The training of principals for school advisory council leadership

Abstract

The effectiveness of a 2‐day residential leadership training workshop for school principals designed to increase their ability to develop effective citizen participation on a School Advisory Council is reported. One hundred eight schools were included in this study. The experimental design included two trained groups and one waiting list control group. The major findings revealed that trained principals and their council members were significantly more satisfied with and involved in their councils and more likely to report that their councils benefited their schools' academic programs than were untrained principals and their council members. Council members of the former group were also more likely to express support for their school administrators' policies than were control group council members. Furthermore, perceived social climate variables were found to discriminate significantly as mediators between trained and untrained groups. This research exemplifies the application of psychology's knowledge base and methods to a new state‐level educational policy and contributes to community psychology's knowledge about citizen participation in public education. Copyright © 1987 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company