School Principal Leadership and Special Education Knowledge

SCHOOL PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP AND SPECIAL EDUCATION KNOWLEDGE MAY 2014 ROBERT J SCHULZE, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST M.Ed., WESTFIELD STATE COLLEGE Ed.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Mary Lynn Boscardin This study investigated the effects of special education background and demographic variables on the perceptions of leadership styles by public school principals with and without special education backgrounds in Massachusetts. Utilizing Q-­‐sort methodology, principals sorted 47 statements reflective of transformational, instructional, transactional, and distributed leadership. Analysis found that the participants separated into two factor groups. The special education background of the participants did not influence the formation of the factors, and it was found that prior special education experience was not a predictor of subsequent leadership perceptions of principals. Instead, Factor A was composed of younger, less educated, less experienced principals in lower-­‐performing schools who valued instructional leadership and school improvement in their leadership. Factor B was composed of older, more educated, more experienced, and more ethnically diverse principals who worked in higher-­‐performing schools and who valued multiple leadership styles and high-­‐level, whole-­‐school leadership. A model was developed,