Principal leadership and effective schooling for ESL students

Three purposes guided this study. One specific purpose was to identify the extent to which leadership styles and management differ among principals in elementary schools with different percentages of English as a Second Language students.; The second purpose of the study was to identify differences in principals' responses explained by self-reported levels of formal educational training in second language acquisition in elementary schools with different percentages of ESL student enrollment. The third purpose of the study was to identify differences in frame utilization and management goals explained by demographic differences in schools with different percentages of ESL student enrollment.; The Principals' Survey on English Language Learning, designed by the researcher, and the Bolman and Deal Leadership Orientation (Self) Survey were used to identify differences in frame utilization among the 103 elementary principals. The conceptual framework of leadership orientation was based on Bolman and Deal's (1997) book, Refraining Organizations.; Data collection was conducted in the spring of 2004. The combined survey also provided demographic descriptors on the sample of principals who responded. Ninety-three of the 103 principals sampled responded to the survey, a response rate of 90%.; The data analysis indicated that there were no statistically significant differences based on the four frames of the Principals' Survey on English Language Learning. Second, there were no statistically significant differences based on the four frames of the Bolman and Deal Leadership Orientation (Self) Survey. The third research question was based on self-reported levels of formal educational training in four areas of educating ELL students. The data collected indicate that none of the 93 principals had any training in the area of bilingual education.; Additional statistical analysis was computed based on the number of years in the principalship, race, age, level of education, and gender. With one exception, there were no statistically significant differences for any of the variables. There were statistically significant differences based on level of education for program management and instructional goals on the Principals' Survey. The differences indicated that the higher the degree held by the principal, the more frequently the principal used those two leadership behaviors.