What Is the Role of the School Principal?
To better understand the roles and responsibilities of schools across
countries, TIMSS asked school principals how much time per month they
spend on various school-related activities. Specifically, they were
asked how much time they spend on instructional leadership activities,
including discussing educational objectives with teachers, initiating
curriculum revisions and planning, training teachers, and engaging
in professional development activities. They were also asked how much
time they spend talking with parents, counseling and disciplining
students, and responding to requests from local, regional, or national
education officials. Further, they responded to questions about how
much time they spend on administrative duties, including hiring teachers,
representing the school in the community and at official meetings,
and doing internal tasks (e.g., regulations, school budget, timetable).
Finally, they were asked how much time they spend teaching.
The results presented in Exhibit
7.3 show that principals reported spending per month, on average
across all the TIMSS 1999 countries, 51 hours on administrative duties,
35 hours communicating with various constituents, 33 hours on instructional
leadership activities, and 16 hours teaching.(4)
Compared with the international profile, principals in the United
States reported spending more time communicating with students, parents,
and education officials (over 50 hours per month, on average), and
very little time teaching. Reports from principals in the Benchmarking
jurisdictions generally resembled those of the United States overall.
It is interesting to note that principals in Jersey City and Rochester
reported spending 72 hours per month communicating with students,
parents, and education officials, while principals in Indiana and
the Michigan Invitational Group reported spending 74 hours per month
on administrative duties.
A number of the comparison countries, such as Canada, Chinese Taipei,
Hong Kong, and Singapore, have patterns of principals’ use of
time similar to that of the United States. For example, unlike in
most European countries (e.g., the Czech Republic and Russian Federation
among comparison countries), principals in these countries spend relatively
little time teaching, and most of it on administrative duties, communicating
with constituents, and engaging in instructional leadership activities.
