Summary of the “Survey on the Status of the Duties of Senior Vice Principals and Vice Principals”

1. Purpose and summary of the research studies(1) Purpose of the research studies
The planning and implementation of a curriculum which nurtures the competencies required of a new era isessential, but there is also a need to build up “the school as a team” in order to solve the increasingly more
complex and diverse problems that the schools face, and to ensure that teachers have enough time to fullyinteract with the children. In order for the school to be able to function as a team, it is now necessary more thanever for the principal to be able to demonstrate his or her leadership skills and to reinforce the functions ofmanagement. However, the principal cannot simply exert his or her leadership alone. What is crucial is toreinforce the structure of team support for the principal as referenced in the “Report on Ideal of the School asa Team and Future Improvement Strategies” of the Central Council for Education, 2015, which stated “theinvolvement of the administrators as part of the team is effective for school reform through the establishmentof a system to properly share the principal’s leadership and authority, and a system to assist with the decisionsof the principal such as the placement of a senior vice principal, the placement of multiple vice principals andthe placement of a school business manager”.
The senior vice principal and vice principals, who are pivotal in the system as a support team for the
principal, are expected now more than ever to demonstrate their leadership skills such as in coordinating theteachers, office staff and specialist staff, and in human resource development. As well as organizing a system
which allows the senior vice principal and vice principals to focus on leading the staff by revising coordination
with and the work of the office administration staff, measures are required to improve the skills and abilities ofthe senior vice principal and vice principals, and to employ talented professionals in these positions. At suchtime, since the system for the administrators as a team will differ depending on the type of school, it is essential
to give thought to strategies for improvement taking into account the differences in the senior vice principal
and vice principal’s duties and their awareness of their duties depending on the school.
Therefore, taking into account the differences between the school types, this study will analyze: (i) actual
involvement as well as ideal involvement in the office administration work of school management, (ii) the skills
and abilities acquired by the senior vice principal and vice principals (level of skills and abilities), (iii) correlations
between the level of job satisfaction, personal characteristics, and characteristics of the school organization andmanagement structure, and (iv) the expectations of learning at the graduate school level in terms of acquiring theskills and abilities necessary as a senior vice principal or vice principal. The aim through this analysis is to obtainfindings which will contribute to the consideration of future strategies to reinforce the functions of the senior viceprincipal and vice principal.

Personal characteristics ... (qualitative variables) by gender, and senior vice principal or vice principal,(quantitative variables) total years of experience as a senior vice principal or vice assistant principal, total yearsof service on the Board of Education, the value of opportunities for growth as the senior vice principal or viceprincipal.

Characteristics of the school organization and management structure ... (quantitative variables) number of years
as a full-time teacher at the current school, number of years as the senior vice principal or vice assistant principal
at the current school, number of years as a senior teacher at the current school, actions of the school officeadministrative staff, supportive relationship of the school office administrative staff towards the senior viceprincipal and vice principals.

(2) Summary of the research studies
A survey entitled “The Survey on the Status of the Duties of Senior Vice Principals and Vice Principals” wasconducted of 2,800 senior vice principals and vice principals throughout the country from November 1, 2015 to
the end of November 2015. In order to be able make a comparison according to school type, 700 senior viceprincipals/ vice principals from elementary schools, lower secondary schools, upper secondary schools andschools for special needs education were surveyed respectively. The number of valid responses was 2,030, andthe valid response rate was 72.5%.
These research studies form a part of the “Comprehensive Research on the Educating, Placement and Trainingof Teachers to Nurture Children’ Competencies, Research Project Leader: Akihide Osugi, Director of the
Department for Elementary and Secondary Education Research, research period: FY 2015-2016”.

2. Summary of the research outcomes(i) Involvement of the vice principal and assistant principal in the office administration work of school
management
The establishment of a system enabling the senior vice principal and vice principals to be able to further focus
on leading and guiding the school staff is required, and this means understanding and revising the involvementof the senior vice principal and vice principal in the office administration work of school management. The officeadministration work of school management was divided into the categories of “general affairs (documents andinformation) management”, “personnel management”, “facilities management”, “accounting management”, and“public relations”, and 41 questions were asked in total with the four possible answers of “Not at all involved(non-involvement)”, “Coordination only of the work (coordination)”, “Only in charge of practical affairs(practical affairs)” and “Coordination of the work as well as involvement in practical affairs (coordination +practical affairs)”.
In order to analyze the differences in actual involvement in the office administration work of school
management by school type, the study used cross tabulation and a statistical significance test (χ2 test), and asignificant difference was observed in 39 of the questions. A residual analysis was conducted to check thequestions where a significant difference was observed. The result showed as in the numbers in the rows ofFigure 1 that the observed values were significantly larger than the expected values.

[Figure 1 The numbers in the rows show observed values which are significantly higher than the expected values
for involvement in the office administration work of school management by school type]Elementary

The analysis made clear that the percentages of elementary schools and lower secondary schools which
selected “coordination + practical affairs” were higher than those for upper secondary schools and schools for
special needs education, and that the percentages of upper secondary schools and schools for special needs
education which selected “non-involvement” were higher than those for elementary schools and lower
secondary schools. In the upper secondary schools and schools for special needs education, the “noninvolvement” in the office administration work of school management is thought to be owing to theinvolvement of the vice principal, assistant principals or administrative office of which there were many. By
contrast, since the office administration system tended to be less robust in the elementary schools and lower
secondary schools, one vice principal or assistant principal was thought to be involved extensively in handlinga wide range of office administration work of school management.
Next, the survey asked about ideal involvement in the office administration work of school management
for each of the 41 questions, and having analyzed the differences between actual involvement and ideal
involvement, the questions for which there were large disparities were more numerous for elementary schools
and lower secondary schools than for upper secondary schools and schools for special needs education, andthese were seen in some areas of “general affairs management” such as in the “collection of documents”, “thework of sending emergency emails, and “the work of information network management”; across the board for“facilities management”; and in some areas of “public relations” such as in “contacting the relevantorganizations and businesses for school events”, “PTA work”, “complaints processing”, “ the administration
work for extracurricular activities”, “school public relations work”, and “the work of data processing of school
evaluations”. Redistributing these kinds of work in relation to establishing a system enabling the vice principal
and assistant principals to be able to focus on leading and guiding the school staff is thought to be valid.

(ii) The skills and abilities acquired by the senior vice principal and vice principals (level of the skills andabilities), and correlation between personal characteristics and the characteristics of the schoolorganization and management structure
There is a need to improve the skills and abilities of the senior vice principal and vice principals, and inparticular, looking ahead to the next revision of the Courses of Study, the skills to lead and guide the staff. Thirtyfour questions were asked with regard to the senior vice principal and vice principal’s acquisition of skills andabilities, and when the respondents were asked to evaluate themselves on their level of acquisition, their personalevaluation of their “leadership skills” was shown to be the lowest out of the six extracted skills and abilities.
By school type, as seen in Table 2, the results with regard to “leadership skills” were upper secondary >elementary, special needs education; with regard to “ability to support the principal”, the results were upper
secondary > elementary, lower secondary, and special needs education; with regard to “educational leadershipskills”, the results were upper secondary > elementary, special needs education; with regard to “ability tocoordinate with parties outside the school”, the results were lower secondary, upper secondary > special needs
education; and with regard to “ability to perform office administration work” the results were lower secondary >special needs and upper secondary > elementary, special needs education.

【Table 2 Results of the variance analysis by school of the level of acquisition of skills and abilities】
Level ofacquisition of

Elementary
schools

Lower secondary Upper secondary
schools
schools

skill and abilities
subscales

Schools for
special needs
education
F value

Multiple comparisons

Average Standard Average Standard Average Standard Average Standard
deviation
deviation
deviation
deviation

Leadership skills

3.72

0.55

3.79

0.50

3.86

0.51

3.71

0.54

9.62

***Upper > elementary, special

Ability to support the
principal
Educational leadershipskillsWell-rounded character

3.96

0.52

4.01

0.50

4.12

0.49

3.97

0.52

10.71

3.89

0.42

3.92

0.45

3.98

0.43

3.89

0.46

5.34

** Upper > elementary, lower,* special needs ed.
** Upper > elementary, special
needs ed.

3.87

0.61

3.89

0.56

3.96

0.58

3.88

0.59

2.38

Ability to coordinate withparties outside the school
Ability to perform officeadministration work

3.87

0.57

3.93

0.55

3.95

0.57

3.79

0.57

8.02

***Lower, upper > special needs

3.83

0.63

3.90

0.63

3.94

0.62

3.78

0.62

6.78

***Upper > elementary,needs ed.

ed.
Lower > special needs ed.

special needs ed.

**p＜.01，***p＜.001

Looking at the correlation of personal characteristics (qualitative variables) to skills and abilities for each school type,by gender, the results showed with regard to lower elementary schools: “a well-rounded character” (women > men);with regard to upper secondary schools: “a well-rounded character”, “ability to cooperate with parties outside of theschool”, “ability to perform office administration work” (all showed men > women); with regard to schools for special
needs education: “leadership skills”, “ability to support the principal”, “ability to cooperate with parties outside of theschool” (all showed men > women). In addition, by vice principal or assistant principal, the results for the elementary
schools showed: for all items (senior vice principal> vice principal); for lower elementary schools: “leadership skills”,“ability to support the principal” (all showed (senior vice principal> assistant principal), for schools for special needs
education: “ability to support the principal” (vice principal> vice principal). Moreover, a correlation analysis of thepersonal characteristics (quantitative variables) showed weak correlations or moderate correlations (the correlation
coefficients were significant for all, hereinafter the same) between the opportunities for growth through “information
sharing (information sharing, etc. using social media networks)”, the opportunities for growth through “coordination
with the school office administration staff” (coordination with school office administration staff), the opportunities for
growth through “administrative training (administrative training after becoming vice-principal, assistant principal, etc.)”,the opportunities for growth through “self-training (writing of reports on practices and papers on practices etc.), theopportunities for growth through “recommended training (leadership training at the National Institute of Special Needs,etc.)”, and the level of acquisition of skills and abilities. As an example, Table 3 shows the results of analysis for theschools for special needs education.
[Table 3 Correlation analysis of the acquisition of skills and abilities as a senior vice principal or vice principal
and personal characteristics (quantitative variables) – schools for special needs education]

Leadership

Ability to

Educational

Well-

Ability to coordinateAbility to performskillssupport theleadershiproundedwith parties outside officeprincipal

skillscharacterthe school

administration workTotal number of years of experience

0.191

0.179

0.145

-0.013

0.079

0.090

Total number of years of service on the Board of
Education
Opportunities for growth through “information sharing”-0.005-0.052-0.059-0.0220.037-0.035

0.210

0.181

0.143

0.228

0.206

0.156

Opportunities for growth through “coordination with theschool office administration staff”
Opportunities for growth through “administrative training”

0.166

0.140

0.135

0.154

0.118

0.093

0.147

0.068

0.073

0.103

0.090

0.116

Opportunities for growth through “self-training”

0.266

0.202

0.262

0.264

0.246

0.174

Opportunities for growth through “recommended
training”

0.476

0.506

0.407

0.515

0.471

0.330

An analysis of the correlation between the characteristics of the school organization and management
structure and the level of acquisition of the skills and abilities by school type showed that there were nocorrelations in any of the school types.

(iii) Correlation between job satisfaction and personal characteristics, and the characteristics of the schoolorganization and management structure
In order to employ talented professionals in the positions of senior vice principal and vice principal, there is a needto heighten the appeal of the job and to increase job satisfaction. As shown in Table 4 by school type, with regard to“relationship satisfaction (relationship with the parents)”, the results showed elementary schools > schools for special
needs education and lower secondary schools > schools for special needs education; with regard to “satisfaction withthe state of the school (such as a comfortable school atmosphere)”, the results showed lower secondary schools >elementary schools, upper secondary schools, schools for special needs education; and with regard to “satisfaction
with work conditions (annual paid holidays, etc.)”, the results showed schools for special needs education >elementary schools.
【Table 4 Results of the variance analysis by school type of job satisfaction】
Elementary
schools

Lower secondary Upper secondary
schools
schools

Schools for
special needs
education
Multiplecomparisons

F value
Average Standard Average Standard Average Standard Average Standard
deviation
deviation
deviation
deviation
Job satisfaction

3.66

0.68

3.71

0.67

3.68

0.67

3.69

0.68

0.46

Relationshipsatisfaction
Satisfaction with thestate of the school
Satisfaction with work
conditions

3.94

0.53

3.96

0.53

3.87

0.54

3.81

0.53

9.01

*** Elementary, lower secondary

3.70

0.76

3.93

0.70

3.77

0.79

3.81

0.66

8.69

secondary > elementary*** Lower
upper secondary, special needs ed.

2.70

0.86

2.77

0.83

2.76

0.87

2.87

0.82

3.82

> special needs ed.

*

Special needs > elementary*p＜.05，***p＜.001

An analysis of the correlation between job satisfaction, personal characteristics and the school organization andmanagement structure demonstrated a certain level of correlation with the personal characteristics. In addition, a weak ormoderate positive correlation was observed between the actions of the school office administration staff such as “proactive
behavior (not establishing perimeters for their own work, and proactively doing whatever they could to help, etc.)” and“strategic behavior (understanding the principal’s management policies and striving to achieve the policies)”, and the
supportive relationship of the school office administrative staff towards the vice principal and assistant principals
such as “information support” (giving advice about practices)”, “instrumental support” (making suggestions about
redistribution of school duties or work, etc.), and “psychological support (supporting the vice principal and assistantprincipals in their position as office administration staff)”. In addition, there were also indications that the school officeadministration staff employed by the educational administration tended to provide greater strategic support, instrumental
support and psychological support than those employed through general administration. Therefore, this suggests thatrevising the role of the school office administration staff, building a system of collaboration with the school officeadministration staff and devising new forms of hiring may help improve the job satisfaction levels of the vice principal,
and assistant principals.

(iv) Expectations towards learning in graduate school
There is increasing interest in graduate education as being one of the most valuable opportunities for
improving the skills and abilities of the senior vice principal and vice principal. Using the questions that wereused to measure the level of acquisition of skills and abilities, the respondents were asked to choose five skills
or abilities which they thought would be “particularly useful points to acquire at the graduate school level inthe event of studying at a graduate school before becoming a senior vice principal or vice principal”, and the
top five traits which were chosen were in descending order: “knowledge of the education laws and regulations”,“crisis management skills”, “the ability to shape a management vision”, “knowledge of national and local
education policies”, and “expertise relating to the curriculum, course instruction and student guidance”, which
can be categorized as conceptual skills to develop a constructive and conceptual understanding of the school
situation and to make judgments with a view to the overall picture.
By school type, with regard to the elementary schools, the results showed a tendency of expectations ofacquiring “the ability to embody and practice the principal’s vision”, “the ability to respond to the actual
situation of the school”, “skills to deal with complaints from outside”, while with regard to the upper secondary
schools, while there were low expectations for acquisition of “knowledge relating to the children, education andorganization of the school type where the respondent worked”, the expectations were higher for acquisition of“knowledge relating to national and local educational policies”, “knowledge relating to the education laws andregulations”, “knowledge relating to facilities management and accounting management”, and “the ability tonegotiate, coordinate and collaborate with the Boards of Education”, and with regard to the schools for special
needs education, the expectations were for acquisition of “knowledge relating to the children, education andorganization of the school type where the respondent worked” (there were no rows/columns in which the lower
secondary schools showed a significant difference). This suggests that training vice principals and assistantprincipals at a graduate school based on the needs of the various schools would be effective.