A STUDY OF ACTIVITIES, DUTIES, AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL BUSINESS EDUCATION DEPARTMENT CHAIRPERSONS

The problem of this study was to compare the opinions of secondary school principals, business education department chairpersons, and business education teachers in selected secondary schools in the North-Central Region of the National Business Education Association regarding the importance of selected activities, duties and responsibilities of the secondary school business education department chairperson.;The following hypotheses were tested in this study: (1) In schools that have a business education department chairperson, there is no significant difference in the opinions of secondary school principals, business education department chairpersons, and business education teachers when the three groups are classified by position, size of school, sex, age, highest degree earned, and years of experience in present position. (2) There is no significant difference in the opinions of secondary school principals in schools with and without business education department chairpersons regarding the importance of the activities, duties, and responsibilities of the business education department chairperson. (3) There is no significant difference in the opinions of business education teachers in schools with and without business education department chairpersons regarding the importance of the activities, duties, and responsibilities of the business education department chairperson.;Based on the findings of this study, the following conclusions were made: (1) Business education department chairpersons, secondary school principals, and business education teachers differ substantially in their ratings of the importance of the activities, duties, and responsibilities of the business education department chairperson. (2) Business education teachers in schools with and without business education department chairpersons differ to some extent in rating the importance of the activities, duties, and responsibilities of the business education department chairperson. (3) Secondary school principals in schools with and without business education department chairpersons differ to some extent in rating the importance of the activities, duties, and responsibilities of the business education department chairperson. (4) Business education department chairpersons are not involved in staffing and evaluation activities, duties, and responsibilities to the extent implied by the literature. (5) Business education department chairpersons, business education teachers, and secondary school principals do not differ at all in rating the importance of the activities, duties, and responsibilities of the business education department chairperson when those activities, duties, and responsibilities are classified by category. (6) When classified by size of school, business education department chairpersons, secondary school principals, and business education teachers differ very little in rating the importance of the activities, duties, and responsibilities of the business education department chairperson. (7) When classified by age, sex, highest degree earned, and years of experience in present position, business education department chairpersons, secondary school principals, and business education teachers differ to some extent in rating the importance of the activities, duties, and responsibilities of the business education department chairperson.;The study began with a review of the related literature and research from which three separate questionnaires were developed: one for secondary school principals, one for business education department chairpersons, and one for business education teachers. Questionnaires were sent to 1,000 schools; a total of 588 (58.8 percent) of the schools responded in this study. Analysis of variance and t-tests were used to analyze the data.