How to Order.vp

A Gap Analysis of Principal Preparation Programs in Illinois 141

how important it is for principal preparation programs to teach the competency / skill listed.

Next, respondents indicated the importance that principal preparation programs teach the

skill/competency by choosing one of the following: 1 = not important, 2 = fairly important, 3

= important, 4 = very important, 5 = absolutely important. Survey results are presented in Ta-

ble 3.

Table 3. Importance of Principal Preparation Skills/Competencies (Superintendents = S Im,

Principals = P Im, and Teachers = T Im).

Vision Culture Operations Discipline Distributed Leadershi

p^

Adaptive Leadershi

p^

Situational Awareness Professional Develo

pment

Monitor School Effect Visibility Celebrate Change Agent Advocate Allocate Re-sources Curriculum Communicate Personal

S

Im

4.68 4.53 4.55 4.40 4.25 4.19 4.27 4.20 4.55 4.58 4.26 4.56 4.41 4.20 4.47 4.37 3.98

P

Im

4.56 4.49 4.48 4.42 4.28 4.24 4.20 4.37 4.55 4.62 4.37 4.47 4.38 4.18 4.53 4.46 4.31

T

Im

4.42 4.38 4.46 4.46 4.27 4.27 4.32 4.23 4.27 4.41 4.26 4.30 4.32 4.40 4.34 4.40 4.23

Table 4 displays the incorporation of the two tables previously presented. It is a subtrac-

tion of perceived attainment of skills/competencies scores from the scores of the importance

of skills/competencies taught in principal preparation programs. Data represent the perceived

“gap” between the skills’ importance and the attainment of the skills by current practicing

principals. While all three groups were positive in their reporting, the gap of perceptions be-

tween skills importance and attainment appears least for superintendents, moderate for princi-

pals themselves, and the largest for teachers. This finding seems to concur with others who

have studied the issue (Young, Crow, Orr, Ogawa, & Creighton, 2005).

Table 4. Gaps Between the Perceived Attained Degree (Att) of Principal Preparation

Skills/Competencies and Importance (Im) of Principal Preparation

Skills/Competencies (S = Superintendent, P = Principal, T = Teacher).

Vision Culture Operations Discipline Distributed Leadershi

p^

Adaptive Leadershi

p^

Situational Awareness Professional Develo

pment

Monitor School Effect Visibility Celebrate Change A

gent
Advocate Allocate Re-sources Curriculum Communicate Personal
S
Gap

1.12 .84 .62 .60 .73 .73 .80 .77 1.09 .56 .42 1.16 .71 .74 .91 .76 .31

P
Gap

1.19 1.01 1.23 1.37 .94 1.01 1.04 1.10 1.43 .91 1.01 1.11 .77 .99 1.14 1.16 1.25

T
Gap

1.10 1.28 1.28 1.59 1.28 1.45 1.39 .80 1.09 1.32 .97 1.27 1.09 1.18 1.19 1.24 1.14

Is the reported gap worthy of further study and consideration? Superintendents generally

rated principals on the skills/competencies list higher than principals rated themselves and

teachers generally rated principals lower than the principals rated themselves. The closer the