Self-Perceived Competence of Secondary School Principals to Serve As School Leaders in Collaborative-Based Educational Delivery Systems

Collaboration appears to be an increasingly important component in the design and delivery of school and community-based services. However, few data are available to describe the leadership skills of school administrators of collaborative-based programs serving students with and without disabilities. The purpose of this study was to describe the self-perceived competence of secondary school principals to function as leaders in collaborative-based systems and to identify factors contributing to their leadership skills. A national sample of secondary school principals was asked to rate their level of competence to serve as leaders of collaborative-based programs. The results indicated that principals view their leadership skills for guiding collaborative-based programs to be within the average range. The three significant predictors of secondary school principals' self-perceived competence in collaboration were number of clock hours of non-credit-generating professional development activities, academic degrees, and number of years teaching in general education. Implications for research and practice are discussed.