Teachers' Perceptions of High School Principal's Monitoring of Student Progress and the Relationship to Student Achievement

Principals in school buildings are under immense pressure to improve outcomes for all students. Recent literature suggests this accountability may be at least partly warranted, as there is overwhelming evidence that building principals can positively impact student achievement through their behavior as effective instructional leaders. Much of the evidence for this emanates from the elementary school level. The problem is that little research exists at the high school level to examine the relationship between building principals monitoring student progress and student achievement. This study examined the relationship between teachers' perceptions of principal behavior in monitoring student progress and student achievement. The Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale was used to collect teacher perceptions of principal behaviors in the subscale of Monitor Student Progress. Proxies of student achievement consisted of each high school's Performance Index. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine that a statistically significant relationship exists between teachers' perceptions of principals' monitoring student progress and student achievement. This research could guide the practices of several groups of stakeholders from the local level through the state level. (Contains 9 tables.)