A training model to enhance the effectiveness of school principals in Aseer educational district in Saudi Arabia

The purpose of this research is to investigate and analyze the perception of school principals in Aseer educational district in Saudi Arabia regarding the importance of principalship. It also attempts to determine the elements of a training program for all school principals. The study involves 101 (30%) of the 334 school principals in Aseer educational district. One hundred and one questionnaires, therefore, were sent to the randomly selected principals. The response rate was high and encouraging: 93 questionnaires were returned from which 90 were useable. A researcher-developed Likert five-scale questionnaire was constructed--"strongly disagree" as being 1 on the scale and "strongly agree" as being 5. For the purpose of statistical analysis, the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used to analyze the collected data. Descriptive statistics were used to report the data regarding perception (research questions 1, 2, and 3). Three independent variables (evaluation of the previous training, the importance of principalship, and the framework of the proposed training program) and three dependent variables (the respondents' degree, experience in educational administration, and their previous training) were developed and tested by correlation using inferential statistic, t-test and chi-square techniques. Although the perception of respondents regarding the importance of principalship's skills was high, their view of the effectiveness of their previous training program was low. Some significant results also were reported relative to the impact of respondents' degree, experience, and previous training on their perception towards the developed independent variables. In sum, the conclusions of this study produce evidence to support the need for further training of school principals not only in Aseer educational district but also throughout Saudi Arabia. Thus, a proposed framework of a training model is recommended based on the explored models of the United States.