PROMOTING PRINCIPALS MANAGERIAL INVOLVEMENT IN INSTRUCTIONAL IMPROVEMENT

Studies of school leadership suggest that visiting classrooms, emphasi zing achievement and training, and supporting teachers are important i ndicators of the effectiveness of school principals. The utility of a behavior-analytic program to support the enhancement of these behavior s in 2 school principals and the impact of their involvement upon teac hers' and students' performances in three classes were examined in two experiments, one at an elementary school and another at a secondary s chool. Treatment conditions consisted of helping the principal or teac her to schedule his or her time and to use goal setting, feedback, and praise. A withdrawal design (Experiment 1) and a multiple baseline ac ross classrooms (Experiment 2) showed that the principal's and teacher 's rates of praise, feedback, and goal setting increased during the in tervention, and were associated with improvements in the academic perf ormance of the students. In the future, school psychologists might ana lyze the impact of involving themselves in supporting the principal's involvement in improving students' and teachers' performances or in pl aying a similar leadership role themselves.