Do school district central offices and school principals have the same level of influence on school decisions? What does the district–principal power relationship look like? These two questions are discussed but are rarely examined in the literature. Based on a nationally representative sample from the 2007-2008 Schools and Staffing Survey data, we explored these two questions. Specifically, we applied the paired samples t test to compare the district central offices’ and school principals’ influences and applied the multilevel modeling method to estimate the power relationship. We found that (a) on average, districts and principals had the same level of influence on establishing curriculum, whereas school principals had higher influence on the other six decision areas examined (performance standards, teachers’ professional development programs, evaluating teachers, hiring teachers, discipline policies, and school budget), and (b) a tight coupling power relationship between district central offices and school principals was identified for the three areas related to the technical core of schools (performance standards, establishing curriculum, and teachers’ professional development programs), a loose coupling power relationship was revealed for the personnel (hiring and evaluating teachers) and budget areas, while a decoupling power relationship was found for discipline policy decisions. Discussions and implications for school leadership and policy were included in this study.

中文翻译：

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紧、松或脱钩？中央办与校长决策权关系的全国性研究

学区中心办公室和学校校长对学校决策的影响程度是否相同？地区与地方权力的关系是什么样的？这两个问题被讨论过，但在文献中很少被研究。根据 2007-2008 年学校和人员配备调查数据中的全国代表性样本，我们探讨了这两个问题。具体而言，我们应用配对样本 t 检验来比较地区中心办公室和学校校长的影响，并应用多层次建模方法来估计权力关系。我们发现 (a) 平均而言，学区和校长对课程设置的影响程度相同，而校长对其他六个被审查的决策领域（绩效标准、教师专业发展计划、评估教师、聘用教师、纪律政策和学校预算），以及 (b) 在与学校技术核心相关的三个领域（绩效标准、课程设置、和教师专业发展计划），在人事（聘用和评估教师）和预算领域揭示了松散耦合的权力关系，而在学科决策方面发现了解耦的权力关系。本研究包括对学校领导和政策的讨论和影响。(b) 在与学校技术核心相关的三个领域（绩效标准、课程设置和教师专业发展计划），地区中心办公室和校长之间的权力关系是紧密耦合的，松散耦合的权力关系是揭示了人事（聘用和评估教师）和预算领域，而在学科政策决策中发现了脱钩的权力关系。本研究包括对学校领导和政策的讨论和影响。(b) 在与学校技术核心相关的三个领域（绩效标准、课程设置和教师专业发展计划），地区中心办公室和校长之间的权力关系是紧密耦合的，松散耦合的权力关系是揭示了人事（聘用和评估教师）和预算领域，而在学科政策决策中发现了脱钩的权力关系。本研究包括对学校领导和政策的讨论和影响。而在纪律政策决策中发现了脱钩的权力关系。本研究包括对学校领导和政策的讨论和影响。而在纪律政策决策中发现了脱钩的权力关系。本研究包括对学校领导和政策的讨论和影响。