Investigating the Relationship Between Turnaround Principal Competencies and Student Achievement

Building upon the prior development of a model of turnaround principal competencies, we investigated the extent to which the identified principal competencies correlate with student achievement. Participants met rigorous selection criteria for having effectively turned around their schools during their first 2 years as principal. We conducted correlational analyses to examine the strength of relationship between each of the seven competencies and found that the model appears to reflect the internal states of principals who orchestrate school turnaround. We suggest that this initial effort should be further refined as additional data sources become available, but note that this model, given the popularity of principal competencies in districts, can inform current policies and practices.

KEMAMPUAN PENGAWAS SEKOLAH DALAM MENINGKATKAN PENGAWASAN KINERJA KEPALA SEKOLAH TINGKAT SMP DI KABUPATEN PIDIE

The objectives of this research are to develop school supervisory capability, especially the head of the junior high school which is influenced by internal factors including: the level of readiness of supervisors, principals, curriculum tools, administration and management, and readiness of external factors including: lack of facilities; lack of discipline field in accordance with the situation in the field as an effort to support the achievement of the implementation of education and pengajarang better. The method used is descriptive analysis means to describe the factors that affect the ability of school supervisors competence Principal in Pidie District. The result of the research shows that the internal factors that influence the supervisor's ability, the competence of the principal, among others, the level of education, experience and working period, because this is what affects the readiness level of school supervisors and principals in carrying out activities. External factors that can affect the ability of school supervisors, principal competencies are complete facilities and infrastructure and adequate level of welfare today. Abstrak tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengembangkan kemampuan pengawas sekolah terutama kepala yang berada pada jenjang SMP yang dipengaruhi oleh faktor internal meliputi: tingkat kesiapan pengawas, kepala sekolah, perangkat kurikulum, administrasi dan manajemen, kemudian kesiapan faktor eksternal yang meliputi: kurangnya tersedia fasilitas; kurangnya bidang disiplin ilmu sesuai dengan situasi dilapangan sebagai upaya menunjang tercapainya pelaksanaan pendidikan dan pengajarang yang lebih baik. Metode yang digunakan adalah analisis deskriptif artinya untuk menggambarkan tentang faktor yang mempengaruhi kemampuan pengawas sekolah kompetensi Kepala Sekolah yang ada di Kabupaten Pidie. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa faktor internal yang mempengaruhi kemampuan pengawas, kompetensi kepala sekolah antara lain, tingkat pendidikan, pengalaman maupun masa kerjanya, oleh karena, hal inilah yang mempengaruhi tingkat kesiapan pengawas sekolah dan kepala sekolah dalam menjalankan aktiitasnya. Faktor eksternal yang dapat mempengaruhi kemampuan pengawas sekolah, kompetensi kepala sekolah yaitu sarana dan prasarana yang lengkap serta tingkat kesejahteraan yang memadai sekarang ini. Kata Kunci: Kemampuan, Pengawasan, Kinerja

Principal Competencies that Make a Difference

Literature in the field of school leadership substantiates principals‘ influence on student achievement. Less clarity is available concerning principals’ influence on school turnaround or the competencies needed for principals to effectively engage in and sustain the turnaround of low-performing schools. This study seeks to illuminate principal competencies that support an individual's ability to influence turnaround as evidenced by increased student achievement. We analyzed behavioral event interviews conducted with 19 principals whose schools experienced a rapid increase in student achievement. This sample is the successful 10% of a population of 200 principals who each attempted to lead a turnaround. From the interview data, we derived seven competencies that capture the specific characteristics and actions of principals leading turnaround. Our research provides an initial framework for the actions, behaviors, and dispositions of successful turnaround principals. Results of this study suggest ways to improve the selection and development of turnaround principals.

Exploring LIS Students’ Beliefs in Importance and Self-Efficacy of Core Information Literacy Competencies

Understanding perceptions of Library and Information Science (LIS) students on two dimensions—belief in the importance (BIM) of a set of core information competencies, and Self-Efficacy (SE)—is pursued. Factor analysis implementation raises a clear distinction between BIM and SE results. This analysis points to two sets of competencies: principal competencies reflected the most positive insights from students, while the secondary ones were the most weakly perceived and consequently the most in need of encouragement. This is one of the few studies on the subjective profile of LIS students, including improvement initiatives relating to the weakest competencies.

The Organizational Strategies Of School Management In Japan: Focus On Primary School Principals

The study examines the organizational strategies of Japanese principals in school management. One hundred principals of primary schools in Hiroshima Prefecture were surveyed in 2007. The samples comprised of the differences between the two groups aged 51-55 and 56-60 in terms of how competency level should be exerted in school. The study was conducted to clarify how principals apply specific organizational tasks in schools. The study used a questionnaire developed to measure the school management skills. The questionnaire composed of a 3 points scale for principal competencies, indicating assessment with the following: low competency, moderate competency and high competency. The principals were considered to be high competent in the area of vision for the organization because of their knowledge of the tasks, the materials to be learned, and their strategies for learning to influence academic success. It recommends that skills must be acquired in order to manage the outcomes of instruction in accomplishment of school objectives. Application of professional responsibilities and leadership in addition to some other tasks can add to the teaching quality. The results provide important information about the relevance of organizational strategies to principals’ work, and issues to consider in implementing standard-based school organizational strategies. These strategies have been adopted in school system in the form of formal teacher training (konai kenshu) and effective leadership.

Selecting Mentors for Principalship Interns

An instrument for assisting in the selection of mentors for principal interns was developed using six clusters of basic and high-performing principal competencies and five clusters of mentoring traits. The representative sample included 91 principals from Broward County, Florida public schools. A Likert-type scale rated the percentage of time during the principal's career an influential person had spent exhibiting principal competencies and mentoring traits. All squared multiple correlations, predicting mentoring traits from principal competencies, were significant (p < 0.0001), ranging from 0.63 to 0.89. Predictive discriminant analyses yielded models with significant (p < 0.005) cross-validated classification accuracies for mentors (97%), non-mentors (81%), and the sample (84%).