Elementary school principals' perceptions of their needs for professional development in instructional leadership.

摘要

Concern with elementary principals' instructional leadership behaviors has an extensive history. Although research has not resulted in a specific agreed-upon definition of instructional leadership, a range of elementary principal behaviors consistently associated with school quality has been posited. Research has been slight regarding what in-service training elementary principals may need in order to become or remain competent in performing these behaviors---no research whatsoever is available describing the needs of Nebraska's elementary principals.; The purpose of this study was to assess Nebraska elementary principals' perceptions of their need for further instructional leadership professional development. Relationships were examined between the Nebraska elementary principals' perceptions and various demographic variables. The independent variables were defined as (1) the principal's personal characteristics---age, gender, years of teaching experience, highest degree earned, age at first administrative appointment, years of experience as a principal, years in current position, and (2) the individual elementary school's characteristics---school size, district size, grades embraced by the school, and the school's socio-economic status.; Drawn from work by Cotton (2003) and Hallinger (1984), the Elementary Principal Professional Development Rating Scale (EPPDRS) was created as the survey instrument. After instrument modifications guided by results from a pilot study, 176 public elementary school principals in Class A Nebraska school districts were asked to participate. A total of 116 useable surveys (65.9%) were returned.; Data analysis produced two clear-cut findings. First, as a whole, Nebraska elementary school principals do not perceive a definite need for additional training in the educational leadership activities advocated in the literature. Second, the closest the 116 responding principals came to expressing a perceived need for additional professional development was to say that they could use some further training in how to (1) interpret test data to measure academic achievement, (2) review student achievement with teachers, and (3) assist teachers in improving classroom instruction. This study's findings may have implications for elementary principals, professional development planners, district administrators, and principal preparation institutions.