This ethnographic study of 16 Chicago school principals explores the principal's effect on students and teachers within the school; on parents and laymen in the community; on their superiors in the administrative hierarchy; and on themselves as career-oriented professionals. A brief literature review relates studies examining the principalship of…

Current school restructuring experiments are likely to result in more balanced local education systems characterized by decentralized and centralized control. The potential leadership contributions of school district superintendents in a balanced system are described in this exploratory study, which is based on agency theory, a politics-oriented…