Empirical linkages among principal behaviors and intermediate outcomes: Implications for principal evaluation

Abstract

This article examines the causal relationships among principal behaviors, school organizational processes, and intermediate outcomes in the school context. Hoy and Miskel's (1987) adaptation of Parsons’ (1960, 1961) four organizational functions for schools and Pitner's (1988) causal model for principal effects provided the theoretical framework. Multiple intermediate outcomes were employed to determine school and principal effectiveness. Teachers, students, and parents from 30 schools were surveyed and provided data for 24 variables in a nonexperimen‐tal, empirical study. Hypothesized causal models of four blocks of variables—school context; principal behaviors; school functions; and teacher, parent, and student outcomes—were investigated by path analysis. This analysis yielded significant paths in 18 trimmed models and indicated that principals have significant direct effects on teacher outcomes of morale, job satisfaction, commitment, and teacher perception of innovation, and low indirect effects on student sense of academic futility and acceptance of school norms and parent satisfaction. Teacher perceptions of the four school processes provided three significant paths to outcomes, whereas parent perceptions of the processes provided eight significant paths. Parents provided more causal links to student outcomes from school processes than did teachers. School contexts of organizational level and SES had significant effects on student and parent variables. The findings indicated the appropriateness of the theoretical model as a means to evaluate principal and school effectiveness. Principals can be evaluated directly in terms of their effects on teachers but only indirectly for their effects on students and parents.