Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this study was to identify change focused trainings high school principals had received. A second purpose was to examine the principles identified by high school principals as important when initiating and implementing change. A third purpose of the study was to determine what principles of change are actually used by principals as validated by their staffs. Methodology. The researcher used descriptive and ex post facto research. The population consisted of seventeen high school principals and 1,233 teachers who had been at their current sites for at least three years. A questionnaire for each group was utilized to collect data to 8 research questions. Reporting for questions 1 and 2 was descriptive and included frequencies and percentages. Questions 3–6 asked respondents to complete a five-point Likert scale and results were reported in means and standard deviations. Question 7 assessed the presence or absence of significant differences on twenty-six items. A one-sample t-test was used to measure these results. Question 8 results were rank ordered from high to low using mean scores. Findings. All principals reported some formal and informal training in change principles. There was a significant difference in change principles principals identified as important and those the staff identified principals as using in all areas except two. Teachers rated implementation of change principles lower than principals rated the importance of the change principle in every case. Conclusions and recommendations. Principals believe they are better trained in change than they really are. When given the opportunity to identify change principles, principals failed in several areas. Staff identified principals using strategies that were not based on sound change principles. Based on this study, it is recommended that administrative staff development include elements to facilitate organizational change based on the change principles presented in this study, that training provided should include elements of effective staff development, that mentoring opportunities should be provided for all administrators, and that principals must model the change principles presented here.