Differences in emotional intelligence abilities between principals in high-poverty AYP schools and principals in high-poverty non-AYP schools in an urban school district.

摘要

This study examined the differences in levels of emotional intelligence (as measured by the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT)) between principals in high-poverty schools that made "adequate yearly progress" (AYP), as defined by No Child Left Behind, for two consecutive years and principals in high-poverty schools that did not make AYP for the same two years. The selected principals (n = 29) worked in the same urban district and had served in their schools for the past three years. All 29 schools in the study had free/reduced lunch populations over 60%. Previous research identified a number of core leadership practices as crucial to the effectiveness of principals in influencing student achievement. These practices were also identified as being most consistent with a transformational style of leadership. Additionally, pre-existing research has correlated higher levels of emotional intelligence to leadership success in general, specifically to transformational leadership. In particular, relationships between transformational leadership and the Perceiving Emotions and Managing Emotions branches of the MSCEIT had been established. The findings of this study revealed no statistically significant differences between AYP and non-AYP principals when using an alpha level of .05. Practical significance was, however, established with notable effect sizes in Perceiving (partial Eta squared = 0.01) and Managing emotions (partial Eta squared = 0.054). According to the benchmarks established by Cohen (1988), these register as a small effect size (Perceiving Emotions) and a medium effect size (Managing Emotions). Notably, these are the branch scores of the MSCEIT found to be related to transformational leadership, which is further consistent with practices associated with effective school leadership. These findings suggest that the MSCEIT may have practical application as a tool for the recruitment, selection and development of principals for high-poverty, urban schools. Suggestions for future research, including a replication of the current study with a larger sample size, are discussed.