Do leaders’ experience and concentration area influence school performance?

The purpose of this study was to examine the educational background of leaders in small, high poverty, high minority schools in an effort to determine if the leader’s concentration area and background were related to the academic success of the students. Through a causal comparative design, a modified version of the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) Self- Assessment (CCSSO, 2000) was used to collect data from principals and assistant principals to answer the following research questions: Is there a difference between the leader’s concentration area (counseling, mathematics, language arts, science, etc.) and school rating? Is there a difference between the number of years of experience and school rating? This study used the Chi Square Test of Independence, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and a post-hoc comparison to identify differences between the variables and research questions. The findings revealed that two or more years of experience at the same school had a significant impact on the academic rating of the school, while concentration area did not significantly impact the overall academic school rating. Keywords: educational leadership, minority, poverty, tenure, concentration area