Dissertation writing help - The Instructional Leadership Role of Assistant Principals in Comprehensive High Schools

Custom Dissertation Writing Service on instructional leadership actions

This is a qualitative, multi-case study of the reported instructional leadership actions of assistant principals in 4 Midwestern comprehensive high schools. The study gathered assistant principals' descriptions of instructional management behaviors they participate in and what hinders their ability to do so. The data was collected using interviews with 13 assistant principals during the 2008-2009 school year.

The main findings of this study are that the assistant principals report they do a wide number of instructional leadership actions and activities. Yet, according to their reports, the ability to do so varies across assistant principals both across sites and within sites as well. This study concludes that this variability can be impacted by three factors including: (1) the structure of the administrative team, (2) sanctioned choices by the assistant principal, and (3) whether the emphasis of the leadership nature is on actions that can primarily make an impact on the instructional organization or the culture of the building.

This study did not seek to evaluate the best administrative structure or whether the reported behaviors made an empirically verified impact on instruction. This could be considered a limitation of this study. As such, additional research in the area of specific behaviors as well as particular administrative team structures can be beneficial to the work of building principals and assistant principals alike. In addition, the scope of this study was limited to the reported behaviors by the assistant principals at each site. Future research can consider the background, training, experiences of the assistant principals, as well as reports by others in the school, such as supervisors and teachers, to gain a more thorough understanding of the work of the assistant principal.