Middle Level Leadership Center publications (MU)
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Items in this collection are the scholarly output of the Middle Level Leadership Center faculty, staff, and students, either alone or as co-authors, and which may or may not have been published in an alternate format. Items may contain more than one file type.
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Item Middle Level Principal Preparation and Licensure -- Policy Brief(2004-04) Valentine, Jerry; Anfara, Vincent A.While much attention has been focused on the need for specialized preparation and licensure of middle-level teachers, relatively little consideration has been given to the preparation and licensure of middle-level principals. Currently, only seven states (Alaska, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Oklahoma) report some form of specialized preparation for middlelevel principals. Upon closer investigation many of these states, and the universities providing the programs, require very limited study in the area of middle schools, with most simply requiring an internship in a middle-level school.Item Performance-Based Teacher Evaluation in Missouri: A Three-Year Report(1988) Valentine, Jerry; Harting, Roger D. (Roger Duane)The teacher performance evaluation, mandated in Missouri by a bill that legislators enacted during 1983, is a process for professional development through the identification and documentation of job related expectations and skills, and an opportunity to improve skill and job related decisionmaking. To determine the degree of implementation and the impact of performance evaluation procedures across the state, in 1986 one half of Missouri's superintendents were mailed a four-page survey. Usable responses were received from 219 of the 272 districts selected. Results indicate that: (1) by the 1985-86 school year, 98 percent of the districts used a performance-based teacher evaluation (PBTE) system; (2) committees of teachers and administrators were used 52 percent of the time for PBTE system development and implementation; (3) essentially identical systems to the state PBTE model were used by 85 percent of the respondents; and (4) the majority of the respondents believed that PBTE will help improve instruction and student achievement over the next five years.Item Principal Effectiveness in "National Recognition" Schools -- A Research Project Summary Report(1989-07) Valentine, Jerry; Bowman, Michael Lee, 1953-Between 1982 and 1987, 1,500 outstanding schools were recognized by the School Recognition Program, based on an analysis of their leadership, order and discipline, community support, and high standards and expectations for all students. Following the assumption that the recognized schools collectively represent some of America's better elementary and secondary institutions, the administrative skills of the recognized schools' principals were studied and contrasted to the administrative skills of randomly selected school principals. During the 1987-88 school year, packets containing Audit of Principal Effectiveness surveys were mailed to 483 of the 1986-87 recognized school principals for distribution among 10 of their teachers; and 375 identical packets were mailed to randomly selected schools (from seven different geographic regions) for distribution. For inclusion in the study, at least five of the school's teachers had to return completed surveys; the response rate was 36 percent from recognized schools, and 35 percent from the random sample. Results indicate that clearly, the teachers of the recognized schools perceive their principals as more effective than teachers of the random schools. The pattern of differences between the perceptions of the teachers surveyed in this study supports the belief that more effective schools are administered by more effective principals.Item Performance-Based Principal Evaluation in Missouri: A Three-Year Report(1988) Valentine, Jerry; Harting, Roger D. (Roger Duane)The performance-based principal evaluation (PBPE), passed as a section of the 1985 Missouri Educational Reform Act, is a process for professional development of principals through the identification and documentation of job-related expectations and school goals. Additionally, evaluations provide an opportunity to refine those goals and to improve skill and job-related decisionmaking. To determine the degree of implementation and the superintendent's perceptions about the effectiveness of PBPE, one half of the state's approximately 550 superintendents were mailed surveys; usable responses were received from 168 districts. Results indicate that the process used to develop PBPE systems in Missouri districts typically did not include principal involvement, but most evaluation programs were identical to the state PBPE Model. Principals' attitudes regarding PBPE were described as positive; their attitudes were more positive in the districts where principals were involved in developing the PBPE system, in the districts that followed the state model procedures, and in the districts where the evaluators had more training and were perceived as more skilled. The superintendent and other educational leaders from across the state who responded to the PBPE survey indicated that PBPE can impact positively on Missouri education.Item Audit of Principal Effectiveness: Instrumentation for Principalship Research-A Research Project Report(1988-01) Valentine, Jerry; Bowman, Michael Lee, 1953-Using the literature and research on principal effectiveness as a foundation, the Audit of Principal Effectiveness was developed. Initially, 162 items forming 12 theoretical factors describing effective principal behavior were identified and sorted into two documents. The documents, each containing 81 items, were mailed to a total of 3,660 teachers (equally distributed among seven United States geographic regions) for evaluation regarding the degree to which each item was descriptive of an effective administrator skill. Based on responses, the documents were shortened to contain 55 items each; this format was used between 1985 and 1986. Although accurately descriptive of necessary effective principal skills, the completion of two documents proved too time consuming and cumbersome. Another random sample of teachers (3,300) was mailed documents for evaluation. The resulting second refinement yielded one form divided into three principal areas of skill, with nine associated factors, and 80 items. This instrument, currently in use, includes the domains of: (1) organizational development containing the factors of organizational direction, linkage, and procedures; (2) organizational environment containing the factors of teacher and student relations, and interactive and affective processes; and (3) the educational program containing the factors of instructional and curricular improvement.