Principal Leadership and Self Appraisal of Effectiveness.

Several models for improving school effectiveness are now available, and most of them highlight the principal's leadership role. Unfortunately, administrators do not regularly reflect on the important aspects of their professional roles or analyze the factors that may make it difficult for them to implement given models of effectiveness in their particular settings. This paper proposes a model for self-appraisal by principals. Principals should first review the research literature on competing models of school effectiveness. Second, principals should select the effectiveness model that best meets their needs, then match their own abilities with those required of administrators by the model. Finally, principals should interact with the effectiveness model to discover their own strengths and weaknesses. Limitations on the self-appraisal model include (1) the difficulties in selecting criteria for judging effectiveness, (2) the confounding effects of experience and expertise, and (3) the implicit assumption that principals bring administrative knowledge to the process. An evaluation form to use in the self-appraisal process is included in the paper. Twenty-six references are cited. (PGD)