An analysis of leadership styles of school principals and end -of -grade test scores in the third and fifth grades in rural and urban elementary schools in North Carolina
Abstract
This study analyzed the leadership styles of elementary school principals in North Carolina. The twofold purpose of this study was as follows: (a) identify the leadership styles of principals in selected rural and urban elementary schools in North Carolina, and (b) investigate the relationship between the principals' leadership styles and the EOG test scores in mathematics and reading for 3rd and 5th grade students in the selected schools during the 2002-2003 academic school year. Today, more than ever, school principals are called upon to be effective change agents who must move schools forward. Effective school leadership is crucial in producing powerful changes. Principals must act as instructional leaders to create change and effective schools. Since the 1996 implementation of the North Carolina ABC's of Public Education, school leaders have been plunged into the high stakes testing arena. Principals, as instructional leaders, have been given the task of improving and maintaining high educational standards. Transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership factors of elementary school principals were measured using the 45-item Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ Leader Form 5x-Short) developed by Bass and Avolio (1995). The independent variables included a five-factor transformational, three-factor transactional, and one-factor laissez-faire model of leadership. The dependent variables included the 2002-2003 End-of-Grade (EOG) test scores and the rural and urban school locale types, which related to student population. The participants included 98 rural and 63 urban elementary school principals, representing 46 counties in North Carolina. A Two-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the data. The results of this study will contribute findings about rural and urban elementary school principals in North Carolina to the body of knowledge about leadership styles.
Subject Area
School administration|Elementary education
Recommended Citation
Palma, Adrienne Christine, "An analysis of leadership styles of school principals and end -of -grade test scores in the third and fifth grades in rural and urban elementary schools in North Carolina" (2004). ETD Collection for Fayetteville State University. AAI3287782.
https://digitalcommons.uncfsu.edu/dissertations/AAI3287782