Principal leadership behaviors which influence technology in middle schools

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to identify which of Marzano et al.'s 21 principal leadership behaviors were perceived to be useful for integrating technology into the curriculum by middle school principals of Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) grant programs.;Methodology. The researcher employed a descriptive and ex post facto study, which consisted of 50 principals of middle schools located in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Purposive sampling was used to identify principals within the population that met specific criteria. The data collected were used to compare the differences between Marzano et al.'s 21 principal leadership behaviors at California middle schools participating in the EETT grant program and California middle schools flot participating in the EETT grant program.;Findings. The results of this study indicated that there were no significant differences found for each of the 21 leadership behaviors between EETT middle school principals and non-EETT middle school principals. Both EETT middle school principals and non-EETT middle school principals ranked (a) monitors/evaluates, (b) communication, and (c) visibility in the top five useful behaviors for integrating technology into middle schools. In addition, both EETT and non-EETT middle school principals ranked order as the 10th most useful leadership behaviors when integrating technology in middle school. Finally, both EETT and non-EETT middle school principals ranked (a) knowledge of curriculum, instruction, assessment and (b) curriculum, instruction, assessment as the least likely to be useful for integrating technology in middle school.;Conclusions. Although there was no significant difference between EETT and non-EETT middle school principals and attending to each and every one of the 21 leadership behaviors may be overwhelming, it may be advantageous for principals to introduce selected leadership behaviors slowly. This task can be accomplished by using a variety of approaches. It is also concluded that lacking leadership behaviors, principals would be unsuccessful when integrating technology into the school curriculum.;Implications for action. Recommendations were made to assist practitioners in the integration of technology in middle schools. Specific leadership behaviors were suggested useful for integrating technology into middle schools. Furthermore, the researcher proposed that principals should designate time to focuses on specific strategies to improve the two leadership behaviors that EETT and non-EETT principals scored with the lowest mean: (a) knowledge of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and (b) curriculum, instruction, assessment.