Transactional and Transformational Leader Behaviors and Christian School Enrollment

School enrollment trends and how leaders respond are critical to the sustainability of Christian schools. This study applied quantitative and qualitative approaches to address the question, are there significant differences in the mean scores for behavioral factors or in the mean scores for transactional and transformational leadership styles for administrators of schools with increasing enrollment trends and those for administrators of schools with decreasing enrollment trends? The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (5-X) Short Form (MLQ) was used to determine mean raters' scores for the leaders of 52 school programs qualifying as samples for this study from four regions of the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI). School enrollments for a three year period were provided by the ACSI home office, and the sample was divided into two groupings, 26 schools with increasing enrollment and 26 with decreasing enrollment. A t-test for independent samples compared the means of the nine MLQ behavior factors to determine whether or not there were any significant differences between the two groups of leaders. The quantitative findings revealed no significant differences between the groups for behavioral factors or leadership styles. The qualitative data revealed themes implying that leaders from schools with increasing enrollment tended to take a more personal, direct, and proactive approach to enrollment. Leaders from schools with decreasing enrollment were more likely to express concern over competition with other schools, the need to present a compelling vision, and a more extensive explanation of enrollment challenges to their programs. Conclusions and recommendations for further study were made. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]