| The purpose of this study was to investigate the degree to which Indiana secondary school principals engaged in mathematics instructional leadership behaviors that supported the implementation of the NCTM Standards.; A self-reporting survey was sent to 300 randomly chosen secondary school principals, from a population of 672 public school secondary principals in the State of Indiana during the 2000–2001 school year. A total of 151 usable surveys were returned for a response rate of 50.3 percent. The 151 secondary school principals who returned the questionnaires were 22.5 percent of the population.; The survey instrument was an adaptation of questionnaires developed by Horizon Research Incorporated, 1992; Cauley, Van de Walle, and Hoyt, 1993; and Horizon Research Incorporated; 1994. The survey instrument was designed to ascertain demographic information on the principal's school, personal background information on the principal, as well as information concerning the mathematics instructional leadership behaviors of the principal.; The major findings from this study were: (1) Principals who had more positive attitudes towards the NCTM Standards were more likely to have engaged in a higher degree of support for teachers who implemented the NCTM Standards. Also, principals who had more positive attitudes towards the NCTM Standards were more likely to provide a greater degree of direction to staff members with respect to the implementation of the NCTM Standards. (2) Female principals engaged in mathematics instructional leadership behaviors to a greater degree than did male principals. (3) Principals from urban schools engaged in mathematics instructional leadership behaviors to a greater degree than did principals from rural schools. |
