The principal's trustworthiness: the impact on effective school leadership as perceived by teachers on selected campuses in the North East Independent School District

The primary purpose of the study was to identify the effective school leadership behaviors that build trust with teachers, as perceived by teachers on selected campuses in the North East Independent School District. A secondary purpose of the study was to determine whether demographic variables, such as gender, experience, and level of teaching, influence the relationship between teacher trust and effective school leadership. Of the 3,974 teachers in the district, 457 teachers were surveyed from one high, two middle, and four elementary schools. Findings in the study include the following:

1. The behaviors that had mean scores reflecting ratings closest to being critically important to building teacher trust were that the principal maintains confidentiality (4.76), is a good listener (4.73), gathers sufficient information before drawing a conclusion (4.61), reacts calmly in a crisis (4.59), and communicates clear expectations (4.55). 2. The Administrator Rating Form, developed by Ferris (1994), divided all the behaviors into three categories: (a) general professional, (b) personal authenticity, and (c) supervision/evaluation behaviors. The supervision/ evaluation behaviors were the least important of the three groups with a mean score of 4.14. This concludes that the general professional and authenticity behaviors result in building more trust than the supervision/evaluation behaviors.
2. It was determined that females show higher levels of trust in their administrators than that of their male counterparts. The teachers?????? number of years of experience had no effect on how they responded. Within the category of general professional behaviors of the principal, there was no significant difference in the responses of the three teaching levels. Within the other two categories, however, there was a significant difference in the responses of the three teaching levels. The following recommendations are based on the findings and conclusions:
3. The principal must maintain confidentiality and be a good listener.
4. Principals should establish a professionally personal relationship with each teacher.
5. Principals should be aware that: (a) male teachers are less trusting than female teachers, (b) teachers?????? years of experience has no bearing on building trust, and (c) elementary teachers are generally more trusting than secondary teachers.