Study Guide

Building-Level Administrator
Sample Questions

Expand All | Collapse All

Competency 0001
Understand how to facilitate the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a school vision of success for all students that is supported by the school community.

1. A middle school principal will be initiating efforts to create a new school vision that is aligned with a recently completed district vision. In developing the new vision, a key role of the principal should be to ensure that the final product reflects:

  1. current school plans and initiatives that have widespread support among members of the school community.
  2. state and national curriculum standards that are relevant to content-area learning at the middle school level.
  3. the current demographic profile of the school community and projected changes in cultural, economic, and linguistic diversity.
  4. the views of a broad cross section of school stakeholders regarding priorities for student growth and learning.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D. A school vision is likely to be most powerful and sustainable when the specific goals and purposes of schooling that are defined in the vision are shared by school stakeholders. By gathering the views of a broad cross section or representative sample of stakeholders regarding specific priorities for the school, the principal can help ensure that the final vision will be aligned with and responsive to local goals for student growth and learning and thus that it will be shared and supported in ways that contribute to its sustainability.

Competency 0001
Understand how to facilitate the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a school vision of success for all students that is supported by the school community.

2. A principal has been informed that he will be expected to lead the development of a new vision for his school that is aligned with a recently redeveloped district vision. The principal has formed a team that includes a representative group of school faculty and staff, parents/guardians, and community members who will be involved in drafting the new school vision. Now the principal is creating an agenda for the team's first meeting. The meeting will begin with team member introductions and a brief training on the purposes of a vision. Which of the following agenda items would be most helpful and appropriate to take next?

  1. Reach consensus on identifying high-priority school needs.
  2. Discuss a variety of alternative structures for a new vision.
  3. Analyze major elements of the new district-level vision.
  4. Evaluate the current relevance of the existing school vision.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C. According to the information provided, the reason the principal has been asked to develop a new vision for his school is to have a school vision that is aligned with the new district vision. Therefore, the principal's first step in leading the vision development team should be to have the team carefully review the district vision to identify its key elements and ensure that those elements will be featured prominently in the school vision as well.

Competency 0001
Understand how to facilitate the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a school vision of success for all students that is supported by the school community.

3. During the past two years, a middle school has been implementing a vision-aligned plan to improve student performance in writing. In which of the following situations would it be most critical for the principal to take steps to review and modify the plan with others in the school community?

  1. A recently administered student survey indicates many students lack confidence in their academic writing proficiency.
  2. New technological tools and other instructional materials for promoting student writing proficiency are now available.
  3. Highly respected education journals have been publishing the results of recent research on student writing proficiency.
  4. Results of a standardized assessment indicate a lack of student progress in a key area of student writing proficiency.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D. A crucial component of any plan to improve student performance involves having procedures in place to evaluate the plan's effectiveness by monitoring student progress. After implementing a plan for two years, school leaders and others should expect to see significant gains in student performance in the targeted area. If this is not the case, then it is time to review and modify the original plan in ways that will increase its effectiveness in meeting defined performance goals.

Competency 0002
Understand how to create and sustain a positive school culture and learning environment that promote excellence and equity for all students.

4. A recently hired principal is reviewing the results of a student survey that was administered to all students in the school during the previous school year. In the survey, students are asked to read a number of statements and specify the extent to which they agree or disagree with each statement. An analysis of student responses to which of the following survey statements is likely to provide the principal with the strongest evidence regarding the extent to which the school has established a strong culture of achievement?

  1. I am challenged to work hard and do my best in class.
  2. I have opportunities to work with my peers on learning tasks.
  3. My teachers care about me and treat me with respect.
  4. My teachers give me help with my schoolwork when I need it.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A. A strong culture of achievement is evident when students and teachers share collaborative responsibility and accountability for setting and meeting high standards for academic achievement. Student responses to a survey prompt stating that "I am challenged to work hard and do my best in class" would indicate the degree to which students feel they are consistently being held to the highest standards of achievement and accountability. Therefore, of the options provided, this survey prompt would be most useful in helping a principal gain insight into a school's success in creating a culture of achievement.

Competency 0002
Understand how to create and sustain a positive school culture and learning environment that promote excellence and equity for all students.

An elementary school has been struggling with student discipline problems, particularly in the upper elementary grades. A few years ago school staff developed a new set of highly specific behavior rules, along with consequences for those who break the rules. However, despite staff efforts to consistently implement these rules and consequences, the situation has not improved. In response, the principal decided to organize a team of stakeholders, including selected staff and parents/guardians, to generate a new code of conduct that will provide a basis for a schoolwide behavior management plan. Over the course of several meetings, the principal led the team in creating the following code of conduct:

Student Rights Student Responsibilities
To be safe To stand up for others and help them stay safe
To be treated with respect To respect others' differences
To be heard To listen to others
To learn without interference To allow others to learn without interference
To be treated with compassion To show care and compassion for others
To think for oneself To show respect for other people's ideas
To have one's personal space and property respected To be respectful of other people's personal space and property

5. In leading the team to create this code of conduct, the principal has best demonstrated recognition of the value of:

  1. establishing disciplinary guidelines that offer flexibility for students with varied strengths and needs.
  2. using a positive and proactive approach to create a positive school learning environment.
  3. linking specific types of classroom behavior to achievement for individuals and groups of students.
  4. creating a school culture that emphasizes students' responsibility for their own behavior.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B. In contrast to more traditional punitive approaches to student discipline, proactive approaches focus on preventing discipline problems before they occur by developing community norms that encourage positive, caring student-teacher and student-student relationships; preserve time for teaching and learning; and enhance students' sense of safety and belonging at school. The code of conduct shown defines a set of student rights and responsibilities that would provide a strong foundation for implementing such a proactive approach by creating a healthy and positive school environment in which all students feel safe, valued, and supported in their learning and development.

6. In planning a professional development session on the new code of conduct for school faculty, the elementary principal prepares a list of strategies teachers should use in introducing their students to the code. Which of the following strategies would be most helpful and appropriate to include in the list?

  1. Guide students to identify everyday examples that illustrate each right and responsibility in the new code.
  2. Prompt each student to express orally or in writing his or her personal views and attitudes about the new code.
  3. Help students understand similarities and differences between the current code of conduct and the new code.
  4. Have each student identify one or more components of the new code that will be a priority for him or her to master.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A. To be able to adhere to the new code of conduct, students will first need to understand what the various components of the code mean in terms of specific expectations for their own behavior in school. Since the code is written in general and fairly abstract terms, and most elementary students still have limited abstract thinking abilities, students at this level will need explicit instruction to interpret the meaning of the generalities contained in the code. Such instruction can best be provided by helping students generate familiar examples from their everyday lives to illustrate each right and responsibility in the code.

Competency 0003
Understand how to provide an effective instructional program using research-supported best practices in instruction and assessment that promote academic success for all students.

7. A principal decides to start conducting more frequent classroom walkthroughs as one way to expand and deepen her understanding of her school's current strengths and needs in instruction. Which of the following observations made during these walkthroughs should the principal consider her highest priority to address?

  1. Many teachers do not spend a great deal of available class time providing their students with direct instruction on curricular content.
  2. Teachers frequently allow planned class discussions to veer off course in response to particular student comments or questions.
  3. Many teachers use student questioning that focuses mostly or entirely on recall of factual information from readings or presentations.
  4. Teachers often administer classroom assessments that are not fully aligned to the content addressed in the textbooks students are using.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C. When used effectively, teacher questioning can enhance and facilitate student learning. Although questioning to check for student recall of information taught can be useful, teachers who fail to incorporate other types of questions into their instruction are missing an important opportunity to encourage deeper student understanding and engagement. Effective teachers have a repertoire of questioning techniques they use to promote students' curiosity, engage them in higher-order thinking, challenge them to make connections and delve deeper into content, and prompt them to consider new possibilities. Therefore, of the options provided, the principal should be most concerned about and should take steps to address teachers' strong focus on questioning to assess student recall.

Competency 0003
Understand how to provide an effective instructional program using research-supported best practices in instruction and assessment that promote academic success for all students.

8. The teachers in a middle school recently received training in skills and strategies for providing differentiated instruction. Soon after the training is complete, the principal observes a language arts class in which students have been reading a novel. Which of the following behaviors observed by the principal in this class would best indicate the teacher's ability and willingness to apply principles of differentiated instruction?

  1. The teacher provides a modified writing assignment including a choice of questions and additional examples for students who are struggling with the novel.
  2. Students are placed in groups according to their ability to participate in a discussion about important themes found in a section of the novel that the class recently completed.
  3. The teacher assigns different amounts of homework to students achieving at different levels, with high achievers having the least homework and lower achievers having the most.
  4. Students who are more proficient readers are paired with struggling students to provide them with tutoring and support during a class activity involving the novel.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A. According to ASCD, "Differentiated instruction is an approach to teaching in which educators actively plan for students' differences so that all students can best learn. In a differentiated classroom, teachers divide their time, resources, and efforts to effectively teach students who have various backgrounds, readiness and skill levels, and interests." Of the response options provided, only response A reflects this approach to instruction. By giving students who exhibit different levels of comprehension modified writing assignments, the teacher shows evidence of actively planning for student differences by creating differentiated instructional materials that are responsive to diverse student learning strengths and needs.

Competency 0003
Understand how to provide an effective instructional program using research-supported best practices in instruction and assessment that promote academic success for all students.

9. School staff are likely to find student assessment data most useful for instructional planning and decision making when their analysis of the data focuses on:

  1. clarifying potential issues that may be influencing student achievement.
  2. determining quantitative criteria for ranking or categorizing students based on their performance.
  3. defining the gaps that exist between current outcomes and learning goals.
  4. identifying relationships between demographic or other characteristics and students' school success.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C. When planning instruction, teachers define specific learning goals they want their students to achieve and identify the methods they will use to help students achieve those goals. The purpose of assessment is to provide information for determining whether particular learning goals have been achieved. When teachers use assessment data to define gaps that exist between current student outcomes and learning goals, they can pinpoint specific areas of difficulty for students and engage in instructional planning and decision making aimed at addressing those particular gaps and thus helping students achieve the specified goals.

Competency 0004
Understand how to provide professional development opportunities and create comprehensive professional growth plans that support school improvement and promote learning for all students.

10. An elementary school principal wishes to promote staff learning and school improvement by having the teachers in each grade-level team work collaboratively on action research projects. The principal will begin by providing all faculty with training on skills and strategies for conducting action research. During the training, the principal will use examples of particular action research topics to help participants understand what will be expected of them when they pursue their own action research. Which of the following topics would be most appropriate to use for this purpose?

  1. factors in the home that tend to promote or inhibit student learning
  2. the use of rewards and punishment to increase responsible classroom behavior
  3. practices that have been shown to promote reading proficiency for English language learners
  4. the prerequisite knowledge and skills needed to achieve the fourth-grade mathematics standards
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B. In the school context, action research is a process of inquiry conducted by and for teachers using data from their own classrooms. Action research projects are designed to help teachers determine how to increase the effectiveness of their own teaching and their students' learning. The action research process begins by identifying a particular element of teaching practice that participants wish to investigate in order to make teaching and learning more successful. Of the options provided, only investigating "the use of rewards and punishment to increase responsible classroom behavior" would lend itself to the kinds of classroom data collection that characterize action research and would lead to answers that would enhance teaching and learning in the classrooms studied.

Competency 0004
Understand how to provide professional development opportunities and create comprehensive professional growth plans that support school improvement and promote learning for all students.

11. New teachers in a school are expected to keep a journal about the lessons they implement. The teachers are likely to be able to make the best use of this practice if the principal prompts them to begin each journal entry by addressing which of the following questions?

  1. What issues and problems arose during the course of my lesson?
  2. How could I revise my lesson goals to reflect more closely grade-level student standards?
  3. Which of my students in the class appeared to be most engaged in the lesson?
  4. Did my lesson cover sufficiently varied types of content for students with diverse interests and needs?
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A. An important goal for all new teachers is to improve their instructional practice. Keeping a journal about their instructional experiences provides new teachers with ongoing opportunities to think deeply about their own practice, reflect on their current successes and struggles in the classroom, and determine what they need to do to improve their teaching and their students' learning. A prompt that encourages a new teacher to ask himself or herself "What issues and problems arose during the course of my lesson?" can be expected to allow the teacher flexibility in thinking about multiple aspects of a lesson and identifying those aspects that were most challenging or problematic. Once specific issues and problems have been identified, then the teacher can move on to determine what changes should be made to help ensure more effective teaching in the future.

Competency 0004
Understand how to provide professional development opportunities and create comprehensive professional growth plans that support school improvement and promote learning for all students.

12. A newly hired assistant principal will be observing teachers in their classes and then helping each teacher create a professional growth plan. The school principal can best help prepare the new assistant principal to implement these tasks by guiding him or her to take which of the following actions?

  1. reviewing a range of alternative, high-quality teacher evaluation rubrics
  2. analyzing recent changes in student assessment data at the school and district level
  3. using upcoming faculty meetings to evaluate current teacher attitudes and behaviors
  4. reviewing local goals and priorities for improved teaching and learning
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D. In the situation described, the newly hired assistant principal will be expected to use the results of classroom observations to help teachers create professional growth plans. In developing these plans, another important factor for the assistant principal to consider besides observation results involves locally defined goals and priorities for improved teaching and learning. Knowledge of these goals and priorities will allow the assistant principal to focus efforts on those aspects of teaching and learning that are considered priorities by school and district leaders. By having everyone in the district who conducts teacher observations and works on creating professional growth plans focused on a similar set of goals and priorities, the district can be expected to make significant progress in moving toward goal achievement.

Competency 0005
Understand organizational and operational management, including relevant structures, policies, and procedures, and their use in ensuring a safe, efficient, and effective learning environment and supporting the school's vision and goals.

13. A high school will be transitioning from a traditional seven-period schedule to a block schedule in which the school day is divided into four instructional blocks of approximately 90 minutes each and the school year is divided into two semesters. The principal has provided substantial time for professional development aimed at helping teachers and other staff make a smooth transition. During the first month or two after the new schedule goes into effect, the principal can most effectively support the change process by:

  1. serving as a conduit of information to internal and external school stakeholders about areas of improvement and areas of concern resulting from block scheduling.
  2. overseeing the expansion of staff resources available in the school's professional library on block scheduling and its implications in the high school context.
  3. collecting and organizing school-level data to measure ways in which block scheduling is influencing important aspects of students' academic performance.
  4. soliciting and responding to feedback from school staff about progress they are making with block scheduling and issues they are encountering.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D. Effective school leadership most often requires collaboration with others to solve problems and respond to issues affecting the school community. In the situation described, school staff will be responsible for implementing a highly significant change to traditional ways of teaching and learning that many are likely to find challenging and stressful. By soliciting and being responsive to feedback from staff, especially in terms of helping them address problems they are encountering with the new system, the principal can promote the success of the new system while encouraging staff buy-in for new structures, policies, and procedures associated with the change they are experiencing.

Competency 0005
Understand organizational and operational management, including relevant structures, policies, and procedures, and their use in ensuring a safe, efficient, and effective learning environment and supporting the school's vision and goals.

14. A high school has been experiencing teacher morale problems that are creating barriers to achieving important school goals. In response, the principal will oversee efforts to create and administer a teacher survey aimed at facilitating effective decision making about organizational changes required to improve the situation. The principal can best help ensure that the survey will achieve the desired outcomes by:

  1. talking to teachers about the context and purposes of the survey before it is administered.
  2. allowing teachers to respond anonymously to the survey.
  3. soliciting teacher input regarding the form the survey will take and the questions to be asked.
  4. emphasizing the use of broad, open-ended survey questions.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B. Research has documented that poor teacher morale can have a negative impact on student achievement. For this reason, it is of vital importance for the principal of the school to address the issue. A survey provides teachers a forum to speak about their specific areas of concern, and provides the principal the information he or she needs to begin addressing the concerns. In order for the information to be authentic, teachers need to feel confident that they can honestly state their opinions, and an anonymous survey provides a platform in which this can happen.

Competency 0005
Understand organizational and operational management, including relevant structures, policies, and procedures, and their use in ensuring a safe, efficient, and effective learning environment and supporting the school's vision and goals.

15. A principal receives a school safety report for the school written by an outside consultant. The report identifies dangerous or disruptive events that could affect the school (e.g., an individual entering the building with a weapon, a chemical leak in a science lab, tainted food in the school cafeteria). For each event listed, the report also provides information about probability of occurrence, level of potential danger or disruptiveness, and the school's current level of preparedness. The report will mainly be used to help develop a new school safety plan. Besides developing a safety plan, the principal can use the report most effectively for which of the following additional purposes?

  1. reassessing current patterns of space utilization in different parts of the school building and grounds
  2. making more accurate predictions about when and where a school emergency is likely to occur next
  3. providing staff with training to heighten awareness about potential dangers facing the school
  4. making decisions about when and how to coordinate with different types of first responders
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C. Keeping students and staff safe are among the principal's most important responsibilities, and soliciting the support of an outside trained safety specialist is effective practice when developing a school safety plan. With a safety plan in place, school staff will need training on the various features of the plan, as well as training on what specific threats to safety might look like. The detailed report described will provide excellent site-specific information to support this training.

Competency 0006
Understand human, fiscal, and material resource management that is effective, legal, equitable, and aligned and that supports attainment of the school's vision and goals.

16. A school district has faced a number of budget cuts in recent years. After the most recent round of cuts is implemented, a principal in the district hears from teachers and other staff at his school about problems they are observing as a result of reduced funding. Which of the following problems reported to the principal should cause the most concern?

  1. Students' ability to use the school library has been substantially reduced due to reduced library hours and lower levels of staffing for the library.
  2. Translation and interpretation services for parents/guardians who are not proficient in English have been substantially reduced due to lower levels of funding available for these services.
  3. Community access to and use of school facilities after school hours and on weekends has been substantially reduced due to reduced hours for custodial staff.
  4. Student access to the Internet has been substantially reduced in some classes due to a lack of funds available for repairing existing computer resources or purchasing new computer resources.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B. School leaders are responsible for making decisions that are effective and equitable and that comply with legal guidelines. In the situation described, each of the problems reported to the principal could have some negative impact on some students and/or others in the school community. However, only the provision of translation and interpretation services for parents/guardians who need them is required by law, so that a reduction in such services could put the school in legal jeopardy. In addition, the principal should consider the well-documented relationship between parental involvement and student success. A significant reduction in the availability of translation and interpretation services for those parents/guardians who need them would be expected to substantially limit their potential for involvement and thus have a negative influence on achievement for affected students.

Competency 0006
Understand human, fiscal, and material resource management that is effective, legal, equitable, and aligned and that supports attainment of the school's vision and goals.

17. At the end of a school year, a high school principal receives the following table summarizing teacher recruitment and retention at his school over the past few years.

Four
Years Ago		 Three
Years Ago		 Two
Years Ago		 Last Year This Year
Total number of teachers in the school 62 67 66 71 75
Total number of teachers who retired or left the school for other reasons 11 9 5 15 12
Number of new faculty hires 13 16 8 10 19
Average years of teaching experience for new hires 2.5 1.8 3.0 6.2 1.8
Number of new hires leaving after their first year 6 8 5 7 10
New hires leaving after their second year 2 3 5 2 4

After reviewing the information in the table, the principal's most important priority should be to determine:

  1. how the number of teachers retiring or leaving for other reasons each year correlates with the number of new hires.
  2. why the number of new faculty hires at the school varies so much from year to year.
  3. how the total number of teachers in the school each year influences observed trends in recruitment and retention.
  4. why so many new teachers are deciding to leave after a year or two at the school.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D. The table provides valuable information about teacher turnover in the school. The numbers of teachers leaving the district stands out as most significant; these results are driving the data. When reviewing these data, it will be most important for a principal to ask why this is taking place. Retaining quality teachers is vital to ensuring that the best teachers are working with students. In addition, the district's investment in recruiting and training new teachers can be channeled to other purposes if new teachers can be retained.

Competency 0006
Understand human, fiscal, and material resource management that is effective, legal, equitable, and aligned and that supports attainment of the school's vision and goals.

18. The principal of a large elementary school is informed that too many students in his school who have been diagnosed with disabilities are being assigned to self-contained classrooms. In response, the principal will supervise a process of reviewing the placements of these students and transitioning many of them into general education classrooms. Which of the following strategies considered by the principal would best serve to facilitate this change?

  1. providing a willing general education teacher at each grade level with additional training on special education methods and having students from the self-contained classrooms assigned to those teachers
  2. working with special education staff to adjust their schedules so they will be able to offer additional support to general education teachers teaching students from self-contained classrooms
  3. overseeing future placement decisions at the school to ensure that no more than one or two students from self-contained classrooms are assigned to any one general education teacher
  4. reducing class size for general education teachers who have been assigned one or more of the students from self-contained classrooms to compensate for the extra demands placed on the teachers' time
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B. In the situation described, it can be assumed that students initially placed in a self-contained classroom have significant learning and or behavioral needs. Moving from a self-contained classroom to a general classroom is likely to be a significant transition for these students. Continued support from a certified special education teacher will help children through this transition and provide a level of consistency. The correct response describes a course of action that provides such support.

Competency 0007
Understand how to communicate and collaborate with parents/guardians and other stakeholders inside and outside the school, respond to diverse community interests and needs, and mobilize community resources to support and positively affect learning.

19. A school will be entering into a partnership with a large local business that has offered to provide the school with volunteer tutors and mentors. A good deal of planning has occurred to define goals for the partnership, clarify mutual responsibilities, identify and address training needs, and deal with other relevant matters. As the partnership enters the implementation phase, which of the following actions by the school principal is likely to be most effective in helping sustain a positive and productive relationship with the business partner moving forward?

  1. arranging regular meetings between designated individuals from the school and the business to discuss the tutoring and mentoring and how it is working out
  2. establishing a formal evaluation system for individuals serving tutoring and mentoring functions that aligns with the evaluation system used by the business partner
  3. facilitating direct contact between teachers and others in the school who work with the tutors and mentors and the supervisors of those individuals in the business workplace
  4. creating opportunities for leaders of the business organization to observe their employees in action in their roles as tutors and mentors in the school
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A. Partnerships between schools and other local organizations typically require ongoing collaboration and communication in order to thrive. In the situation described, many individuals from both the school and the business will be involved and will be interacting on a regular basis. Arranging regular meetings between school and business personnel can help maintain a positive and productive relationship by ensuring that issues and concerns that arise between individuals or groups as the partnership proceeds can be identified, discussed, and addressed in a timely and collaborative fashion.

Competency 0007
Understand how to communicate and collaborate with parents/guardians and other stakeholders inside and outside the school, respond to diverse community interests and needs, and mobilize community resources to support and positively affect learning.

20. A middle school principal is aware that families in her school who have diverse backgrounds often hold very different ideas about school priorities and how best to use the school's limited resources. Increasingly, these differences have been leading to public conflict, including accusations that the school is failing to adequately consider the views of some stakeholder groups. The principal wants to take steps to improve her own and her staff's ability to understand and be responsive to the diverse views of the school community. Which of the following approaches is likely to be most effective in helping achieve this goal?

  1. striving to include people from diverse backgrounds in school governance and decision-making groups and activities
  2. organizing more frequent community gatherings to communicate with people from diverse backgrounds about school plans
  3. providing opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds to have direct involvement in aspects of the instructional program
  4. inviting people from diverse backgrounds to attend and speak up at faculty and staff meetings that address topics of interest
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A. Research has verified the positive impact that family involvement has on a child's education. A disconnect between families and the school can lead to poor academic performance, poor attitudes toward school, and in this case, poor public perceptions of the school. One method for combating disconnect is to develop open and trusting relationships with families. Of the options provided, only opening up school governance and decision-making offers a path to developing trusting relationships and providing all families with meaningful opportunities for involvement with the school.

Competency 0007
Understand how to communicate and collaborate with parents/guardians and other stakeholders inside and outside the school, respond to diverse community interests and needs, and mobilize community resources to support and positively affect learning.

21. In an elementary school with many low-achieving students, teachers are encouraged to send home ideas for activities that parents/guardians can do with their children to enhance school achievement. In talking to teachers about how to select such activities, the school principal should emphasize the importance of choosing activities that:

  1. highlight for families specific aspects of their child's progress.
  2. allow families to introduce high-priority knowledge and skills to their child.
  3. are expected to be relatively easy for all families to implement.
  4. can be readily adapted by families to respond to their child's specific needs.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C. Providing families with opportunities to support student learning is an important strategy for improving overall achievement. Homework offers an opportunity to involve family members by participating in the child's educational experience, becoming familiar with some of the skills being taught in school, and demonstrating a positive attitude about school work. However, if the suggested activities are overly complicated or difficult for the child, then the interaction can become combative and frustrating and the opportunity for positive involvement is lost. For this reason, it is wise to provide homework activities that can be easily implemented by families.

Competency 0008
Understand the personal and professional responsibilities of principals/directors, including legal and ethical principles and practices.

22. A principal's conduct would most likely be considered unethical if he or she:

  1. spoke at a public event in opposition to a new policy currently being considered by the local school board.
  2. arranged to have students' online activities while they are at school monitored by school staff members.
  3. used a personal relationship with a student's family as a key factor in determining how to respond to misbehavior by the student.
  4. wrote a letter of recommendation for a staff member that fails to mention problems with the staff member's performance.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C. Principals are responsible for ensuring that all students and staff are treated in ways that are equitable, ethical, and in the best interest of the entire school community. By ensuring fair and consistent implementation of the building code of conduct, the principal can help ensure that all students' needs will be met while modeling behavior that is respectful, professional, and ethical. Alternatively, a decision that favors a misbehaving student because of a personal relationship would be considered inequitable and unethical.

Competency 0008
Understand the personal and professional responsibilities of principals/directors, including legal and ethical principles and practices.

23. A student and her family recently became homeless and have taken up temporary residence in a shelter in a neighboring community. The student and her parents would like her to continue going to the school she has been attending, but the homeless shelter is outside her school's regular attendance area, and the student's continued attendance would require daily transportation to and from the school. In this situation, which of the following accurately describes a legal responsibility of the principal at the student's current school?

  1. making a placement decision for the student based on the expected length of time she will remain at the shelter
  2. seeing that free transportation between the shelter and the school is made available to the student
  3. securing proof of residency and documentation of the family's financial situation and current income
  4. providing the student's parents with the documents needed to register her at a school in the shelter's attendance area
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is a federal law designed to provide assistance to homeless families. In order to provide stability and consistency in the education of children who are homeless, the law calls for free transportation for a homeless child from their current residence to their school of origin. Based on the scenario described, the child would be eligible for free transportation, and the principal is legally obligated to make the arrangements.

Competency 0008
Understand the personal and professional responsibilities of principals/directors, including legal and ethical principles and practices.

24. Which of the following individuals wishing to view a high school student's permanent school record would be required by law to obtain prior permission from the student, if 18 or over, or the student's legal guardian?

  1. a teacher's aide with whom the student has been working
  2. a police detective investigating possible illegal behavior by the student
  3. a noncustodial parent of the student who lives outside the state
  4. a local employer to whom the student has applied for a job
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student educational records and applies to all schools that receive federal funds. Under FERPA, a school must receive written permission to release information from a student record except in certain situations. In this item, only the correct response describes a person who would not be allowed to view the student's records without prior permission.