A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

The Role of Principals in School Reform

Bossert, S. T., Dwyer, D. C., Rowan, B., & Lee, G. V. (1982).

The Instructional Management Role of the Principal. Educational Administration Quarterly, 18(3), 34-64.

The authors present a framework for understanding the complex instructional management role of the principal, which, they assert, affects student learning both directly and indirectly. They posit that principals must exercise leadership in two domains to maintain a successful school: instructional organization and climate. Personal characteristics, district influences, and social environment shape and constrain leadership by the principal. They also examine research on instructional organization, including teacher behavior and school-and classroom-level issues, for ways in which behavior of the principal can shape it and vice versa. The authors acknowledge the lack of a precise definition for the ubiquitous variable "school climate." The authors include a brief literature review, along with questions for further research. The end of the article focuses on the dynamics of principals' influence, power, and authority. The authors note that urban elementary school environments most constrain principals, yet have spawned some highly effective ones.

Cartwright, M., & D'Orso, M. (1993).

For the Children: Lessons from a Visionary Principal. New York: Doubleday.

The principal of an inner-city elementary school in Philadelphia shares insights into the role that she and her staff played in transforming a troubled school. This includes a strong emphasis on reaching out to the community through frequent visits to children's homes as well as communicating with other important persons around the school grounds, guarding teachers' classroom teaching time, and understanding the inner workings of teacher unions and the state education lobby. The author, who has spent more than 30 years in the School District of Philadelphia, beginning as an elementary school teacher, comments on the effects of local, state, and federal policies on schools, with particular emphasis on inner-city schools. She ends the book with a discussion about the effects of crack cocaine on the current generation of schoolchildren and recommendations for confronting this problem.

Hallinger, P., Murphy, J., & Hausman, C. (1992).

Restructuring Schools: Principals' Perceptions of Fundamental Educational Reform. Educational Administration Quarterly, 28(3), 330-349.

Those interested in principals' opinions and concerns about restructuring will find this article useful. A small sample of elementary, junior/middle, and high school principals in urban, suburban, and rural areas were interviewed in depth about the potential impact of restructuring reform on teachers, administrators, parents, and students. They also envisioned operating in a restructured school and speculated on how conditions at the school and classroom level might then change. These interviews revealed, among other things, that some of these principals are skeptical about new ways to improve schools, that they tend to interpret any reform as restructuring, and that they have strong concerns about issues of performance accountability in shared-decision-making settings.

[Guidelines for School Level Reform]

[The Role of Teachers in School Reform]