Intended for use by graduate students in educational administration and supervision as well as by practicing school administrators, this book is a guide to the most effective practices surrounding the school principalship. Ideas in the book reflect current views of good management, including systems approaches, participative and collaborative decisionmaking, and contingency theory. Central to the book is the theory that each school is an ecological system containing six separate but interdependent subsystems: leadership, management, program, organization, performance, and school development. Collaborative endeavor--a healthy relationship between the subsystems--is necessary for the school to thrive as an organization in pursuit of new knowledge and new skills. Chapters 1 and 2 provide a fresh perspective on the principalship and develop the concept of an ecosystem. The following chapters examine in detail the various subsystems: chapter 3, leadership; chapters 4 and 5, goals (concepts and methodology); chapters 6 and 7, organization (organizing and developing work groups); chapter 8, performance; chapters 9, 10, and 11, program (a learning focus, student learning, and staff learning); and chapters 12, 13, and 14, management (influence systems, supervisory influence, and quality control). An appendix provides a simulation of personal management planning. Numerous figures and tables are provided, and an extensive bibliography is appended. (IW)