Keywords

Principal preparation program, leadership training, principal certification, florida principal leadership standards

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to measure the extent to which school leaders who completed the preparing new principals program in School District A perceived the program’s effectiveness in preparing them to demonstrate Florida’s principal leadership standards as adopted in November 2011. This study also identified the components of the preparing new principals program that influenced the professional practice of the program completers in their current leadership roles within School District A. This study was conducted at the request of the professional development services designee in School District A and is a companion study to research conducted by Eddie Ruiz and Wesley Trimble. The Preparing New Principals Program Completer Survey was sent to 90 administrators in School District A who completed the preparing new principals program between 2008 and 2011. Follow-up interviews were conducted with six volunteers in order to further clarify responses to the survey and to gather additional input from program completers. Survey results as well as interview data were analyzed in order to give the professional development services designee information for designing a new principal preparation program for School District A. The literature review and the results of this study supported the premise that preparing principals for school leadership in 2013 involves more than developing management skills and knowledge of the functions of a school. Principals must be instructional leaders with an unwavering focus on student achievement. Overall, results of the study found the PNPP in the urban school district supported the participant’s awareness of the FPLS and also showed they perceived they were prepared to demonstrate the majority of the standards. However, the individual requirements and experiences of the PNPP had varying levels of perceived value to iii the professional practice of the participants. Results of the study recommended the PNPP experiences perceived to be invaluable or not practical should be evaluated for applicability, revised accordingly or possibly eliminated to improve the effectiveness of the PNPP. Although the structure of principal preparation programs in the state of Florida are unique due to laws that created a two leveled principal certification process, the findings and conclusions of this research study could be useful to any school district working to develop future principals. Suggested improvements to the PNPP included a longer principal internship, a strengthened mentor relationship, an application process for initial program entry, differentiated experiences, and an emphasis on increasing teacher effectiveness

Notes

If this is your thesis or dissertation, and want to learn how to access it or for more information about readership statistics, contact us at STARS@ucf.edu

Graduation Date

2013

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Taylor, Rosemarye

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

College

College of Education and Human Performance

Department

Teaching, Learning, and Leadership

Degree Program

Educational Leadership; Executive

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0004909

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0004909

Language

English

Release Date

August 2016

Length of Campus-only Access

3 years

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Education, Education -- Dissertations, Academic

Download

Share

COinS