Computerization of school administration: impact on the principal's role - a case study

Abstract Changes in the principal’s role, resulting from the computerization of a high-school’s instruction-administration subsystem (i.e. a significant technological change), occurred in six major categories: accountability, instruction evaluation, supervision, feedback, frequency of meetings, and shared decision-making. The principal’s interrelations with department heads, homeroom teachers and teachers, tightened significantly. The principal’s interrelations with the school computer administrator (a new role created as a result of the introduction of a school management information system), were found to be tight and on a daily basis. The results of this research might have significant theoretical and practical implications. They should be related to SMIS impact on schooling in general and on the principal’s role in particular.

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