0.19 Watts, l., kolsun, c., cline, v., & Williams, l. (october 20  (Page 9/11)

In addition to the descriptive statistics, data analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between the principals’ sense of self-efficacy as measured by the PSE and their perceptions of the influence of cultural factors as measured by the CIS. Some relationships to the demographic characteristics were also analyzed. First, mean scores were calculated for responses to the survey items. These scores were analyzed using ANOVA’s. The results of these analyses found significance between three cultural variables and the PSE: (1) Teacher attitude was significantly related to the PSE total average and all three of the subscales; (2) Parent attitude was significantly related to the PSE total average and to the Moral Leadership subscale; and (3) Community attitude was significantly related to the PSE total and to all three subscales.

The statistical analyses for the ANOVA’s are not included in the paper, but are available, if desired, from the researchers.

Next, stepwise multiple regressions were run using the raw scores for the responses to the PSE , CIS , and Demographic Surveys. Several cautions need to be noted at this point. First, the sample size at (7:1 cases to independent variables ratio) met the 5:1 standard, but was considerably less than 50:1. Second, the regressions used ordinal numbers as metric. Third, no tests were conducted for normality, linearity, or homogeneity of variance, though tests were conducted on outliers. The results of the regression for some independent variables that showed significance are found in Table 5. Additional data can be obtained upon request.

Notes: *p<.010, **p<.05

Notes: *p<=.001

Discussion of results

The results of the demographic questions indicated that 9.6% of the respondents were in their first year of the principalship, 36.1% had been principals for 2-5 years, 30.1% for 6 to 10 years, and 24.1% for 11 or more years. However, 73.5% had been principals of their current schools for five or fewer years. Over 80% of the principals were natives of West Virginia, but only 55% were natives of the community where the school currently being served was located. When responding to the question of whether the school made adequate yearly progress for the last two testing years, 84.5% indicated the school had done so in 2009-10 and 61% for 2008-09. Several principals only gave a response for one of the two years.

According to the results found in Table 1, the Principals’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (PSE) , principals generally believed they had the ability to be successful and to effectively manage the various tasks in the survey (see Tables 1 and 2). The three areas that received the lowest ratings were belief in their ability to maintain control of their daily schedules (17.2% believed they had little or no control), the ability to shape policies and procedures (13.5% rated this as something over which they had little or no control), and the ability to effectively cope with stress (13.6% rated this as minimum or little). Looking at the three subscales, principals gave the lowest mean rating (3.61) to Efficacy of Management, while Efficacy for Moral Leadership had a mean of 4.05 and Efficacy for Instructional Leadership had a mean of 4.07. Principals believed they could positively affect the outcomes of areas associated with instruction, achievement, learning environment, student behavior, and ethical behavior, but felt that some of the management responsibilities were outside their realm of control.