ABSTRACT
The central role of the school principal has been viewed, variously, as building manager, administrator, politician, change agent, boundary spanner, and instructional leader. This chapter examines a research to investigate the relationship between two independent variables and the dependent variable of average gain scores of students in 61 of 67 elementary schools in a large urban school district, with scores disaggregated by student ethnicity and student free-lunch status as a socioeconomic status surrogate measure. The purpose of this research was determine the relationship between teacher and supervisor perceptions of the principal as an instructional leader, and two-year California Achievement Test Total Reading and Total Mathematics average gain scores disaggregated by student ethnicity and free-lunch status. The Supervisor Questionnaire was administered to all five supervisors of elementary principals. The school level analysis of four parent variables was based on 58 Likert-type items on the Parent Questionnaire, with responses from 8,547 parents.
