Statement of the Problem:
The purpose of this study was to develop a proposed model for evaluating public secondary school principals in Palestine's northern governorates.
The research question:
As means of structuring the problem, the researcher sought the answers of the following questions.
1. What is the required change to be implemented in the present principals evaluation process in order to avoid the shortcominos of the present procedures and to attain the desired aim?
2. What is the educational supervisors' degree of support for the proposed evaluation model?
3. Do the educational supervisors' degree of support, for the proposed educational criteria to evaluate public secondary school principals in the northern governorates, differ according to: sex (female & male), academic qualification (diploma, B.A., (B.A. + diploma), M.A. and higher), Years of experience (Less than ten years, more than ten years)?
Methodology:
The study population consisted all educational supervisors in northern governorates of Palestine in the scholastic year (1998-1999), their total number was (171) supervisors, distributed in the governorates of Jerusalem: Hebron, Bethlahem, Jerusalem, Jericho, Ramallah, Salfeet, Nablus, Tulkarm, Jenin, and Qalqilia. For the purpose of the study, the researcher designed a questionnaire consisting of 71 items distributed among 11 domains. Indesigning the instruments, the researcher made use of educational literature and previous studies. After checking its validity and reliability, it was distributed among the subjects of the study. Out of 171, 164, of the subjects responded. he collected data were analyzed by the computer. The statistical methods of means, percentages and standard deviations were used in testing the questions of the study.
Findings:
The study revealed a high degree of support for the proposed evaluation form among the educational supervisors. The researcher c1essified the evaluation criteria, in a descending order, according to the degree of importance:
- Personality traits - Supervision and follow – up
- Financial management
- Communication
- Curricula development
– Organization
- Public relations
- Decision making
- Professional growth
- Evaluation Moreover, it was found that there was a small difference, in arithmetic averages, between male educational supervisors, degree of support and female educational supervisors' degree of support; the difference was in favor of male educational supervisors in the following criteria, personality traits, supervision and follow-up, planning, organization, public relations, curricula development and evaluation. Pertaining to experience variable, the averages were very close. But the narrow difference was in favor of those having more than ten years of experience in the following criteria : decision making, communication, supervision and follow - up, planning, financial management, evaluation and public relations. Concerning the academic qualification variable, the averages were + also very close .. But the narrow difference was in favor of those holding M.A and higher in the following criteria: decision making, communication, supervision and follow - up, planning and evaluation. Then, it was in favor of those holding B. A. + diploma in the following criteria: financial management, curricula development, personality traits, organization. These were followed by holders of diploma and B.A.
Recommendations:
1. The Palestinian Ministry of Education is recommended to adopt this proposed evaluation model.
2. The ministry of education is recommended to appoint administrative supervisors.
3. There is a necessity to assign the task of supervising and evaluating public secondary school principals to supervisors holding M.A. degree and higher.
4. There is a necessity to hold special training courses for the purpose of teaching the new supervisors the evaluating process of the secondary school principals.
5. The ministry of Education is recommended to appoint more females' supervisors to evaluate the secondary school principals.