Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this study was to assess the perceptions of elementary school principals within the Los Angeles Unified School District and identify how they used student information systems and what they viewed as an ideal student information system. Methodology. Forty elementary school administrators from the Los Angeles Unified School District participated in this descriptive study that used a nonexperimental design. Five administrators were selected for each of the district's eight local districts. Subjects responded to one research tool (a questionnaire) using semistructured interview questions that were administered through an interview that averaged one hour in length. The questionnaire had seven main questions with many subquestions that totaled seventy-two. Four of the seventy-two questions were Liken scale; the remaining questions used to gather the current school principals' perceptions of their current student information system were open-ended questions. Findings. An examination of qualitative data from the forty study participants indicated that an instructional information system would meet the needs of elementary school principals within LAUSD that are overloaded with information. Data also indicated that elementary school principals would perceive an instructional information system as a viable tool to collect data used in decision making. Conclusions. Specifically, this researcher concluded that school administrators relied on the current student information systems to analyze data ranging from individualized student data to school-wide data. This researcher also concludes that school administrators attempted to use the current student information system at a low level used the student information system as a tool to make decisions. Additional data revealed that the current systems were too slow and data were not relational among many systems. This leads this researcher to believe that one well-developed instructional information system as opposed to a student information system would meet the needs of school administrators. Recommendations. Further research is advised: Descriptive-correlational studies that would focus on the types of data and design of a relational instructional information system for decision making. Also, it is recommended that the study be replicated to add the separate context of middle school and high school principals.