ipals are related to their effectiveness in their current administrative role as assistant high school principals. Such a survey would help to determine whether examination of these extracurricular background leadership differences is a viable area for future researchers to pursue. In addition, it would provide insight into the quality and quantity of extracurricular background leadership experiences held by administrators and thus provide another dimension to school administrators' credentials.
The research problem proposed for examination centers around compiling a profile of the kinds of extracurricular background leadership experiences held by secondary school assistant principals. Such a profile may be considered to be a preliminary step in the future effort to define those background factors that input into maximally effective school leadership as well as a attempt to expand the existing knowledge base as to the general experiential credentials of those in current positions of school leadership.
The purpose of the proposed study is to investigate the prevalence of certain types of previous leadership experiences for a sample of vice principals working at the secondary level. Of specific interest is whether background extracurricular leadership experiences tend to be in athletic areas or non-athletic areas.
The athletic versus non-athletic dimension is selected for examination because the current leadership literature has, at the theoretical level, connected athletic leadership, in particular coaching, as a leadership role that builds many of the skills considered crucial to general leadership effectiveness. For example, Vecchio (1991) has noted that being the "boss" of any organization is a lot like coaching a sports team. In particular, he notes that:
Like a winning coach, a skillful leader is master of strategy and tactics, inspiration leaders, authority figure, mother hen, and even occasionally a father conf...