002) work with athletic teams and perceptions of role clarity on performance demonstrate that if a role is not well defined, then the member tends to perform less well. Thus, newly appointed viceprincipals whose expectations for their new roles are far different from the reality will perform less well in the vice-principal’s role. During their formal

Factors that Influence the Preparedness of Teachers for the Vice-Principal Role    15

training, they expect to participate in curriculum and instructional leadership and become agents of change and innovation (Begley & Slater, 2003; Hartzell, 1993; MacDonald, 2004; Marshall, 1985; Marshall & Greenfield, 1987; Smith, 1987). Instead, they find themselves functioning as disciplinarians and custodians of the status quo (Hartzell, 1993; Kelly, 1987; Smith, 1987). The participants of Armstrong’s (2004) study of novice Ontario vice-principals poignantly describe the discrepancies between their expectations of the role and the conflicting expectations of the teachers, support staff, parents, and their own immediate supervisors, the principals. Hartzell (1993) is particularly critical of principal preparation courses that prepare teachers for positions and roles (i.e., principalships) they may never get, but do little to prepare them for roles they are most likely to get (i.e., vice-principalships). He strongly recommends that preparation courses be remodeled to address the needs of beginning administrators (such as vice-principals); whereas Peterson et al. (1987) advocate the creation of special vice-principal academies that will train teachers for this particular position within school organizations. Furthermore, as early as 1987, there were calls for the role of vice-principal to be revisited and redefined in order to recognize it as an inherently valued and individual role of instructional leadership within school organizations, rather than an ineffective steppingstone or training ground to a principalship (Hartzell, 1993; Kelly, 1987). Petzko (2008) describes reform to the content and methodology of preparing school leaders, particularly in the United States, that culminated in the formulation of the Leaders Licensure Consortium Standards for School Leaders (LLCSSL) in 1994; subsequently, additional critical calls for revision have led to continued reform in administrator-preparation programs. In July 2004, the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA) launched the Connexions Project, attempting to clearly identify the information and skills necessary to effectively lead and manage schools. By examining the important content areas of principal preparation programs, the Connexions Project identified 18 important domains of knowledge and skills, organized into seven conceptual areas. In addition, the University Council for Educational Administrators (UCEA) and the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute have coordinated major reforms in educational leadership (Petzko, 2008). In 2005, the Ontario Ministry of Education released “Leading Education: New Supports for Principals and Vice-Principals in Ontario Publicly Funded Schools,” in which the Ministry stated its commitment to develop, support, and sustain high-quality leadership in its schools, with a view to improving student achievement. The “Leadership Framework for Principals and Vice-Principals” emerged from this and codifies effective competencies and practices that should be present (or developing) in both aspiring and experienced administrators. This “Framework” now forms the basis around

16    S. P. READ

which the Ontario Principal Qualification Programs (PQP) are built, regardless of the provider. As part of ongoing reform, the Ontario College of Teachers conducted a member survey in 2008, regarding the content, clarity, and structure of the PQP. It was an attempt to identify changes to the content and practices embedded in the PQP, and thus the knowledge, skills, and practices required of current and future administrators. Among the key recommendations was increased attention to the changing demographic landscape of schools and communities; relationship-building within the community and the emotional intelligence of principals; enhancement of the practicum experience, including alternative placements for the practicum; and the inclusion of Aboriginal context throughout the coursework (D. Smith, personal communication, November 14, 2010). Some studies indicate the need for administrators to reflect on their preparation, and what would have been critical to their initial success (Petzko, 2008). Wilmore (2000) notes that such reflective practice has already been incorporated into some administrator-preparation programs in Texas. In Ontario, Part I of PQP emphasizes the necessity of candidates to “know themselves”; to assess their standing in regards to the competencies and practices in the Leadership Framework for Principals and Vice-Principals; and to identify, plan, and address areas of personal growth. In another study, Brown and Shoho (in Petzko, 2008) noted that administrators’ major challenges in their first year were to understand the dynamics of school organization and assess the strengths and weakness of their staff. Only in their second year were they able to take action on school improvement. In Ontario, Part II of PQP emphasizes a deeper understanding of organizational structure and the role of the principal and vice-principal within it. In a third study, St. Germain and Quinn (2005) noted differences in how novice and experienced principals addressed and solved problems, the former being more reactive to disruptive situations, in contrast to the latter group of school leaders, who tended to be more proactive. In Ontario, problem solving and problem-based learning have become a critical piece of the PQP. The question of key areas of knowledge/skills for school leaders has long been an area of great interest to Canadian scholars, as has some way of measuring their acquisition or development. Begley and Slater (2003) published School Leadership in Canada, which included an inventory of competencies that could be used as a reflective tool for those who wished to improve their best practices. An essay in the same publication described the pressing issues relevant to the development of school leaders and some of the steps being taken at that time to address them, including the early writing of the Leadership Framework for Principals and Vice-Principals (Slater, 2001). The development of performance appraisals for administrators appeared soon after, and in 2010, the Ontario government instituted a Principal Performance Appraisal (PPA), which closely mirrors the Teacher Per-

Factors that Influence the Preparedness of Teachers for the Vice-Principal Role    17

formance Appraisal (TPA) process long underway in Ontario schools. The PPA was developed in response to requests from principals, vice-principals, and supervisory officers to allow for the assessment of key knowledge, skills, and attitudes of administrators, and to provide a basis for their continued professional growth. Such an appraisal did not exist previously and is largely viewed as a valuable support for administrators (N. Siddiq, personal communication, July 6, 2010). Clearly then, assuming the multifaceted role of an administrator requires more than the completion of government-mandated certification requirements. Aspiring administrators begin to explore aspects of a vice-principal’s work while still teaching in the classroom. I suggest that there may be specific activities or factors that might contribute to preparation of the teacher for this role. Indeed, Brim (in Greenfield, 1977) states that much of adult socialization in a formal organization takes place without a clearly specified role for the learner through indirect unplanned training, informal discussion, and unconscious identification with role models. Socialization for leadership in general, and for the vice-principal’s role specifically, is likely to occur within a school setting and begins much earlier when teachers engage in professional activities with fellow teachers (Browne-Ferrigno, 2003), advising a club, coaching a team, or attending a staff meeting. As well, I suggest that teaching in one’s subject specialty might be influential in preparing for the role of vice-principal. Teaching might be categorized as an area of incidental learning about the vice-principal’s role, since it is not undertaken with the express intent of attaining a vice-principalship, but rather is an end in itself; that is, one seeks employment as a teacher in order to earn a living. Indeed, most teachers choose to spend their working lives in that role and never seek to leave the classroom to enter the front office. The main research question to be investigated is what experiences have most influenced preparedness for the vice-principal’s role? Related questions that I wanted to consider are the influence of incidental learnings about leadership and subject specialty as they prepare. To my knowledge, no Canadian studies exist on these topics, while previous U.S. studies report that many formal administrator preparation courses fail to train their students adequately, and that most aspiring administrators self-select for formal training. Thus, it would be useful to investigate how novice vice-principals prepared for their new roles beyond the compulsory certification. Perhaps there are common experiences among them, such as, for example, specific subject specialties, coaching team sports, or serving on particular committees. It may be that senior administrators cultivate future school administrators from among teachers with these commonalities. Similarly, senior administrators might encourage aspiring administrators to engage in some of the activities deemed most useful by survey respondents.

18    S. P. READ

Framework and Methodology The conceptual framework selected for this study is dramaturgical, as described by MacDonald (2004), who developed it from Benedetti’s writing about Stanislawski, the father of method acting. In this framework, the actors/teachers approach their roles in a particular sequence: a pre-assumption phase that precedes taking on the role of vice-principal, the role-assumption phase, and finally the divestiture phase, where the actor/vice-principal reflects on the role as he gives it up. In MacDonald’s scheme, the divestiture phase was more of a reflective phase rather than an actual leave-taking from the role. Role assumption means that one constructs the role by experiencing professional socialization into the community, acquiring the behavior and practices of the administrator, learning the specific “tasks” and “jobs” of the administrator, as well as leaving behind the role of the classroom teacher (Browne-Ferrigno, 2003; Bray & Brawley, 2002; Marshall, 1985; Marshall & Greenfield, 1987). I am most interested in the pre-assumption phase: how do teachers construct their knowledge of the role of vice-principal prior to assuming the role and within the first few years afterwards. Browne-Ferrigno (2003) writes that professional socialization of teachers into a new administrative role begins very early in a teacher’s career and proceeds unconsciously. This suggests that those teachers who begin to construct the role earlier may better perceive the true nature of the role and therefore be better equipped to perform in the role (Bray & Brawley, 2002) because they begin to acquire the requisite skills and attitudes earlier. I suggest that professional socialization for vice-principal behavior commences when teachers engage in extracurricular activities. For the purposes of this study, extracurricular activities shall be defined as those activities that lie outside of the curricular teaching duties for which a teacher is hired by the school district, but which may have some bearing on the operation of the school. For example, in Ontario schools, coaching sports is a voluntary (unpaid) extracurricular activity. Extracurricular activities are opportunities to enrich the lives of students beyond the government-mandated curriculum. Coaching volleyball or advising the physics club, as examples, allows one to share expertise with students who show particular aptitude, attitude, or skills outside of the formal classroom structure. They may also include ways that improve student life by serving with colleagues on a school or district committee regarding issues affecting many school communities, for example, antiviolence education, the prevention of bullying, etc. A subset of extracurricular activities includes the pursuit of additional qualifications in subject areas (e.g., mathematics, geography, or history) or specific skillsets (e.g., English as a second language [ESL], guidance counseling). These latter activities are usually pursued as a means of attaining a higher sal-

Factors that Influence the Preparedness of Teachers for the Vice-Principal Role    19

ary or preparing for a leadership position within a department. (In Ontario, the department head designations have been replaced by those of curriculum leader [CL] or assistant curriculum leader [ACL].) The CL and ACL positions may be strictly subject-specific or may include several subjects lumped under an umbrella term; for example, social studies might include geography, history, and family studies or may not be subject-oriented at all, such as guidance (counseling) and student services. CLs may not evaluate performance and discipline fellow department members, as these violate the terms of collegiality and the collective agreement between the teachers’ union and the school district. The number of CLs is prescribed by the Ministry of Education through contract negotiations, and thus the organization of a school into departments is somewhat fluid. A CL’s term of office is 3 years and is not automatically renewed. In this study, I have further subdivided the activities in which a teacher engages as being either deliberate or incidental in the construction of their knowledge of the vice-principal role. If an activity has been undertaken with the intent of preparing for the vice-principal role, then it is deemed to be deliberate. In contrast, incidental activities are those that assisted in the growth of knowledge about the role, but that were not undertaken with the specific intent of learning about or preparing for the vice-principal role. For example, coaching a volleyball team is not likely to be a deliberate activity for preparing oneself for vice-principalship, whereas enrollment in the Principal’s Qualification Program would. The conceptual framework is illustrated in Figure 2.1. This study gathered data from novice vice-principals (whom I define as having been hired into the position within the last 3 years) in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB). The TDSB is the largest school board in Canada and the fourth largest in North America. It serves 250,000 students in over 600 schools in Toronto, a city of 2.7 million residents, more than half of whom were not born in Canada. The vice-principals completed a questionnaire list-

Preassumptive phase Role assumption phase—Incidental learnings Role assumption phase—Deliberate learnings Role divestiture phase

Figure 2.1  Analytical framework (after Benedetti in MacDonald, 2004).

20    S. P. READ

ing activities in which they might have engaged, and were asked about the usefulness of these activities in constructing their knowledge about the viceprincipal role. Particular attention was paid to the interpersonal aspects of the role, specifically as chief disciplinarian, and how they interact with other adults in the building such as staff, parents, and community members. Tables 2.1 and 2.2 show abbreviated and abridged versions of the questionnaire. Survey Questionnaire (abridged and abbreviated) Factors that Influence the Preparedness of Teachers for the Vice-Principal Role (Table 2.1) Rank each activity’s importance in preparing you for the role of vice–principal. (1 = not important, 2 = somewhat important, 3 = important, 4 = very important) Table 2.1  Relative Importance of Some Activities that Prepare Individuals for the Role of Vice-Principal Activity A Enrolled in/completed specialist courses in subject discipline B Enrolled in/completed specialist courses in an area outside of subject discipline (e.g., special education, reading, cooperative education) C Enrolled in/completed work at master’s or PhD level in subject discipline D Enrolled in/completed MBA E Enrolled in/completed MEd F Enrolled in/completed board-sponsored workshops/seminars G Enrolled in/completed workshops/seminars sponsored by professional organizations (e.g., OPC, OSSTF) H Enrolled in/completed PQP course Part 1 I Enrolled in/completed PQP course Part 2 J Advised student clubs at school K Served on committees in school L Coached athletic teams at school M Served as CL/ACL/department head N Served on school board-initiated committees O Served on OSSTF/union committee, e.g., branch president, equity, etc. P Read self-help/self-improvement materials (e.g., books, magazines, etc.) Q Coached community sports team R Served as volunteer in community groups S Taught in different schools T Mentored colleagues/teacher candidates U Job shadowed V Teaching W Other (please specify)

Rank

Factors that Influence the Preparedness of Teachers for the Vice-Principal Role    21

Particular Aspects of the Vice-Principal’s Role (Table 2.2) Which activities listed in Table 2.1 best prepared you for each of these aspects? Select up to 5 activities from Table 2.1, using the letter codes in the first column. Rank their importance in preparing you for each aspect. (2 = somewhat important, 3 = important, 4 = very important). Write “N.A.” for questions that are “not applicable.” Table 2.2  Activities that Prepare Individuals for Some Aspects of the Vice-Principal Role Aspect of vice-principal role 1. The vice-principal role includes acting as primary disciplinarian in your school. Which activities best prepared you for interacting (a) with students in this capacity? (b) with parents/guardians in this capacity? (c) with teachers in this capacity? 2. The vice-principal role includes working and interacting with a large number of students in unstructured environments, e.g., in the hallways and auditorium, outside the building. Which activities prepared you for this aspect of the role? 3. The vice-principal role includes instructional leadership, evaluating teachers, and promoting sound pedagogical practices. Which activities prepared you for this aspect of the role? 4. The vice-principal role includes working in emotionally charged situations and with individuals who are often very upset or angry. Which activities prepared you for this aspect of the role? 5. The vice-principal role includes dealing with situations that involve the police and/or social services. Which activities prepared you for this aspect of the role? 6. Is there another task of the viceprincipal’s role that is not mentioned above and about which you would especially like to comment? Yes ___  No ___ What is it? __________________ Which activities prepared you for this aspect of the vice-principal’s role?

Activity, Activity, Activity, Activity, Activity, rank rank rank rank rank

X

X

X

X

X

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The survey was piloted with senior administrators, both for feedback on the wording of survey items as well as the validity of the information being collected. An attempt was made to obtain an equal number of males and females. Only secondary school vice-principals were recruited, because elementary school vice-principals very often retain a partial teaching load and so have not yet divested themselves fully of the previous role as classroom teacher. In sum, 11 useable responses were garnered through postage-paid mail or use of the interschool courier system. The data were analyzed to determine what factors (such as subject specialty) most influenced and to what extent the preparedness of participants played in their new roles as viceprincipals. Participants used a Likert-like scale to rank the relative importance of the listed activities preparing them for the vice-principal’s role in general. They then used the same type of scale to rank the relative importance of these activities in preparing for their roles as primary disciplinarian (see Figures 2.3, 2.4, and 2.5) and instructional leader (see Figure 2.6) under the following conditions: (a) working with a large number of students in unstructured environments, (b) working in emotionally charged situations, and (c) working with police and social services personnel (see Figures 2.6, 2.8, and 2.9). Of the various activities listed, only enrollment in an MBA, MEd, or Principal Qualification Program (PQP) were considered to be deliberate preparatory activities since the former two are listed as possible prerequisites for the latter; successful completion of the latter is mandatory for every vice-principal. All other activities were considered incidental, however it is possible that some of these might have been undertaken as deliberate steps toward preparing for an administrator role. For example, service as a curriculum leader could have been solely for the purpose of exercising departmental leadership and school improvement, not necessarily as a steppingstone into the front office. The intent of the participants when engaging in these activities was not collected. For each category of the vice-principal’s role under investigation, the frequency of selection of an activity was tabulated and totaled so that an activity selected and ranked by all 11 respondents as most important (numerical score = 4) would have a score of 44. Similarly, an activity ranked by only one respondent as most important and least important (numerical score = 1) by the other respondents would have a score of 14 (4 + [10 × 1]). The mean scores were calculated by summing the Likert-like scores, then dividing by the number of participants who had selected the activity. This allowed me to gauge the relative importance of the activity among those who had selected it. The results were presented in graphic form, where Series 1 indicates the frequency with which the activity was selected and Series 2 a mean score.

Factors that Influence the Preparedness of Teachers for the Vice-Principal Role    23

Results Figures 2.2 to 2.9 below show the frequency with which an activity was selected by participants (Series 1) and the average Likert-like score (Series 2). Frequency and average Likert score

12

10 Series 1 Series 2 8

6

4

2

Ad vise tea ms Coa ch tea Cur ms ricu lum l e ade Boa r rd com mit Un tee ion com mit tee Sel f-h elp boo Com ks mu nit y sp ort s Vo lun tee Dif fer r ent sch ool s

PQ PI PQ P II

ME Boa d rd wo Pro rks f. a hop sso c. w ork sho p

MB A

Sub jec t sp eci alty Sec ond M/P hD spe in s cia lty ubj ect spe cia lty

0

Activity

Figure 2.2  Frequency of useful preparatory activities for the vice-principal role.

Usefulness (Frequency and average Likert score)

7 6 Series 1 Series 2 5 4 3 2 1 0

PQP II

CL

Diff schools

Teaching

Coach

PQP I

Job shadow

Activity

Figure 2.3  Summary of activities to prepare for working with discipline and students.

24    S. P. READ

Usefulness (Frequency and average Likert score)

8 7

Series 1 Series 2

6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Teaching

Curriculum

Different schools

Coach community sports

Coach teams

PQP II

Activity

Figure 2.4  Summary of activities to prepare for working with discipline and parents.

Usefulness (Frequency and average Likert score)

12

10 Series 1 Series 2 8

6

4

2

0

Curriculum leader

Committee

Mentored colleagues

Teaching

Board committee

PQP I

PQP II

Activity

Figure 2.5  Summary of activities to prepare for working with discipline and teachers.

Factors that Influence the Preparedness of Teachers for the Vice-Principal Role    25

Usefulness (Frequency and average Likert score)

8 7

Series 1 Series 2

6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Coaching

Advising clubs

Teaching

Different schools

Curriculum leader

Volunteer Community sports

Activity

Figure 2.6  Summary of activities to prepare for working in unstructured environments.

Usefulness (Frequency and average Likert score)

12

10 Series 1 Series 2 8

6

4

2

0

Curriculum leader

School committees

Subject specialty

Teaching

Mentoring colleagues

PQP II

MEd

Activity

Figure 2.7  Summary of activities to prepare for instructional leadership role.

26    S. P. READ

Usefulness (Frequency and average Likert score)

8 7

Series 1 Series 2

6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Curriculum leader

Different schools

Teaching

Coaching teams

PQP II

School committees

PQP I

Activity

Figure 2.8  Summary of activities to prepare for emotionally charged situations.

Usefulness (Frequency and average Likert score)

4.5 4.0

Series 1 Series 2

3.5 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0

PQP II

Board committee

PQP I

Prof. assoc. workshops

Self-help books

Different schools

Activity

Figure 2.9  Summary of activities to prepare for working with police and social services.

Factors that Influence the Preparedness of Teachers for the Vice-Principal Role    27 12

10 Series 1

Frequency

8

6

4

2

Activity

Wr ite we Ins ll pir ec onfi den Kn ow ce edu cat ion Kn al l ow aw boa rd reg ula tio ns

Per sua sive

Go od spe ake Kn r ow spr ead she Kn ets ow boo kke epi ng Cha ir m eet ing s Go od list ene Com r put er l iter ate Pro ble ms olv er Ab le t od ele gat e Ins pir e lo yal ty

0

Figure 2.10  Some useful attributes of vice-principals.

Because most activities were selected by all participants, the average Likertlike score was used to determine the most influential activities. In general, the most influential activities in preparing for the vice-principal roles were completion of PQP I and II, and service as a CL. Having a subject specialty, teaching, and coaching were particularly useful for the role of instructional leader and when working in unstructured environments. When working with police and social services, completion of PQP II and specific workshops were deemed most useful. Participants were asked to select from a list five attributes most necessary for successful vice-principals. Figure 2.10 shows the frequency of attribute selection. The attribute considered most necessary was being a good listener. Discussion This study demonstrates that for the interpersonal aspects of the viceprincipal’s role investigated, the participants deemed their pre-assumptive phase activities to be highly useful. As expected, the deliberate activities of enrollment in PQP Parts I and II were ranked most highly by all participants and, in particular, when working with the police and social services. In all other areas investigated, service as curriculum leader was reported to

28    S. P. READ

be the most useful and influential preparatory activity. Teaching, coaching sports, having a subject specialty, and teaching in different schools were also considered to be very useful in preparing for the vice-principal’s role. The most interesting finding of this study was the reported usefulness of certification courses (PQP I and II) in preparing participants for viceprincipalship. This is in startling contrast to findings in the U.S. literature, where novice vice-principals report being ill-prepared for the role and harboring mistaken preconceptions about the job that are in part fostered by the very preparation courses (e.g., principal licensure programs) that aspiring principals are obliged to take (Browne-Ferrigno, 2003; Cantwell,1993; Hartzell, 1993; Peterson et al., 1987; Schmidt, 2000). The work of chief disciplinarian consumes much of a vice-principal’s time, as does counseling students with special needs (learning, emotional, or other). Knowing the rules and regulations of school governance allows the vice-principal to dispatch his/her duties properly, and to make decisions about student placement that will allow for the greatest student success. In Part I of the PQP, a great deal of time is spent on the Education Act and related legislation that affects the operation of schools. Interestingly, emphasis is not placed on the treatment of students who have transgressed school rules, but on the provision of equitable opportunities for all students to learn and succeed, and the legal repercussions if students are not given these opportunities (for example, an increased number of complaints to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal around the issues of Special Education was reported in 2008–2009; G. Basanta, personal communication, August 21, 2009). Study participants reported that PQP II and coaching sports were important preparatory activities when working with students and parents, and in emotionally charged situations. They also reported that PQP II instruction and attending specific workshops was good preparation for working more closely with social services and police, likely because teachers do not routinely work with these two groups. Thus, in contrast to the findings of U.S. studies (Hartzell, 1993; Kelly, 1987; Smith, 1987), participants of this study were well prepared for their role as chief disciplinarians in their schools. The curriculum leader is a very formalized position within the leadership hierarchy of schools. It may be an end in itself for many teachers rather than a step toward the front office and so should not be considered as deliberate preparation for the vice-principal role. The increase in pay is minimal for the time involved (D. J. Ellis, personal communication, September 10, 2007; personal experience), however, teachers in this position often report great satisfaction in being able to influence the instruction in their subject departments. Nevertheless, as a recognized leader within the school community, the CL will begin to acquire attitudes associated with leadership in general. These vice-principals demonstrate the conventional career trajec-

Factors that Influence the Preparedness of Teachers for the Vice-Principal Role    29

tory described by Evetts (in Troman & Woods, 2000) as a continuous and progressive path from teaching into administration via positions of departmental headship or curriculum leader. Teaching experience appears in the top five most useful preparatory activities in most of the aspects studied. The participants stated that this gave them legitimacy (or “street credibility”) with the teachers in their schools. Assuming the role of vice-principal involves the gradual acquisition of various communication and organizational skills, which the presumptive viceprincipals used and honed in their everyday work as teachers. They became unconsciously socialized into some aspects of the administrative role, as suggested by Browne-Ferrigno (2003), by learning how to interact with fellow staff members, how to communicate effectively with students and their parents/guardians as part of their regular duties, and when engaging in other professional activities such as coaching and serving on school committees. These participants had between 9 and 23 years teaching experience prior to becoming vice-principals. Slater (2001) has noted a decrease in the average number of years of teaching experience of Ontario principal candidates, which, not surprisingly, corresponds to a general lack of “professional seasoning” in leadership experience. Currently, enrollment in PQP courses requires a minimum teaching experience of 5 years, in addition to holding the other prerequisites. The College of Teachers has no plans to change this (K. Egli, personal communication July 23, 2009); to increase the minimum requirement might decrease the already dwindling number of candidates. As well, St. Germain and Quinn (2005) suggest that it is the type and context (quality) of an individual’s experience rather than the length (quantity) that determine the effectiveness of administrators. Subject specialty was deemed important because it gives legitimacy to the vice-principal as instructional leader. However, attaining a subject specialty is usually pursued as a means of increasing one’s salary as per the collective agreement, so would be classified as an incidental learning about viceprincipalship. Some participants reported that their subject specialty correlated with what they felt were additional key qualities and skills of successful administrators. Examples include the computer science specialist who was very comfortable using the many programs necessary for timetabling and scheduling, and the drama specialist who felt that the ability to speak well in public was key. These are incidental learnings about these aspectsof the vice-principal’s role, however, they could fall into the category of managerial and technical aspects that Levin (2008) suggests can and should be deliberately taught in preparatory courses. No individual subject specialty was perceived to be more or less advantageous to preparedness for the viceprincipal role. Teaching in different schools was highly ranked as an influential preparatory activity. This gives the teacher an opportunity to work in a variety

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of milieus, with different physical facilities and school cultures. Because each institution imposes different demands and expectations on its administrators, one’s socialization processes and tactics would vary (Armstrong, 2004), thus, having taught in several schools might be advantageous to a vice-principal. Interestingly, working in different schools is most likely to happen early during a teacher’s career, when a teacher has low seniority and may be “bumped.” (In Ontario public schools, depending on the number of pupils and needs of a school, teachers may be declared surplus and reassigned to another school. Those with higher seniority may displace or bump less senior colleagues with equivalent qualifications.) Bumping is generally viewed very negatively; once settled in a school, most teachers’ desire to move decreases. Paradoxically, there is otherwise little opportunity to switch schools deliberately in the secondary panel unless one is seeking a leadership position. Teaching in different schools, then, is incidental learning only if it occurs as a result of bumping and thus was not ascertained in my study. In general, pre-assumptive phase activities, both deliberate (completing PQP) and incidental (service as CL, coaching, teaching, holding a subject specialty) were deemed to be important in preparing for the vice-principal’s role. Holding at least one subject specialty is a prerequisite for entry to PQP, and completion of PQP is a requirement for seeking employment as a vice-principal. No particular significance can be attached to a subject specialty or to common experiences as teachers. In addition to ranking the usefulness of preparatory activities for viceprincipalship, participants selected the top five attributes of vice-principals from a list provided. These were: being a good listener, knowledge of school board regulations and when they should be applied, problem solving, and chairing meetings competently and inspiring confidence. Most of these require practice and experience to master and may be included among the managerial tasks that Levin (2008) suggests should be taught in principal preparation courses, with particular emphasis on conflict resolution and time management. In PQP, problem solving through case studies and discussion of the underpinning principles, issues, and regulations is an integral part of the coursework. Most recently, PQP I offered by the University of Toronto has incorporated emotional intelligence (EQi) testing as one means of having candidates reflect on their strengths and weaknesses, including communication (listening) skills. In some Ontario school boards, EQi testing has been offered to novice administrators for the same reason (S. M. McCarthy, personal communication, July 7, 2009). Results of the 2009 Ontario College of Teachers PQP Review survey indicate that more attention should be paid to EQi.

Factors that Influence the Preparedness of Teachers for the Vice-Principal Role    31

In general, there was much less congruence on what were considered to be the most important attributes of vice-principals. Bookkeeping skills was not selected; all other attributes were selected at least once. Next Steps This study tells us what participants found to be useful in several facets of the vice-principal’s job, but it does not tell us how or why these activities were useful preparations. For example, survey participants noted that working with law enforcement officials and as curriculum leaders helped prepare them for their jobs as vice-principals, but it is unclear how, or for what aspect of the job it prepared them. A series of follow-up targeted interview questions could shed some light on this issue. This study also raises a larger question about the “right” preparatory experiences and who determines what these might be. Levine (2005) writes that “the job of school leader has been transformed by extraordinary economic, demographic, technological, and global change” (p. 13) in such a way that even the institutions that train school leaders cannot keep up with the demands of the job, which consists not only of managing schools but also of “leading them through an era of profound social change that has required fundamental rethinking of what schools do and how they do it” (p. 6). Continuing and dramatic societal changes have driven changes to the education system at all levels, including content/curriculum, the processes of teaching and learning, school organization, school governance, and leadership training. Governments, research and training facilities, and others are trying to define, measure, and address the needs of such changes by shaping public policy. Given the critical role of education in society, the roles of educational leaders must continually be redefined with accompanying changes to the development and training of aspiring leaders. Such refinement is seen in the continuing and regular review of administrator training, as demonstrated, for example, by the Ontario College of Teachers of its PQP, the studies described by Petzko (2008) and Wilmore (2000), and the development the Principal Performance Appraisal in Ontario. Such refinements must occur not in isolation but in tandem with teacher training, as it is from the ranks of teachers that administrators rise. Greater attention might be paid to cultivating leadership in all its myriad forms in teachers at all levels of their professional life, that is, before they enter the classroom as teachers and during their working lives as classroom teachers. Despite these refinements, the vice-principalship remains an ambiguous and unrecognized role with poorly defined tasks. This is primarily because vice-principal duties may be assigned by the principal (under the Ontar-

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io Education Act, section 277.17[1], and Regulation 298, section 12[2]), thus contributing to the job’s unpredictability. In addition, it is still seen as a transitional stopover on the way to the principalship, despite growing evidence that it is a terminal career for a number of administrators, either through individual or organizational choice (Armstrong, 2004; Hartzell, 1993; Kelly, 1987). Indeed, the refusal to address the differences in the complexities of the vice-principal’s role, as opposed to the principal’s, may lead to an inability to create constructive change within schools. Levin (2008) notes that in many school districts, insufficient attention is paid to leadership succession at all levels, to the detriment of the school or the entire organization. Preparation programs for leaders must incorporate the learning from large-scale school improvement and address the paradigm shift from top-down management to distributed leadership (Grogan & Andrews, 2005) with a clearly defined, inherently valued role for vice-principals as instructional leaders within school organizations (Hartzell, 1993; Kelly, 1987). The view of the principal as “linchpin” between good schools and teacher development gives greater impetus to the principal to foster leadership behaviors and opportunities in his/her school. This could begin with greater direct exposure of teachers to the practical tasks and daily routines of administrators, followed by exposure in coursework to relevant research upon which to reflect and test assumptions (Grogan & Andrews, 2005). Finally, this study raises questions about specific differences between principal preparation procedures in Ontario and the United States, which might account for the participants’ reported preparedness for their jobs as vice-principals. There are no financial subsidies for enrolling in the principal licensure program, no opportunity to earn a graduate degree, nor any institutional arrangements to create mentorships for aspiring leaders. What are the characteristics (e.g., content) of the PQP that might better prepare candidates, and are there other influential preparatory experiences that have not yet been explored? References Armstrong, D. (2004). Personal change and organizational passages: Transitions from teaching to the vice-principalship in a reform climate. Doctoral thesis. University of Toronto. Begley, P., & Slater, C. (Eds.). (2003). School leadership in Canada (3rd ed.). Hillsdale, ON: P. Begley & Associates. Bray, S. R., & Brawley, L. R. (2002). Role efficacy, role clarity and role performance effectiveness. Small Group Research, 33(2), 233–253.

Factors that Influence the Preparedness of Teachers for the Vice-Principal Role    33 Browne-Ferrigno, T. (2003). Becoming a principal: Role conception, initial socialization, role identity transformation, purposeful engagement. Educational Administration Quarterly, 39(4), 468–503. Cantwell, Z. (1993). School-based leadership and professional socialization of the assistant principal. Urban Education, 28(1), 49–68. Fullan, M. (2005). Leadership and sustainability. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Fulton, O. (1987, October). Basic competencies of the assistant principal. NAASP Bulletin, pp. 52, 54. Greenfield, W. (1977). Administrative candidacy: A process of new role learning– part 1. Journal of Educational Administration, 15(1), 30–48. Grogan, M., & Andrews, R. (2005). Defining preparation and professional development for the future. Educational Administration Quarterly, 38(2), 233–256. Hargreaves. A., & Fink, D. (2004). The seven principles of sustainable leadership. Educational Leadership, 61(7), 9–13. Hartzell, G. (1993). The assistant principal: Neglected actor in practitioner leadership literature. Journal of School Leadership, 3, 707–723. Kelly, G. (1987, October). The assistant principalship as a training ground for the principalship. NAASP Bulletin, pp. 13–20. Levin, B. (2008). How to change 5000 schools. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. Levine, A. (2005). Educating school leaders. Report of the Education Schools Project. Retrieved August 18, 2011 from http://www.edschools.org/reports-leaders.htm MacDonald, E. (2004). Job transitions from teaching to administration in secondary schools: An investigation of role assumption. Doctoral thesis. University of Toronto. Marshall, C. (1985). Professional shock: The enculturation of the assistant principal. Education and Urban society, 18(1), 28–58. Marshall, C., & Greenfield, W. (1987). The dynamics on the enculturation and the work in the assistant principalship. Urban Education, 22(1), 36–52. Peterson, K., Marshall, C., & Grier, T. (1987, October). The assistant principals’ academy: Technical training and socialization of future leaders. NAASP Bulletin, pp. 32–38. Petzko, V. (2008). The perceptions of new principals regarding the knowledge and skills important to their initial success. NASSP Bulletin, 92(3), 224–251. Roher, E., & Wormwell, S. (2008). An educator’s guide to the role of the principal (2nd ed.). Aurora, ON: The Cartwright Group Ltd. Schmidt, M. (2000). Role theory, emotions and identity in the department headship of secondary schooling. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16, 827–842. Slater, C. (2001). Becoming a principal in Ontario: Issues, directions and implications for the development of school leaders. In P. T. Begley & C. Slater (Eds.), School leadership in Canada (3rd ed.). Hillsdale, ON: P. Begley & Associates. Smith, J. (1987, October). Assistant principals: New demands, new realities, and new perspectives. NAASP Bulletin, pp. 9–20. St. Germain, L., & Quinn, D. (2005). Investigation of tacit knowledge in principal leadership. The Educational Forum, 70, 75–90. Troman, G., & Woods, P. (2000) Careers under stress: Teacher adaptations at a time of intensive reform. Journal of Educational Change, 1(3), 253–275.

34    S. P. READ Wilmore, E. (2000). The changing role of school leadership preparation. International Journal of Educational Reform, 9(4), 349–360.

Author Note This study was approved by the Social Sciences, Humanities & Education Research Ethics Board of the University of Toronto, PROTOCOL REFERENCE 23899. It was completed as part of the requirements for a master’s degree in educational administration, supervised by Dr. Joseph Flessa, at the Department of Theory and Policy Studies, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.

Chapter 3

Critical Advice from Practicing Assistant Principals for Assistant Principal Preparation Programs Steven D. Busch & Angus J. MacNeil University of Houston M. Sarah Baraniuk University of Texas

Introduction Role of the Assistant Principal The position of assistant principal was initially created due to expanding bureaucracy and the speed at which the job of the school principal was becoming impossible for just one person to handle (Scoggins & Bishop, 1993). Once created, the role of the assistant principal was quickly relegated to limited managerial responsibilities such as bus duty or discipline

Examining the Assistant Principalship, pages 35–57 Copyright © 2012 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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(Buckner & Jones, 1990). However, due to the fact that a majority of assistant principals seek expanded leadership positions, this role has expanded to incorporate more duties, including teacher supervision and, to an extent, instructional leadership (Scoggins & Bishop, 1993). Kelly (1987) recognized that the role of the assistant principal is a pathway to the principalship and that the assistant principal should be involved in as many aspects of campus leadership as possible. The primary duty of most assistant principals is discipline and teacher supervision (Buckner & Jones, 1990; Gerke, 2004; Kelly, 1987; Scoggins & Bishop, 1993). The average assistant principal spends a majority of his/her day working with students in disciplinary situations as well as working with the teachers and parents of the same students. The assistant principal is involved in all levels of student behavior and experiences a firsthand view of the school climate (Mertz, 2000; Mertz & MacNeely, 1999). The role of the assistant principal is the most common career path followed to acquire the position of school principal, thus it requires a very specific and focused level of preparation. Unfortunately, too many university master’s degree students who will fill the role of assistant principal are alarmingly unprepared, and the criticism of principal preparation programs has been well documented (Levine, 2005). Many principals believe that they learn the skills they need on the job after they have graduated from traditional university programs and feel ill-prepared by university programs that emphasize the theoretical aspects of instruction and management to the neglect of cultural, strategic, and practical leadership skills (Evans, 2003). Hess and Kelly (2005) reported that 96% of practicing principals state that they learned more from their colleagues in the field than from traditional graduate school programs, and that two thirds of principals polled believed that these programs were out of touch with the real needs of school leaders. Consequently, determining the advice that assistant principals would give to persons entering the role has particular relevance to inform the preparation that they need to lead schools. Cunningham and Sherman (2008), Levine (2005), and Simmons et al. (2007) contend that many preparation programs still rely on university professors presenting research-based content on leadership with interspersed anecdotes of practice. The Levine Report (2005) states that, “the majority of the programs that prepare school leaders range in quality from inadequate to poor. . . . At the same time, programs employ too many full-time professors who have had little or no recent experience with the practice of school administration. Just six percent of all education school faculty have been principals, and only two percent have been superintendents” (p. 5). It is not likely that you would observe similar preparation for students in a medical or a law school.

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Universities involved in school leadership preparation programs need to rebuild their curriculum and delivery systems. A report from the Wallace Foundation, “Becoming a Leader: Preparing School Principals for Today’s Schools” (Mitgang, 2008), reported that since 2000, about half of the states have developed mentoring programs and training academies for new principals and assistant principals. Principal academies are designed to prepare assistant principals and principals to succeed in their assigned roles and have been created in response to the growing concern that university preparation programs are inadequately providing graduates with the knowledge and skills necessary to lead schools. The growth of alternative preparation programs and school district academies is a result of the lack of confidence by the school districts in employing administrators who are prepared by universities. Given the increasing need for school principals and superintendents, many states have created alternative routes into administrative jobs, and they have encouraged for-profit institutions, nonprofits, and school systems themselves to launch programs to prepare administrators (Levine, 2005). Davis, Darling-Hammond, LaPointe, and Meyerson (2005) also emphasize that university preparation programs are disconnected from real-world problems in schools, and that the knowledge and skills taught are often not relevant to prepare school leaders. Furthermore, they also state that curriculum content is outdated, weak, and does not emphasize collaborative relationships with the school districts that they serve. They also found that admission standards in university preparation programs lack rigor and often attract and admit graduate candidates who become certified but are not qualified to lead schools and address complex problems. The criticisms of university preparation programs are not new. What is desperately needed, however, is not just another indict­ment, but a deeper analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of these programs and what can be done to improve them. We need a clearer picture of what is and is not known about the specific features and program attributes that can influence leaders’ beliefs and behaviors in ways that improve student learning (Davis et al., 2005). As a result of this trend, university preparation programs need to address the following concerns: the curriculum and its delivery must be evaluated and adjusted, and universities and school districts need to partner together to select and prepare school leaders (Mitgang, 2008). The current collection of courses that constitutes preparation for a career in educational leadership must give way to a relevant and challenging curriculum designed to prepare effective school leaders (Levine, 2005). Furthermore, effective school leaders in the 21st century must possess the ability to develop the systems that support the rigor and relevance of the curriculum, while at the same time developing meaningful relationships that ensure that the curriculum is implemented (Daggett, 2005).

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Interestingly, some university principal preparation programs have heeded the call for reform and have improved degree programs by including the following components (Simmons et al., 2007): 1. Master’s classes are conducted in a cohort model and taught within participating school districts. 2. Potential candidates are initially screened and identified as potential leadership candidates by their school district. 3. The training components of the school districts are integrated into the coursework of the university master’s degree in administrative leadership with principal certification. 4. The curriculum are authentic and linked directly to the day-to-day work of real schools 5. The principal certification courses are taught by professors who have had actual experience as practicing school administrators. 6. Standards-based content and internship experiences are included. Many universities have made efforts to reform their preparation programs, and the recent widespread adoption of learning-based leadership stan­dards has been a step in the right direction. Universities have made efforts to align their curriculum with the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) standards. In addition, more than 40 states have adopted the ISLLC standards, or some version of them, as a uniform foundation for principal assessment. Many have adopted the revised 2008 ISLLC standards that are grounded in behaviors linked to improving student achievement and that are intended to encourage principals to carry out needed changes in their schools. While the advent of professional standards for school leaders has been a step in the right direction, a meta-analysis of research that examined the features of leadership associated with student achievement suggests that the ISLLC standards might underemphasize some features of effective leadership practices. The focus is often a transactional or managerial approach and may overlook the manner in which leaders directly participate in curriculum design and implementa­tion; support and promote effective instructional and student assessment practices; celebrate individual and school accomplishments; and use leadership to inform the context-specific needs of teachers, students, and parents (Waters, Marzano, & McNulty, 2003; Waters & Grubb, 2004). Since the role of the assistant principal is utilized as an unofficial training ground for most principals, investigating the advice they give for new assistant principals has important implications for the needed reform in preparation programs.

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Evidence suggests that principals’ attitudes and behaviors play a large role in shap­ing how schools create a context in which students can effectively learn. There is a growing consensus regarding the knowledge, skills, and dispositions commonly found among effective principals. Facilitating and sup­porting teaching and learning and implementing strategies that focus on ongoing school improvement have become centrally important elements of both the emergent professional standards that guide administrative development and practice, and the increasingly diverse range of principal preparation and professional development pro­grams nationwide (Leithwood, Lewis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom, 2004). However, little is known about how to help principals develop the capabilities to influence how schools function or what students learn. Most empirical literature in the field tracks the structures, processes, and methods used to prepare prospective administrators and relies heavily on self-reports, individual perceptions, and personal testimonies (Murphy & Vriesenga, 2004). However, asking assistant principals to comment on the effectiveness of their preparation programs is different from asking them what advice they would give to new assistant principals. The advice that assistant principals provide goes beyond the evaluation of their preparation programs and informs us at a different level. Their voices describe the capabilities and competencies that assistant principals need to know and be able to do to effectively lead schools. Examining the perceptions of campus administrators is not new in education. Numerous researchers have produced studies that examine a variety of educational issues through the perceptual lens of school principals (Day, Leithwood, & Sammons, 2008; Gurr, Drysdale, & Mulford, 2006; Leithwood, Harris, & Hopkins, 2008). While the previously mentioned research focuses mainly on the importance of the school leader to the function of the campus, there is also prior research on principals’ perceptions that is very relevant to this study. The work by VanderJagt, Shen, and Hsieh (2001) used data from the National Center for Education Statistics’ Schools and Staffing Survey from 1993–1994, which was designed to examine the problems that public schools face and to look for trends due to the level and location of the campus by examining the perceptions of the principals. Their reasoning regarding the importance and validity of the use of the principal to diagnose and gauge school issues is as follows: “They not only know the intricate details of discipline and factors contributing to the problems faced by children, but also have a perspective on the whole organization, rather than individual classrooms” (p. 41). Kells (1991) used the perceptions of campus principals to study the factors in schools that can affect student achievement. He argued that using their perceptions was valid because principals “occupy a unique vantage point from which to perceive the influence of conditions which affect the academic achievement of their students” (p. 617).

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Examining critical advice from practicing assistant principals is part of a much larger, multiphase study of principals in the Gulf Coast region of southeast Texas conducted by a research university located in that region. The study was designed to strengthen the understanding of the factors and issues that assistant principals and principals consider critical in terms of their own administrative effectiveness. By giving voice to the principal and assistant principal, the information obtained can be used to design moreeffective principal preparation/certification programs within a university master’s degree program, along with continuing-education programs and the doctorate for current practicing school administrators. This paper reports results from Phase 1 of the study and focuses solely on the section of the survey dealing with what assistant principals believe to be the most important advice they could give to beginning administrators. Specifically, the survey question for this research asked: “There is probably a lot of advice you could give to someone preparing to become an assistant principal but if there was one single piece of advice you could give what would you advise?” The survey consisted of open-ended questions that lend themselves to the type of interpretive analysis associated with qualitative research (Yin, 2003). Participants The participants in this study consisted of 361 assistant principals from a variety of different school districts across the greater Houston area. The surveys were administered as a requirement for a master’s degree in educational administration with a principal certification program at a major research university in southeast Texas. The students in these master’s classes were expected to complete four surveys as part of their course requirements. Different sets of students were tasked with surveying assistant principals, which leads to some repetition in participants, however, these were used to validate the reliability of the survey instrument. The participants included 235 female and 105 male assistant principals who were interviewed by the students in the master’s classes. The ethnic breakdown of the group was 51% Caucasian, 24% African American, 18% Hispanic, 3% Asian, 2% Native American, and 3% who did not answer. These assistant principals worked at all levels of schooling: 153 elementary, 96 middle, and 90 high schools. The participants reported the state accountability ratings for their campuses as follows: 35 Exemplary, 101 Recognized, 190 Acceptable, and 20 Unacceptable. Due to the fact that 38 participants did not answer, the ratings of their campuses will be projected by looking at the last 3 years of available ratings. The schools were predominantly urban (190), followed by suburban (160), and rural (13). The schools were

Critical Advice from Practicing Assistant Principals    41

mainly low income, ranging from 54% of the suburban students to 78% of the urban students qualifying for the federal free and reduced price lunch program. In some cases, the numbers do not add up to 361 because some people did not identify a certain demographic. Instrument This study focuses on responses to one question regarding the advice that assistant principals would give to someone preparing to become an assistant principal. The larger survey instrument addressed a variety of facets of the principalship. The overall survey instrument included 115 items, 22 of which dealt with the principals’ background and school demographics, 62 of which were Likert-scaled items and 31 of which were open-ended questions requiring in-depth, descriptive answers. The survey instrument was initially developed to provide clinical experience for students in the master’s of education program. The use of an open-ended survey/questionnaire provided a uniform framework for these students to have meaningful interaction with principals. A group of principals developed the initial set of topics and specific questions that they believed focused on critical areas of their profession. It is important to note that the entirety of the present study is based on the use of archival data. While considered part of phase one of the Principal as Successful Leader Project (Waxman, MacNeil, & Lee, 2008), the present study was undertaken after the principal surveys and cognitive interviews were completed. Therefore, the following discussion of the data-collection procedures is based on interviews with the two university professors who designed the instrument, constructed all of the questions, and oversaw the actual data-collection process. Due to the length and complexity of the overall survey instrument, it was clear to those designing the study that face-to-face interviews were needed in order to obtain revealing, informative answers to the numerous open-ended questions. Simply mailing out the instrument and expecting busy school principals to invest the time needed to complete the detailed survey on their own was unrealistic. In addition, both the interviewer and the respondent needed to have a degree of commitment to the process in order to continue obtaining quality answers through the end of the survey. Under these circumstances, the researchers chose to use a cognitive interview protocol to administer the survey. Although the use of cognitive interviews was originally developed as a means for piloting new survey instruments and identifying potential problems with the wording of questions, the utility of the approach has been extended to other applications in survey research (Desimone & Le Floch, 2004; Willis, 2005). Willis (2005) discusses two specific types of cognitive interview techniques: the think-aloud approach and verbal probing. In the think-aloud

42    S. D. BUSCH, A. J. MacNEIL, and M. S. BARANIUK

approach, the interviewer poses a pre-scripted question and then simply records the subject’s response in detail. This technique tends to be used most frequently for evaluating the validity of survey questions in their early stage of development. Verbal probing involves a more interactive dialogue between the interviewer and subject, with the interviewer asking follow-up questions to obtain additional details and/or clarifications about responses. Typical prompts used in verbal probing are simple exhortations such as “explain” and “tell me more about . . .” (Willis, 2005). The benefit of using cognitive interviewing, as opposed to a standard survey technique, is that the resulting data contains the types of insights typically afforded by qualitative case studies and interviews, yet still retains the quantitative characteristics of the traditional survey (Willis, 2005). While time-consuming to administer, the trade-off is a best-of-both-worlds product in the end. An added benefit of the cognitive interview approach is that it allows interviewers to verify that the individual being interviewed has a similar understanding of each question’s intent and that no major aspects of the item are omitted, thereby addressing two general criticisms of the validity and reliability of survey research in general (Desimone & Le Floch, 2004). Methods The cognitive interview protocol was implemented in this study by having students in the university’s master’s degree program in educational leadership administer the survey. One of the classes (a core course required for the MEd and for Texas principal certification) was designated to serve as the data-collection vehicle, and students in that class were given the assignment of administering the survey to a minimum of four principals. Class time was spent familiarizing the students with the survey instrument and the overall goals of the study. In addition, students were trained in both traditional survey and cognitive interview techniques prior to their fieldwork in contacting subjects. A portion of each student’s grade in the class was based on their satisfactory completion of the required number of surveys, thereby helping insure the commitment of the individuals charged with administering the survey. The students were allowed to choose which principals they would interview, presumably selecting administrators in the same district they worked in. This element of a personal/professional connection in turn helped insure the principals’ commitment by tapping into their role in mentoring and developing future principals. The survey was administered over a period of 18 months, with different groups of graduate students administering the survey each semester during that time period. As a result of the selection technique used, there were numerous instances when the same assistant principal responded to the sur-

Critical Advice from Practicing Assistant Principals    43

vey more than once. This phenomenon can be attributed to both the ability of the graduate students to choose which assistant principals they wanted to interview, as well as the mentoring/professional-relationship nature of the assistant principals’ participation in the study. A total of 178 duplicate survey responses were deleted from the dataset used in this paper, resulting in the final sample set of 361 assistant principals. This unintended consequence of obtaining large numbers of duplicates actually adds value to the study. First, it allowed the researchers to establish the test-retest validity of the assistant principals’ responses over multiple survey administrations. Second, and even more importantly, given the large numbers of interviewers involved in carrying out this study, it established instrument reliability in accurately capturing the views of the respondents, independent of who administered the survey. While minor variations in wording or phraseology were noted, no incidents were found where an assistant principal’s opinion changed from one survey administration to another. In all instances where an assistant principal was interviewed more than once, only the first response was retained in the final dataset. All subsequent responses were analyzed for internal consistency but omitted from the final data. The open-ended nature of the survey questions was intended to give assistant principals the most freedom and flexibility in their responses. As a result, one of the first steps in working with the data was to identify, categorize, and code the themes that emerged among responses. The coding and interpretation of the data from this section (advice from assistant principals) of the overall study was completed by the researchers. Both are university professors of educational administration and former school principals. Together they reviewed all of the responses from assistant principals and sorted them into the three categories of knowledge, skills, and attributes. Within these three major categories, subcategories were then identified. The varied responses were grouped according to their commonalities, thereby leading to useful insights regarding these assistant principals’ collective voices and beliefs regarding the one piece of advice that they would give to a person contemplating becoming an assistant principal. A risk of using this approach is that the coding might be influenced by the researcher’s own opinions and biases rather than objectively reflecting the views and intents of the respondent (Gall, Gall, & Borg, 2003). However, over the 18-month datacollection period, a total of 99 graduate students administered the survey and conducted the cognitive interviews used in this study. The sheer number of students involved in that process served as an effective safeguard against interviewer bias. The large number of interviewers and the relatively narrow range of responses indicate a high degree of data reliability. Once the issues of validity and reliability had been addressed, the researchers addressed certain issues related to data integrity. A small num-

44    S. D. BUSCH, A. J. MacNEIL, and M. S. BARANIUK

ber of responses had one or more missing pieces of information. In the instances where the missing information was readily available in the public domain (such as the school’s state accountability rating or the name of the school district that the school was located in), the missing data was obtained and added to the dataset. In total, the accountability rating was obtained for five schools. This process involved looking up each school’s rating for 2004, 2005, and 2006 (the years that could possibly have constituted the most recent rating during the time frame when the interviews were conducted). If the same rating was given in all 3 years, that rating was used. In the single instance where the rating changed during that 3-year time frame, the most frequently earned rating was used. The categories of knowledge, skills, and attributes were also analyzed, seeking possible differences by gender, school level, school accountability rating, and student demographics of the schools. The generalizability of the study is enhanced by the relatively large number of participants (Gall et al, 2003), their heterogeneous characteristics, and their geographic dispersion across a wide section of the southeast Texas region. Although the study was initiated at a large urban research university, the use of 99 different interviewers resulted in a broad and diverse sample. Private and charter schools and schools in rural settings are underrepresented in the sample. As a result, the findings of this study may not be applicable to other private, charter, and rural schools. However, the results of this study can be reasonably generalized to urban and suburban public schools in southeast Texas at all levels—elementary, middle, and high schools—since each of these categories had large representation in the sample. Basic descriptive statistics were provided for each of the categories of knowledge, skills and attributes. An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was executed to detect any differences among any of the groups. The frequencies of specific responses to the single piece of advice within each category were also reported. A multinomial logistic regression was used to measure the association between KSA and the variable used to define the student demographic (percentage of free and reduced price lunch). Results The overall summary of assistant principal responses to the question, “There is probably a lot of advice you could give to someone preparing to become a school assistant principal; but if there was one single piece of advice you could give, what would you advise?” are located in Table 3.1. The analysis of archival data by the researchers revealed advice that they characterized by the categories of knowledge, skills, and attributes. Almost one half, or 42.66%, of the assistant principals responding stated that knowledge related to the role was the most important advice that they would

Critical Advice from Practicing Assistant Principals    45 Table 3.1  Frequency of Responses from Assistant Principals on the One Single Piece of Advice they Provided Category

Frequency

Percentage

Cum Percentage

Knowledge Skills Attributes

154 134 73

42.66 37.12 20.22

42.77 79.78 100.00

Total

361

100.00

give. Next, 37.12% reported advice that was categorized as skill based. Only 20.22% of respondents reported advice that was related to their personal attributes. Over two thirds, or 79.78%, of the advice that assistant principals reported was related to the knowledge and skills needed to effectively manage the role. The categories of knowledge, skills, and attributes were also analyzed seeking possible differences by gender, school level, school accountability rating, and student demographics of the schools. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) yielded no statistical significance among any of the groups examined and the assistant principal’s advice. Specifically, there were no differences by gender, school level, or school accountability. The multinomial logistic regression model did not show a statistically significant association between the three levels by student demographics as defined by free and reduced price lunch percentage. Summary of Knowledge Advice Responses A total of 154 (42.66%) assistant principals provided advice that was categorized as knowledge based as follows: preparation, difficult job, decisions, students, and people. The frequencies of the responses are reported in Table 3.2. Table 3.2  Frequency of Responses from Assistant Principals on the One Single Piece of Advice Characterized as Knowledge Category Preparation Difficult Job Decisions Students People Total

Frequency

Percentage

Cum Percentage

65 38 22 18 11

42.21 24.68 14.29 11.69 7.14

42.21 66.89 81.17 92.87 100.00

154

100.00

46    S. D. BUSCH, A. J. MacNEIL, and M. S. BARANIUK

Preparation In all, 42.21% (65 responses) of assistant principals reported knowledgebased advice that was categorized as “preparation” The preparation advice focused heavily on learning curriculum and instruction to assist and support teachers, asking questions and being a lifelong learner, as well as learning from a mentor who has experience in the field. The following are some examples of their responses regarding preparation: “Do and learn everything you can. Know curriculum inside out. Know your campus data, and how to use it to your advantage, and learn everything you can about the managerial side—budget, personnel etc.” “Shadow someone. Regardless of graduate classes, every day, you can learn something. Talk to other principal; seek their advice. Talk to them. Get a friend-mentor, who is an administrator.” “Learn as much as you can about the role and always be willing to ask questions.”

Difficult Job Overall, 24.68% (38 responses) of assistant principals reported knowledge-based advice that was categorized as “difficult job.” The “difficult job” advice focused on advice that encouraged new assistant principals to be aware of the complexity of this demanding role. Specifically, comments centered on the excessive amount of time spent each week, the need for balance and attention to personal health, and the need to remember what it is like to be a classroom teacher, as evidenced by the following statements: “Take care of yourself so you do not burn out.” “Take care of your health; you need to be healthy and energized to do this job.” “Time, it takes a lot time; know that your time is not your own.” “Never forget what it is like to be in the classroom!”

Decisions A total of 14.29% (22 responses) of assistant principals reported knowledge-based advice that was categorized as “decisions.” The “decisions” ad-

Critical Advice from Practicing Assistant Principals    47

vice focused on responses that encouraged new assistant principals to take the needed time to reflect before making decisions, to use wisdom and ethics, to keep the focus of decisions on the needs of the school, to find the facts before judging, and realize that the answers to every dilemma are not always apparent, as evidenced by the following statements: “Every day you are faced with choices; make the right choices that will benefit the school all together and not just one person.” “Find the facts before making assumptions.” “Take the time to think rationally through a decision before taking action.” “Use wisdom in making decisions.” “You don’t always have to have an answer for someone; no one knows the answers for every question when it is asked.” “When making a decision, decide whether or not the decision conflicts with your ethics.”

Kids and People The remaining 29 responses (18.83%) that assistant principals categorized as preparation were “kids” and “people.” This advice focused on keeping the kids first and treating people (especially teachers) with respect and support, as illustrated by the following comments: “Teachers are the most important factor in student achievement that you will ever have any control over, so do whatever you can to guide and support them.” “Do what is best for the kids.” “Have a heart for the kids.” “Remember that teachers and parents can help you achieve your goals. Use them.”

Summary of Skills Advice Responses In all, 134 (37.12%) assistant principals provided advice that was categorized as skills based, as follows: relationships, listening, flexibility, communication, high expectations, and organization. The frequencies of the responses are reported in Table 3.3.

48    S. D. BUSCH, A. J. MacNEIL, and M. S. BARANIUK Table 3.3  Frequency of Responses from Assistant Principals on the One Single Piece of Advice Characterized as Skills Category Relationships Listening Flexible Communication High Expectations Organization Total

Frequency

Percentage

Cum Percentage

33 31 26 22 12 10

24.63 23.13 19.40 16.42 8.96 7.46

24.63 47.76 67.16 83.58 92.54 100.00

134

100.00

Relationships Overall, 24.63% (33 responses) of assistant principals reported skillsbased advice that was categorized as “relationships.” The skills advice focused on developing caring relationships with staff members; being professional, consistent, and fair; having a servant perspective; developing rapport; and providing support. The following are some examples of their responses regarding relationships: “Develop rapport with teachers that is professional, but don’t be afraid to show them that you care. Be consistent in your treatment of all staff members.” “Consider yourself, above all things, a servant to everyone.” “Get in the classroom and make sure that the teachers are supported.”

Listening A total of 23.13% (31 responses) of assistant principals reported skillsbased advice that was categorized as “listening.” The skills advice focused on being open minded and listening to the concerns of staff members as well as listening to the advice from mentors. The following are some examples of their responses regarding listening: “Listen.” “Be a good listener.” “Respect the people you deal with every day and take the time to really listen to them.”

Critical Advice from Practicing Assistant Principals    49 “You must listen. A lot of times people want to come in and talk. They want to be heard.” “Listen, listen, listen, listen to what your mentor or other professionals that you trust have to say. You can avoid making some of their mistakes.”

Flexible In all, 19.40% (26 responses) of assistant principals reported skills-based advice that was categorized as “flexible.” The skills advice focused on developing flexible attitudes and behaviors that allow the assistant principals to be open minded and a willingness to respectfully consider the views of others. The following are some examples of their responses regarding being flexible: “Be open and flexible, listen to others, learn to distinguish what issues are really important and take care of them; put people first.” “Be flexible.” “Be flexible, always be willing to learn, and know when it’s OK to admit you are wrong.”

Communication In sum, 16.42% (22 responses) of assistant principals reported skillsbased advice that was categorized as “communication.” The skills advice focused on communication that developed structures to communicate, seeking the views of others, as well as accessibility. The following are some examples of their responses regarding communication: “Be a good communicator.” “Learn all that you can from those who have experience, and never be afraid to ask a question.” “Maintain strong lines of communication at all times.” “You should always have open communication with your teachers and ask and value their opinions.” “Be accessible.”

High Expectations and Organization A total of 16.42% (22 responses) of assistant principals reported skillsbased advice that was categorized as “high expectations and organization.”

50    S. D. BUSCH, A. J. MacNEIL, and M. S. BARANIUK

The skills advice focused on expectations for how to treat and empower people as well as traditional advice for organizational structures. The following are some examples of their responses regarding high expectations and organization: “Be genuine about wanting to make a difference.” “You must have a passion for wanting to change behavior.” “Empowering is more effective that delegating; have the course to hold people accountable.” “Do everything you can to create an atmosphere at school where teachers want to teach, students want to learn, and parents feel like valued partners.” “Get organized.” “You should always follow through with what you said you would do.” “Delegate.” “Time management; prioritize your day.” “Keep good records.”

Summary of Personal Attributes Advice Responses In all, 73 (20.22%) assistant principals provided advice that was categorized as personal attributes as follows: virtue and trust, positive, not taking things personally, and patience. The frequencies are reported in Table 3.4. Virtue and Trust Overall, 43.84% (32 responses) of assistant principals reported attributes-based advice that was categorized as “virtue and trust.” The virtue and trust advice focused on attributes that exemplified authenticity, empathy, Table 3.4  Frequency of Responses from Assistant Principals on the One Single Piece of Advice Characterized as Attributes Category

Frequency

Percentage

Cum Percentage

Virtue and Trust Positive Not personal Patient

32 18 16 7

43.84 24.66 21.92 9.58

43.84 68.50 90.42 100.00

Total

73

100.00

Critical Advice from Practicing Assistant Principals    51

understanding, loyalty, and the development of trust. The following are some examples of their responses regarding “virtue and trust”: “Be professional while developing trusting relationships with teachers.” “Remember, always remember, you were once a there (as a teacher) and remember how you wanted to be helped with a problem. Just live by the golden rule.” “Be understanding and loyal.” “Be yourself.” “Temper them with kindness.” “Be true to yourself and your beliefs about what is best for kids.”

Positive A total of 24.66% (18 responses) of assistant principals reported attributes-based advice that was categorized as “positive.” The “positive” advice focused on attributes that exemplified attitudes and behaviors that exemplified a positive and optimistic outlook on life and the work of an assistant principal. The following are some examples of their responses regarding “positive”: “Be positive.” “Be passionate.” “Love what you do.” “Be optimistic.” “Treat others how you want to be treated.”

Not Personal In sum, 16.44% (12 responses) of assistant principals reported attributesbased advice that was categorized as “not personal.” The “not personal” advice focused on attributes that exemplified the ability to not personalize the stresses and pressure of the role of assistant principal. The following are some examples of their responses regarding “not personal”: “Leave work at work.” “Don’t sweat the small stuff.”

52    S. D. BUSCH, A. J. MacNEIL, and M. S. BARANIUK “Don’t take anything personally.” “Thick skinned and strong.” “It’s not about you!” “Don’t beat yourself up.” “Don’t take things personally. You will get cussed at, etc. People act crazy sometimes because they are emotional.”

Patient Only 7 responses (9.59%) of assistant principals reported attributes-based advice that was categorized as “patient.” The “patient” advice focused on attributes that exemplified the ability to take time and not overreact to events. The following are some examples of their responses regarding “patient”: “Be patient.” “Time heals all.” “Patience and humility.” “Slow to react.”

Conclusions and Recommendations The voices of assistant principals are captured in the advice that they give to those seeking to fill the role of assistant principal. Their advice relevantly informs university preparation programs that seek to improve the preparation of assistant principals. From the responses of 361 practicing assistant principals, the researchers organized their advice into three categories: knowledge, skills, and attributes. The advice assistant principals shared addressed key aspects of the information that suggested as important to be prepared as well as the behaviors or skills that they needed, and the dispositions or attributes that are crucial to a successful experience as an assistant principal. First, the category of knowledge contained responses that were described as preparation, difficult job, decisions, kids, and people. The preparation advice focused heavily on learning curriculum and instruction to assist and support teachers, asking questions, being a lifelong learner, and learning from a mentor who has experience in the field. In addition, advice further informed potential assistant principals that the job is difficult and time-consuming and requires effective decision making. The knowledge needed to work well with students and people, and place their needs first is also advised.

Critical Advice from Practicing Assistant Principals    53

Next, the category of skills contained responses that were described as relationships, listening, flexible, communication, high expectations, and organization. The skills advice focused on developing caring relationships with staff members; being professional, consistent, and fair; having a servant perspective; developing rapport; and providing support. In addition, assistant principals were advised to be able to listen well, be open and flexible, communicate effectively, and were given advice that focused on expectations for how to treat and empower people as well as traditional advice for organizational effectiveness. Finally, the category of attributes contained advice that encouraged potential assistant principals to develop traits that engender trust and exemplify a positive attitude, and to patiently face the difficulties of the job while not taking things personally. Wahlstrom, Louis, Leithwood, and Anderson (2010) have summarized the key competencies needed to effectively lead schools as follows: setting directions, developing people, redesigning the organization, and managing the instructional program. Their research has concluded that the competencies needed to lead successful schools where students achieve surround the leader’s ability to impact the attitudes and direction of the school, build healthy relationships and grow people, develop cultures and climate in organizations that are trusting, and focus on curriculum and instruction. These key competencies are closely aligned with the knowledge, skills, and attributes advised by the assistant principals in this study. The literature suggests that university master’s degree programs are not providing the appropriate preparation for assistant principals (Cunningham & Sherman, 2008; Levine, 2005; Simmons et al., 2007). Since the research suggests that many assistant principals feel unprepared for the role (Levine, 2005), listening to the voices of practicing assistant principals regarding the advice that they give to new candidates in the role provides valuable feedback that can be used to improve preparation programs. Utilizing the categories of knowledge, skills, and attributes that represent the advice from assistant principals is a good place to start in restructuring the manner in which we prepare school leaders. The use of cognitive interviews that address the notion of advice is relatively unique to the literature. Asking advice from assistant principals allows the participant to express concerns on a variety of issues and is more open-ended than seeking perceptions around a specific problem or question. The analysis of this data provides interesting views of what assistant principals believe to be critical in order to achieve effectiveness in the role. Similar research usually seeks assistant principals’ perceptions in the context of a certain construct. For example, Militello, Fusarelli, Alsbury, and Warren (2010) asked assistant principals and principals to rank McREL responsibility concourse statements. In this case, assistant principals were asked to rank a set of existing components. No doubt, the results are valu-

54    S. D. BUSCH, A. J. MacNEIL, and M. S. BARANIUK

able, however, they are different than the voices learned from the cognitive interview techniques used in the current study in that they do not represent the initial view of the assistant principal regarding an issue or concern. The advice from assistant principals is aligned closely with the notion of transformational leadership (Bass, 1997; Leithwood et al., 2004) and the work of Bennis and Nanus (1985), who categorized managers as those who “do the thing right” and leaders as those who “do the right thing.” The focus of the advice from assistant principals centers on doing the right thing by addressing successful interactions with people and organizing systems that further the goals and values of the school. The curricula of most educational leadership programs focus on management frameworks and leadership theory, with a strong emphasis on law, finance, research, policy, and supervision The findings of this study suggest that leadership preparation programs need to focus on and include the knowledge, skills, and attributes (KSAs) required for a successful educational leader. According to the voices of assistant principals from this study, the knowledge base should emphasize curriculum and instruction, understanding the complexity and demands of the job of the assistant principal, understanding how to make good decisions based on appropriate reflection, and the knowledge of how to support students and teachers. Leadership preparation programs also need to ensure that the skills of listening, developing appropriate relationships through rapport and respect, as well as focusing on communication is included in the curriculum. In addition, the skills of operationalizing the mission of the school by being accessible and flexible should be an important part of the instructional program. Finally, leadership preparation programs need to focus on social justice and students demonstrating the attributes of being trustworthy, positive, patient, and not taking things personally. These attributes contribute to the assistant principal’s ability to further the mission and goals of the school, while developing positive trusting relationships that create the goodwill needed to develop the school community as an effective learning environment. The results of this study have informed the practice of the university where the research was completed through the development and pilot implementation of a task force to redesign the master’s degree assistant principal preparation program. The task force is composed of both university and school practitioner representatives who are focusing on the knowledge, skills, and attributes that assistant principals need to successfully perform the job. Through the collaboration between the university and school districts, aspiring assistant principal candidates will be identified and recommended by school representatives and subsequently admitted into the preparation program.

Critical Advice from Practicing Assistant Principals    55

Finally, taking into account the advice from assistant principals, the redesign of the master’s degree program would also include a 9-hour internship that would provide a building principal as a mentor and allow assistant principal candidates the opportunity to experience the role in all its complexities. Candidates would also receive the support that is needed to gain the confidence needed to effectively perform in the role of assistant principal. The internship would give aspiring assistant principals the knowledge and experience of the difficulties of the role and help them understand that it is a demanding and often time-taxing job. We owe them nothing less to adequately prepare them. References Bass, B. M. (1997). Does the transactional-transformational leadership paradigm transcend organizational and national boundaries? American Psychologist, 52, 130–139. Bennis, W., & Nanus, B. (1985). Leaders: The strategies for taking charge. New York: Harper Collins. Buckner, K., & Jones, L. (1990, January 1). In search of strong administrators: A worthy investment. NASSP Bulletin, 74(529), 20–25. Cunningham, W. & Sherman, W. (2008). Effective internships: Building bridges between theory and practice. [Electronic version]. The Educational Forum, 72, 308–318. Daggett, W. (2005). Achieving academic excellence through rigor and relevance. International Center for Leadership in Education. Retrieved February 22, 2011, from http://www.leadered.com/white_papers.html Davis, S., Darling-Hammond, L., LaPointe, M., & Meyerson, D. (2005). School leadership study: Developing successful principals (Review of Research). Stanford, CA: Stanford University, Stanford Educational Leadership Institute. Day, C., Leithwood, K., & Sammons, P. (2008). What we have learned, what we need to know more about. School Leadership & Management, 28, 83–96. Desimone, L. M., & Le Floch, K. C. (2004). Are we asking the right questions? Using cognitive interviews to improve surveys in education research. Educational Evaluation & Policy Analysis, 26, 1–22. Evans, D. J. (2003). A practical look at school leadership. Seattle, WA: Center on Reinventing Public Education. Gall, M. D., Gall, J. P., & Borg, W. R. (2003). Educational research: An introduction (7th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Gerke, W. (2004, November). More than a disciplinarian. Principal Leadership, 5(3), 39–41. Gurr, D., Drysdale, L., & Mulford, B. (2006). Models of successful principal leadership. School Leadership and Management, 26(4), 371–395. Hess, F., & Kelly, A. (2005, June 1). The accidental principal: What doesn’t get taught at ed schools? Education Next, 5(3), 34–40.

56    S. D. BUSCH, A. J. MacNEIL, and M. S. BARANIUK Kells, R. (1991). Principals’ perceptions of factors affecting student achievement. Education, 113(4), 617–619. Kelly, G. (1987, October). The assistant principal as a training ground for the principalship. NASSP Bulletin, 71(501), 13–20. Leithwood, K., Harris, A., & Hopkins, D. (2008). Seven strong claims about effective school leadership. School Leadership and Management, 28(1), 27–42. Leithwood, K., Louis, K. S., Anderson, S., & Wahlstrom, K. (2004). How leadership influences student learning. New York: Wallace Foundation.

Levine, A. (2005). Educating school leaders. New York: The Education School Project.

Mertz, N. T. (2000, November). Contextualizing the position of assistant principal. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the University Council for Educational Administration, Albuquerque, NM. Mertz, N. T., & MacNeely, S. R. (1999, April). Through the looking glass: An up front and personal look at the world of the assistant principal. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association. Montreal, Quebec. Militello, M., Fusarellli, B., Alsbury, T., & Warren, T. (2010, October). We do what we’re told: How current assistant principals practice leadership and how they wish they could. Paper presented at the annual Convention of the University Council for Educational Administration, Anaheim, CA. Mitgang, L. (2008, June). Becoming a leader: Preparing principals for today’s schools. New York: Wallace Foundation. Murphy, J., & Vriesenga, M. (2004). Research on preparation programs in educational administration: An analysis (monograph). Columbia: University of MissouriColumbia, University Council for Educational Administration. Scoggins, A. J., & Bishop, H. L. (1993). A review of the literature regarding the roles and responsibilities of the assistant principal. New Orleans, LA: Mid-South Educational Research Organization. Simmons, J., Grogan, M., Preis, S., Matthews, K., Anderson, S., Wallis, B., & Jackson, A. (2007, September). Preparing first-time leaders for an urban public school district: An action research study for a collaborative district-university partnership. [Electronic version]. Journal of School Leadership, 17(5), 540–569. VanderJagt, D., Shen, J., & Hsieh, C. (2001). Elementary and secondary public school principals’ perceptions of school problems. Educational Research Quarterly, 25(2), 39–51. Wahlstrom, K., Louis, K., Leithwood, K., & Anderson, S. (2010). Learning from leadership: Investigating the links to improved student learning. Final report of research to the Wallace Foundation, New York. Waters, J. T., Marzano, R. J., & McNulty, B. A. (2003). Balanced leadership: What 30 years of research tells us about the effect of leadership on students achievement. Aurora, CO: Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning. Waters, T., & Grubb, S. (2004). The leadership we need: Using research to strengthen the use of standards for administrator preparation and licensure programs. Aurora, CO: Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning. Waxman, H., Lee, Y. H., & MacNeil, A. J. (2008). Principals’ strategies for successfully closing the achievement gap. Academic Leadership, 6(3), 1–5.

Critical Advice from Practicing Assistant Principals    57 Willis, G. B. (2005). Cognitive interviewing: A tool for improving questionnaire design. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Yin, R. K. (2003). Case study research: Design and methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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Chapter 4

Assistant Principals1 in Hong Kong Their Responsibility, Role Alignments, and Job Satisfaction Paula Kwan and Allan Walker The Hong Kong Institute of Education

Introduction The position of assistant principal emerged in response to unprecedented growth in student enrollment in schools and concurrent increases in principal responsibilities (Mertz, 2006). Given that its creation owes more to expediency than careful planning, the position is characterized by role ambiguity, role conflict, and role overload (Marshall, 1992). A review of the educational leadership literature reveals that assistant principalship is less attended to when compared with the number of in-depth studies that have been conducted on principalship. Among the limited number of studies on assistant principals, there are two major themes. The first theme examines the misalignment between the ideal roles and responsibilities that assistant principals consider important Examining the Assistant Principalship, pages 59–79 Copyright © 2012 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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60   P. KWAN and A. WALKER

to the success of their school and the tasks they actually undertake in schools (e.g., Cranston, Tromans, & Reugebrink, 2004; Garrett & McGeachie, 1999; Glanz, 2004; Harvey, 1994; Hausman, Nebeker, McCreary, & Donaldson, 2002; Norton & Kriekard, 1987). The other focuses on assistant principals’ job satisfaction and their desire for principalships (e.g., Marshall & Hooley, 2006; Sutter, 1996). Although the two themes are interrelated, they have been considered separately in previous studies. In this study, we aim to integrate the two themes. The study reported in this chapter details a large-scale study of vice-principals in Hong Kong that aimed to examine responsibility alignments. It went further to investigate the relationship between this gap and assistant principals’ job satisfaction, taking into consideration their personal demographic background variables and school variables. When viewed together, the findings not only provide valuable insights into the work lives of assistant principals but also provide a deeper understanding of the factors contributing to greater job satisfaction. This chapter has five main sections. The first section discusses relevant literature and outlines the context of the study. The second section explains the methodology employed. The third section explains and discusses the processes used to analyze the data in the study, which include a description of the sequential regression analysis and an examination of the interaction effect of two personal characteristics of assistant principals (their desire for principalships and age) on job satisfaction. The fourth section discusses the research findings, and the concluding section summarizes the results and discusses their implications for policymakers and practitioners. Review of the Related Literature Assistant principals were traditionally considered as “caretakers” (Koru, 1993, p. 68) and “daily operations managers” (Porter, 1996, p. 25). Marshall and Hooley (2006) observed that the tasks undertaken by assistant principals in schools are normally assigned at the discretion of principals, and as a result, assistant principals often lack specific job descriptions. Celikten (2001) considered the overloading of assistant principals with too many unplanned school functions as one of the major obstacles against preparing assistant principals for leadership roles with greater responsibility. Nickerson and Rissmann-Joyce (1991) further maintained that this lack of role definition created a feeling of frustration among assistant principals. Given that the tasks undertaken by principals have expanded in the wake of widespread educational reforms, the number of responsibilities assistant principals have has also proliferated. Such changes prompted researchers to become interested in the increased delegation of responsibility to as-

Assistant Principals in Hong Kong    61

sistant principals. Webb and Vulliamy (1995), for instance, reported four types of activities that dominated assistant principals’ work schedules: class teaching, curriculum leadership, general managerial responsibility delegated by the principal, and staff development and pastoral support. Mertz (2000, 2006) asserted that assistant principals should be involved in managerial duties such as supporting new teachers, external liaison and school improvement projects, in addition to student discipline. In a more recent study involving 204 assistant principals, Cranston et al. (2004) identified seven major roles for assistant principals in schools: strategic leadership, education/curriculum leadership, management/administration, student issues, parent/community issues, staffing issues, and operational issues. Hausman et al.’s (2002) study found that there were some areas of responsibility—student management, interacting with the education hierarchy, and personnel management—that occupied more of assistant principals’ time than others. In their study, female respondents were found to spend more time on instructional leadership, personnel management, and public relations activities compared with their male counterparts. The authors suggested that women in leadership roles act in more personalized, democratic, and participative ways. Moreover, less experienced vice-principals were found to spend less time on curriculum issues than those with more teaching experience. There were mixed feelings among assistant principals toward the proliferation of their responsibilities (Webb & Vulliamy, 1996). Harris, Muijs, and Crawford (2003) asserted that the expanded responsibilities not only placed additional time pressures on assistant principals but also frustrated those who were traditionally preoccupied with routine maintenance activities who felt that they had insufficient training or experience to effectively carry out the extended list of tasks. The expansion of responsibilities appears to be a double-edged sword, however. Kaplan and Owings (1999) maintained that increased reform-driven expectations of shared leadership had actually increased the job satisfaction of assistant principals and had provided them with additional opportunities for professional enrichment. Based on a study of 130 assistant principals, Chan, Webb, and Bowen (2003) reported that the involvement of assistant principals in management functions was a major factor that determined whether they aspired to become principals. The different perceptions held by assistant principals toward enhanced responsibilities may be explained by the notion of disparity in their role expectations and the actual assumption of responsibilities. Norton and Kriekard (1987) identified discrepancies between the roles and duties that were considered important by assistant principals and those that were actually performed on a daily basis. Based on an open-ended survey of 164 assistant principals, Glanz (2004) reported that, although respondents indicat-

62   P. KWAN and A. WALKER

ed that teacher training, staff development, and curriculum development were the three most important duties that should take up most of their time, in reality most of their time was taken up disciplining students, undertaking lunch duties, and school scheduling. Similarly, Garrett and McGeachie (1999) highlighted the gap between the “rhetoric of a meaningful role and the actual practice of the role” (p. 75) of assistant principal. Likewise, Cranston et al. (2004) reported a clear distinction between the time that assistant principals spent on tasks and the areas in which they believed that they should be spending their time. The respondents suggested that strategic leadership was of vital importance to the success of their schools, yet were only very peripherally involved in this area. The researchers concluded, “the closer the real and ideal roles were aligned, the higher the level of satisfaction” (p. 239). Marshall and Hooley (2006) proposed linking assistant principal job satisfaction to career aspirations, maintaining that “satisfied” assistant principals were more likely to aspire to principalships, whereas those experiencing less job satisfaction were more likely to wish to remain in their present role. The authors identified six categories of assistant principals based on their career orientations: the upwardly mobile assistant principal, the career assistant principal, the plateaued assistant principal, the shafted assistant principal, the assistant principal who considers leaving, and the downwardly mobile administrator. Among these six groups, only upwardly mobile assistant principals wanted to become principals; none of the others aspired to principalships for both voluntary and involuntary reasons. This group of assistant principals were also found to have better ways of managing challenges and achieving higher levels of job satisfaction. The foregoing discussion suggests that gaps exist in the responsibilities that assistant principals consider important to their schools and those they actually undertake, and that the size of the gaps is different among groups of assistant principals with different demographic backgrounds. Furthermore, the responsibility gaps are linked by some researchers to the levels of job satisfaction experienced by assistant principals. Although the cited studies are informative, they tend to be primarily descriptive and predominantly drawn from studies based in U.S. schools. This chapter reports on our attempt to explore the responsibility roles of assistant principals in Hong Kong and to examine the effects of job responsibility gaps on levels of job satisfaction there. Specifically, the study attempted to address the following research questions: 1. What general responsibilities do assistant principals in Hong Kong secondary schools undertake?

Assistant Principals in Hong Kong    63

2. Is there a gap between their ideal responsibilities pertaining to the roles of assistant principals and the actual responsibilities they perform? 3. Is there a relationship between responsibility gap and level of job satisfaction among assistant principals after taking into consideration the effects of personal and school variables? 4. Is there an interaction effect between personal and school variables on the levels of job satisfaction for assistant principals? Context of Study This study, being conducted in Hong Kong, was grounded in a specific context. Therefore, a brief description of the local school system is necessary to frame the study, although space prevents a comprehensive analysis. There are four main types of secondary schools in Hong Kong: government; aided; direct subsidized scheme (DSS); and private, under different financial and administrative modes of operation. All except private schools are supported by government money. Aided schools comprise the great majority of schools, accounting for 85%, and private schools the minority, accounting for about 2%. Government schools and DSS schools account for an equal share of the remaining. Aided schools are run by school-sponsoring bodies (SSBs) such as religious organizations. There are approximately 320 SSBs, which run about 1,300 schools in both primary and secondary sectors. They enjoy a relatively higher degree of autonomy than government schools, even though they are fully funded by public money. DSS schools are funded by the government but are permitted to charge fees and have greater freedom in selecting students, language of instruction (e.g., Cantonese, English), hiring, and remunerating staff, as well as curricular freedom. Given that there is only a small number of private schools in Hong Kong and that both DSS and private schools enjoy the same degree of flexibility in terms of school management and curriculum design, these were grouped together with DSS schools in the analysis. Schools in Hong Kong are classified into three bands based on entering students’ prior academic achievement. Band 1 schools cater to the highest achieving one third of students, Band 2 the middle third, and Band 3 the bottom third. In 1991, in line with international educational reform trends, the Hong Kong government launched the School Management Initiatives, which mirrored the school-based management model. The initiatives were meant to cut bureaucratic control, increase decentralization, and increase accountability. Under school-based management, schools are expected to strategically formulate their school goals and effectively prioritize the allocation of re-

64   P. KWAN and A. WALKER

sources. A large number of variously focused initiatives have been introduced in Hong Kong since the mid-1990s. Indicative of the more influential of these reforms are the senior secondary school curriculum (making general studies a compulsory subject) and the 4-year university curriculum (with the corresponding shortening of secondary school years from 7 to 6). Similar to other school systems, the reforms in Hong Kong have brought along changes to the roles and responsibilities of school principals and assistant principals. The position of assistant principal has only recently been introduced to Hong Kong primary schools, and not all schools have an assistant principal in place. Because of this, our study only focused on the secondary school sector. Methodology This section describes the respondents, the measures, and the data analysis. Respondents The questionnaire was sent by post to vice-principals in all secondary schools in Hong Kong. Out of the 803 questionnaires distributed, 331 were returned, which represented a response rate of 41.2%. Most types of schools in Hong Kong were well represented among the respondents, although there was a slight overrepresentation of Band 1 schools. As a result, the findings were considered to provide a general picture of the Hong Kong secondary school sector. The small number of responses from private schools was not considered a factor, given that only about 2% of Hong Kong secondary schools are private. A summary profile of the respondents is given in Table 4.1. Measures An instrument was developed with reference to the framework of key qualities for school leadership considered by the Hong Kong Education Bureau and based on which principal preparation and certification programs had been designed. The framework comprised seven responsibility dimensions: Strategic Direction and Policy Environment; Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum; Leader and Teacher Growth and Development; Staff Management; Resource Management; Quality Assurance and Accountability; and External Communication and Connection. There were 56 activity items covered in the instrument, representing leadership activities in the seven dimensions, for instance, including in the dimension of Staff Man-

Assistant Principals in Hong Kong    65 Table 4.1  Summary of Respondent Profile

School Background

Personal Variables

Gender Qualification

Age Desire to become principal

Male Female 228 (68.9%) 103 (31.1%) Professional Certificate or Master’s and above Bachelors 152 (45.9%) 179 (54.1%) Below 44 45–54 55 or above 90 (27.2%) 197 (59.5%) 44 (13.3%) Yes No 96 (29%) 235 (71%)

Academic Ability of Students

Band 1 (Above Average) 136 (43.3%)

Band 2 (Average) 87 (27.7%)

Band 3 (Below Average) 91 (29.0%)

School Type

Government 29 (8.8%)

Aided 276 (83.4%)

DSS 26 (7.8%)

Number of students

Less than 1,000 103 (31.1%)

1,000 or above 228 (68.9%)

agement were the activities of “handling grievances among teachers” and “assignment of work to staff.” A summary of the item descriptions is given in the Appendix. Two 4-point scales were used in the instrument: one for measuring respondents’ degree of actual involvement, and the other for measuring their ideal degree of involvement (“rarely,” “occasionally,” “often,” and “very often”). In addition to providing school variables (types of school, academic ability of students, and number of students) and key personal demographic variables (age, gender, and academic qualifications), respondents were asked to indicate “yes” or “no” to the item “I want to be a principal.” Four items were included to measure the respondents’ level of job satisfaction. Respondents were asked to indicate the extent of their agreement with the items (from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”). The instrument was pilot-tested twice among two separate groups of vice-principals, each pilot-test comprised 30 respondents. Items were modified, added, or deleted based on the respondents’ comments and the statistical results for the factor reliability scales. Analysis Our initial analysis aimed to confirm the validity of the seven responsibility dimensions describing the work of vice-principals. The range of answers to each item statement on the two scales was examined, and no sign of con-

66   P. KWAN and A. WALKER

sistency bias was found. The number of missing entries was around 0.3%. Brown (1994) suggested that the listwise deletion method should be used to produce unbiased estimates of parameters. Using the resulting dataset as a base, we were able to proceed with the examination of the construct validity of each of the scales. The Cronbach alphas of the seven dimensions in the two scales (the actual involvement scale and the ideal involvement scale) were assessed to determine internal consistency. As shown in Table 4.2, all of the reliability alphas were within a satisfactory range (from .7008 to .8918), which indicates that the dimensions were internally consistent. The correlations among the seven dimensions are shown in Table 4.3. We then sought to validate the ability of the factor structure of the seven constructs to represent the work activities of Hong Kong secondary school vice-principals. As two scales were involved in the study, two separate validation sets were undertaken. The “ideal involvement” scale was examined first. A factor structure was developed in which the seven dimensions were represented as endogenous constructs, and the item statements that described each of the dimensions were the exogenous variables for the corresponding constructs. The developed factor structure was then tested using LISREL 8 (Jöreskog & Sörbom, 1993). To reduce the possible effects of idiosyncratic wording of individual items on the factor loadings, the items in the factors were randomly paired (Marsh & O’Neill, 1984). A confirmatory factor analysis was performed in which the seven factors were allowed Table 4.2  Reliability Alphas and Scale Means of the Seven Responsibility Dimensions and the Job Satisfaction Measure Reliability Alpha

Scale Mean

On the scale On the scale Actual Ideal of actual of ideal involvement involvement Involvement involvement (A) (I) External Communication and Connection Quality Assurance and Accountability Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum Staff Management Resource Management Leader and Teacher Growth and Development Strategic Direction and Policy Environment Job Satisfaction

.7008

.7966

2.5575

2.8598

.8192

.8308

2.7763

3.3255

.7313

.8100

2.7613

3.3802

.7936 .8670 .7976

.8560 .8918 .8266

3.2335 2.1858 2.5312

2.5594 2.9706 3.1703

.8122

.8327

3.1157

3.4495

.768

3.0583

Assistant Principals in Hong Kong    67 Table 4.3  Correlations among the Seven Responsibility Dimensions D1 External Communication and 1.00 Connection (D1) Quality Assurance and Accountability (D2) .72 Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum (D3) .67 Staff Management (D4) .70 Resource Management (D5) .54 Leader and Teacher Growth and .72 Development (D6) Strategic Direction and Policy .68 Environment (D7)

D2

D3

D4

D5

D6

1.00 .70 .74 .57 .76

1.00 .69 .53 .70

1.00 .55 .74

1.00 .57

1.00

.72

.67

.70

.54

.72

D7

1.00

to freely correlate, and the goodness of fit indices χ2 = 706.41 (d.f. = 378), RMSEA = .051, CFI = .93, and NNFI = .92 were obtained. These statistics indicate that the model fitted the set of data well. A second validation test was conducted to validate the applicability of the model to the actual involvement scale. The following goodness of fit statistics were obtained: χ2 = 751.21 (d.f. = 378), RMSEA = .065, CFI = .90, and NNFI = .90, indicating that the model also fitted the set of data reasonably well. Having confirmed the two factor structures, we then worked out the respective gaps between the actual and ideal responsibilities for each of the 56 items by subtracting the latter from the former. Then the corresponding item gaps were aggregated to form seven responsibility gaps. The results are shown in Table 4.4. We proceeded to examine the effect of the responsibility gaps on assistant principals’ job satisfaction levels. Recognizing that personal background variables and school conditions are possible moderators affecting Table 4.4  Scale Means of the Seven Responsibility Dimensions

Dimension Resource Management Leader and Teacher Growth and Development Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum Quality Assurance and Accountability Strategic Direction and Policy Environment External Communication and Connection Staff Management

Actual Ideal responsibilities responsibilities (A) (I) 2.1858 2.5312 2.7613 2.7763 3.1157 2.5575 3.2335

2.9706 3.1703 3.3802 3.3255 3.4495 2.8598 2.5594

Gap (A – I) –0.7848 –0.6391 –0.6189 –0.5492 –0.3338 –0.3023 0.6741

68   P. KWAN and A. WALKER

the link, as evidenced in the literature, we attempted to factor out the effect of these variables in order to identify the exclusive effect of responsibility gaps on assistant principals’ job satisfaction. This was done by utilizing sequential regression with the block of demographic (gender, age, academic qualifications, and desire to become principal) and school variables (types of school, academic ability of students, and number of students) first entered into the regression equation followed by the block of responsibility gaps. Dummy variables created for the categorical variables (gender, desire to become principal, and types of school) were used in the regression. By examining the change in R 2, the effect of the responsibility gaps on job satisfaction could be obtained. A significant set of regression statistics was obtained from regressing level of job satisfaction onto the block of personal and school factors: R 2 = .126, F(8,248) = 4.471, p