| The purpose of this study was to examine the sense of self-efficacy of school administrators across three postulated domains. The postulated domains were Self-Efficacy in general, in the Traditional Roles of Building Manager and Instructional Leader, and as the Administrators of Mandated Assessments and Users of Assessment Data. The work of Bandura was foundational to the concept and definition of self-efficacy used in the study. An electronic survey based on the General Self-Efficacy Scale developed by Schwarzer and Jerusalem (1995) was used to gather responses from 331 building-level school administrators in one mid-Atlantic State. The study was designed to: verify the postulated domains or determine new domains of the administrative role, determine any differences in the sense of self-efficacy among the participants in identified domains, and determine if differences in efficacy existed among the participants' demographics. A factor analysis was used to determine if the postulated domains were, in fact, the administrators' perceived domains of the role. The mandated assessments in question were the NCLB driven tests, the MSAs and HSAs, in the state where the study was conducted. The factor analysis produced five domains: (1) Remaining Calm, (2) Resourcefulness, (3) General Efficacy, (4) Instructional Programs, and (5) MSA/Achievement. The study found that all administrators felt more efficacious in the domains of remaining calm and resourcefulness than in the other areas. Also of note was the alignment of items concerning achievement with mandated assessments rather than with instructional programs. Demographics in the study included, years of experience in education and in administration, socio-geographic location of school and school system, level of poverty in the school, highest degree earned by the administrator, and school enrollment. Significant differences in efficacy were found in some demographics and no differences in others. These findings will add to the body of knowledge about the role of school administrator and inform the work of those who direct graduate school programming for administrative preparation. The findings also may inform the work or those who structure the role and direct the work of school administrators. The provision of professional development opportunities for new and experienced administrators is another area where the findings of the study may be beneficial. |
