| OCR Text |
Show HQs UlGstt pFfin)ijpls America's secondary schools may face a management crisis unless conditions improve for principals, prin-cipals, according to findings of a nationwide study headed by a University of Utah educator. A REPORT will be released Sunday, Feb. 12, at the annual meeting of the National Association As-sociation of Secondary School Principals in Anaheim. Calif. The survey of 1,600 American high school prin-cipals-the first conducted in 12 years-shows an alarming attrition rate due to increasing increas-ing responsibilities, unrealistic unrealis-tic hours and intense pressure on principals from a growing number of publics. "WE'RE grinding up and losing our best high school principals," says Dr. Lloyd McCleary, professor of educational administration at the University of Utah and chairman of the $98,000 study supported by the Rockefeller Family Fund. "One-third of 60 exceptional principals singled out through personal interviews have resigned since the beginning of our survey just one year ago," he states. THE research committee will report to an estimated 25,000 secondary school administrators ad-ministrators and superintendents superinten-dents that the average high school principal: -works 56 hours a week and 50 weeks a year. -DEVOTES three evenings a week to school-related business. -earns an average of $20,000 to $28,000, with two percent earning less than $12,000 and three percent more than $35,000 annually. -IS MALE ; only seven percent per-cent of all high school prin-cipalships prin-cipalships are filled by women, half of those in private or parochial schools (down from 10 percent in a comparable 1965 study). -is between 40 and 50 years ' old. -DOES NOT teach. Only 15 percent indicate part time or substitute involvement in the classroom. -considers insufficient funding and physical facilities, facili-ties, excessive administrative duties and student discipline problems as "road blocks" to more effective leadership, -ADMINISTERS a budget that has increased 30 times since the 1965 study. 'The 1965 study showed that educational administration was a male-dominated area," says David R. Byrne, assistant assis-tant dean of the U Graduate School of Education and member of the research committee. com-mittee. "In 1977, we can conclude that it is a white male-dominated profession. "WE expected an increase in female principals with the women's rights movement in recent years. But the number has actually decreased and the typical female principal works in a small, private, parochial school in an urban area in the east. Only 19 percent per-cent of all female administrators adminis-trators work in public schools," says Byrne. The research committee reports significant changes in administrative opinion on a variety of social and educational educa-tional issues since the 1965 survey. THE study shows only 49 percent agree with court decisions relating to racial segregation, compared to 75 percent in agreement in 1965. Fifty-six percent of high school principals polled agree that schools require too little academic work Irom students, with only 16 percent expressing concern in the earlier study. ONLY 10 percent agree that high schools should provide intellectual background and leave specific job training to other agencies. In 1965, two-thirds two-thirds favored intellectual . training. "The emphasis on job training is in response to current student and parent wishes," McCleary explains. "Opinions on this issue could swing back the other way in another 12 years, depending on conditions and the current public mood." FIFTY-NINE percent of the principals believe disinterested students should not be required to attend classes, while only 34 percent favored voluntary absence in 1965. "Teachers and principals are facing the fact that we can't hide nonachievers in the back row," says McCleary. "We must get them out of the classroom and into a stimulating alternative experience." PRINCIPALS are less convinced con-vinced that grouping students according to I.Q. levels is academically wise. Eighty-two Eighty-two percent favored such grouping in 1965, compared with only 53 percent in the most recent survey. Ninety-two percent agree that high schools should be required to develop programs for the academically talented student. Only 19 percent favored special programming for high achievers in 1965. THREE-FOURTHS of the principals polled favor special programs for the handicapped, ethnic minorities minori-ties and non-English speaking student. "Total agreement might have been expected with equal training required by federal law by September 1978," says McCleary, "but this question was not included in the 1965 study." Over half (60 percent) of the principals favor rigorous testing to determine competency compe-tency in basic skills upon graduation, but only eight percent of the schools actually have such a program. In 1965, 71 percent favored mandatory skills testing. ACCORDING to Byrne, the alarming increase in the cost of education can be attributed to increased paperwork and record keeping, individualized in-dividualized education techniques tech-niques which require more teaching materials, and alternative al-ternative programs to meet social needs of the student such as vocational community com-munity work programs and instruction in parenting and marriage. 'The 'back-to-basics' movement," says Byrne, "has dictated a decrease in class size which means more teachers are required. The public is paying a lot more for education these days, but it's expecting a lot more, too." McCLEARY says administrators adminis-trators have "become very adaptable and open to change, as indicated by the marked reversal of opinion on so many issues." "Beliefs in the educational field used to be set and enduring," en-during," he says. 'This survey sur-vey shows that the day of the absolute in American education educa-tion is gone." |
