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Instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Data Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Time Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Researchers and practitioners have long studied the role of the school principal for creating and maintaining effective educational environments. Effective school research has shown that strong principal leadership influences student achievement (Edmonds, 1979). While the principal plays an important role in effective schools, this role must be understood within the context of the school and should be viewed as a complex interaction between environmental, personal and in school relationship that influence outcomes (Hallinger & Bickman, 1996). Today, as schools experience great changes the role of the principal must continue to be examined and described.
One of the most significant changes occurring in educational practice is in the area of school climate (Cotton, 1996). School climate, an elusive but encompassing component of education, is gaining new recognition today as being essential to good student achievement as well as positive student attitudes. A favorable school climate provides the framework within which students, teachers, administrators, and parent's function cooperatively and productively (Fiore, 2000).
Views held by students, parents, and teachers about the learning environments of a school may have an effect on both the processes and outcomes at a particular school. Climate differs from measures of satisfaction. Measures of satisfaction often elicit personal affective reactions. Whereas, climate is measured by asking individuals to serve as informants. Informants will respond to each item in terms of what he or she believes most people hold to be true about the characteristics of the school's environment (Halderson, Keefe, Kelley, & Berge,...