inistrative function is its skill-building function. As noted by Hutchison (1988), the degree of one's background in the leadership role is directly related to the acquisition and development of skills critical to effective school leadership. These critical skills are said to include information managing skills, problem-solving and decision making skills, goal setting skills, project management skills, interpersonal communication skills, conflict and motivation management skills, and mentoring skills.
While the cited studies confirm the importance of prior leadership experience for the effective functioning of school administrators such as principals and vice-principals, what is not confirmed is whether the kind of leadership experiences in administrators' backgrounds is of differential contribution to their overall leadership effectiveness. In other words, might a school principal or assistant principal be a better leader if he or she had one kind of previous school leadership experience over another kind?
It was the purpose of this research to determine whether the types of previous extracurricular leadership experiences had by assistant principals are related to their current role as assistant high school principals. As such the study helps to determine whether examination of extracurricular background leadership experiences is an area for future researchers to pursue. In addition, the study gives insight into the quality and quantity of extracurricular background leadership experiences held by administrators and thus provide information regarding another dimension to school administrators' preparation.
The research problem, therefore, is concerned with 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 background factors that impact effective scho...