A tort liability knowledge assessment of selected Missouri principal

The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge of tort liability law as possessed by selected Missouri principals, in the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The findings were based upon the building level administrators' knowledge of tort liability law and the following demographic information: age, gender, years of administrative experience, assigned position, and degrees held. The study focused on six main areas of tort law as they pertain to a public school setting. The six areas are: duty and standard of care, proper instruction, proper maintenance, proper supervision, post injury treatment, and field trips.;The first null hypothesis was analyzed for percentage of principals' accurate responses on the survey on court rulings. The second null hypothesis was tested using the principals' mean scores with a t-test to determine if there was a significant difference between the principals' knowledge of tort liability based on correct responses and the principals' gender. Null hypotheses 3--6 were tested using the analysis of variance to determine the level of significance between the principals' correct responses and the following collected demographics: years of experience, assigned position, and degree held.;The study determined that principals in a selected region of Missouri had the following understanding of tort law. (1) Principals were able to identify how the courts ruled with a 61 accuracy rate. (2) No significant difference in the mean knowledge of tort liability was found from the male subsample verses the female subsample of principals. (3) No significant difference in the knowledge of tort liability was found in the subsample of those under 35 years of age verses the subsample of those with 30--50 years of age or the subsample of those over 50 years of age. (4) No significant difference in the knowledge of tort liability was found in the subsample of principals with less than five years of experience verses the subsample of principals with 6--10 years of experience, or the subsample of principals with over 10 years of experience. (5) No significant difference in the knowledge of tort liability was found in the subsample of principals with master's degrees, verses the subsample of principals with a specialist degree, or the subsample of principals with a doctorate degree. (6) No significant difference in the knowledge of tort liability was found in the subsample of elementary principals verses the subsample of middle school principals, or the subsample of high school principals.