ABSTRACT
The purpose of the study was to answer a single question: What is the role of the school principal in providing the leadership needed for the proper exploration and implementation of Project Re:Learning? A conceptual framework was developed to guide the study. “Principals’ strategies” was the centerpiece of the framework, being influenced by “external factors” and “community and district factors” and, in turn, influencing “school-related factors” and “classroom-related factors.” The influence of the principal on “success or failure of innovations” was hypothesized to be indirect rather than direct. The study was conducted in four phases, initially included fifteen schools, and involved questionnaires completed by teachers and principals, interviews with teachers and principals, and whole-day shadows of principals. Based on the results of the study six types of school administrators were identified: the absent administrator, the pawn, the pragmatic principal, the enthusiastic buffer, the principal as catalyst, and the implementer. Three of these typologies were believed to be consistent with the conceptualization of the principal advocated by the Coalition of Essential Schools: the enthusiastic buffer, the principal as catalyst, and the implementer. A set of generalizations derived from the results completes the study.
100For the past decade, educators in the United States have been involved in attempts to reform (Cuban, 1984), restructure (Timar, 1989), and renew (Goodlad, 1987) their schools. The generally recognized impetus for much of this activity was a report issued by the National Commission on Excellence in Education (1983) entitled A Nation at Risk.
Since the issuance of that report, numerous efforts have been made to improve schools. Most have focused on elementary schools (Lyons, 1991; Madden, Slavin, Karweit, Dolan, & Wasik, 1992), a few have addressed the problems of middle schools (Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, 1989), and very few have been concerned with high schools (Lightfoot, 1983). One of the major high school reform efforts is Sizer’s Coalition of Essential Schools (CES; Sizer, 1984, 1989). The success of the coalition’s reform efforts depends primarily on the endorsement of, commitment to, and proper implementation of nine principles. These principles assert that (a) students should learn to use their minds well, (b) schools should have simple goals (i.e., they should be extremely important, but few in number), (c) schools should have universal goals (i.e., they should apply to all students), (d) the teaching-learning process should be personalized, (e) students should be workers, with teachers serving as coaches, (f) students should be able to exhibit mastery before graduating from high school, (g) schools should be characterized by a tone of decency and mutual respect, (h) teachers should be generalists first and foremost, and (i) the cost of reform should not be more than 10% of the operating cost of current programs.
Sizer’s coalition began in 1984 with 10 high schools. By 1987, the coalition joined forces with the Education Commission of the States to form Project Re: Learning. Project Re:Learning was an attempt to combine the efforts of local schools with those at the state level to ease existing regulations and gain financial support. Delaware, Illinois, New Mexico, and Rhode Island became the first Re: Learning states. Between 1987 and 1992, five other states became Re:Leaming states. In December 1992, South Carolina became the 10th Re:Learning state, with financial support provided by the South Carolina State Fair Association and political support provided by the South Carolina Department of Education and then Governor Carroll Campbell.
As part of a statewide program to explore and eventually implement the coalition, Project Re:Learning, and the nine principles, 15 public high schools were selected to participate in a pilot project. These 15 schools varied widely in their geographic location, the composition of their students, and their level of student achievement as measured by standardized tests.
Because of the nature of the project and the financial resources devoted to it, it seemed reasonable to study these schools as administrators, teachers, and others attempted to understand the coalition, decide whether to apply for coalition membership, and work toward implementation of the project and its principles in their schools. One of the questions framing the study was “What is the role of school principal in providing the leadership needed for the proper exploration and implementation of Project Re:Learning?”
