AbstractsEducation Research & Administration

The research described in this dissertation focuses on the extent to which various conditions are associated with middle school principals' leadership support for Response to Intervention (RTI), a recently mandated method of providing assistance to struggling students. As schools' instructional leaders, principals play a critical role in implementing new initiatives, including special interventions such as RTI. According to many commentators, the principal is the most influential individual in a school and takes ultimate responsibility for the education and all other activities that occur there. Although teachers have the most obvious and immediate impact on the learning process, principals are, in theory, positioned to ensure that effective instruction is provided to every student. Despite their important role, principals do not demonstrate equal capacity or willingness to implement and sustain systems of support for students. The study examined the influence of certain conditions on middle school principals' willingness to support RTI. The variables with potential influence on principals' leadership support were: (1) the length of principals' teaching and administrative experience, (2) their experience as general or special educators (or both), and (3) their predominant instructional philosophy. Data for the study came from a survey of middle-school principals in Ohio. The survey elicited information from principals including their levels of experience, gender, and instructional philosophy. They also responded to items on a scale that was developed for use in the dissertation study. This scale, the Leadership Support of Intervention Scale (LSIS) contained 14 items designed to gather information on principals' actions in support of instructional interventions. Data analysis using multiple regression methods showed that the independent variables were significant predictors of scores on the LSIS. The independent variables that were significant predictors in the regression models were also significantly correlated (via zero-order correlation) with LSIS scores. These variables were: (1) principals' instructional philosophies, (2) their years of experience as teachers, and (3) their experience as general educators. An ancillary analysis using stepwise regression also showed that gender was a significant predictor of LSIS scores.Based on findings from the study, the researcher offered recommendations for practice, policy, and further research. Among the recommendations were the following five targeting educational practice: (1) as part of the interview and hiring process, human resource departments and interview committees should consider talking with each potential new principal about his or her previous experience working with students with special needs; (2) districts should consider providing targeted professional development and training opportunities to principals whose sole or primary classroom teaching experience has been in general education; (3) as part of the individualized professional development planning…