| This study was initiated out of a curiosity to understand why previous research on the ethical decision-making (EDM) of educational leaders produced contradictory findings. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent that 10 antecedent variables (ethical goals, ethical strategies, knowledge of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA)/National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) Code of Ethics, EDM experiences, gender, ethnicity, education level, years since earning last degree, years of administrative experience, and membership in the AASA/NASSP) predicted the EDM practices of public high school principals.;The Principals' Decision Making Questionnaire (PDMQ) and a Biographical Data Sheet were mailed to 359 public high school principals (grades 9-12) in the Commonwealth of Virginia for the 2007--2008 school year. The participating principals responded to 15 ethical dilemmas. Their resulting EDM scores and biographical data were examined for statistically significant correlations using bivariate analyses. Multiple regression analyses were used to develop models and regression equations that were statistically significant for predicting EDM scores for the dilemmas. |
