Iowa Public Secondary School Principals' Perceptions of Importance and Expertise Required to Manage Identified Tasks

Abstract

The Problem. This study was conducted to examine Iowa secondary school principals' perceptions of administrative tasks as to the importance of the task and the expertise needed to manage the task. Procedure. A questionnaire was sent to randomly selected Iowa secondary school principals to obtain their perceptions. The data was placed in groups based on enrollment of the school and the number of years as an administrator. A two-factor analysis of variance was used to test for significance. When significance was found a multiple range test was employed. Findings. Importance was significant among principals of differing years of experience in the following tasks: students' rights, informing the superintendent, and plant management. Expertise was significant among the principals in the task of plant management. Importance was significant among principals of schools of differing enrollment in the following tasks: delegation of responsibility, faculty meetings, plant management, and distribution of funds. Expertise was signif£cant among the principals in the following tasks: evaluation, faculty meetings, and distribution of funds. Conclusions. While some differences were found to exist, the results of the study did not conclusively support the research hypotheses. The following conclusions can be drawn from this study: (l} differences in experience as secondary schoOl principals had no major effect on perceptions of importance or expertise required to manage specific administrative tasks. (2) Secondary school enrollment had no major effect on secondary school principals' perceptions of importance or expertise required to manage specific administrative tasks. Recommendations. Agencies and institutions responsible for conducting secondary school principal training programs or inservice programs should not consider years of experience as a principal or the enrollment of the school the principals administer as factors in the development of training programs. Agencies and institutions engaged in training or in service programs for principals should examine their programs in regard to the tasks that principals perceived as being most important and requiring the most expertise.