Co-Principals: Characteristics of Dual Leadership Teams

A co-principal leadership model has been suggested as one way to address the shortage of qualified educational leaders for our schools and the increased demands on those leaders. The purpose of this study is to describe co-principals in terms of their personal and professional characteristics; the types of leadership models implemented in the schools of the respondents; their perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of the co-principalship; the factors that contributed to the implementation of the model in their school districts; and their levels of role conflict, role commitment and job satisfaction. Data were collected from co-principals of public and private schools throughout the United Sates. A variety of schools, in terms of size and grade level, have adopted the co-principalship leadership model. Findings indicate strong job satisfaction. (Contains 1 figure.)