Free SLLA Quiz – Wafa Hozien, Ph.D.

Welcome to your Free SLLA Practice Test Questions

1. What does research show about school leaders distributing leadership responsibilities for implementing a school vision and goals?

a. The most effective leaders are found to influence student achievement and school efficacy directly.

b. Today’s schools cannot be led by one principal without significant participation by other educators.

c. The traditional model of single, formal leadership exists because teachers lack a principal’s expertise.

d. Educational programs developed by one principal are easier for principals who follow to maintain.

2. Which of the following is the MOST effective strategy for a principal to communicate the school vision to school personnel?

a. The most effective leaders are found to influence student achievement and school efficacy directly.

b. Today’s schools cannot be led by one principal without significant participation by other educators.

c. The traditional model of single, formal leadership exists because teachers lack a principal’s expertise.

d. Educational programs developed by one principal are easier for principals who follow to maintain.

3. A principal has assembled a school vision oversight team and provided them with a variety of school data for background knowledge. The team is ready to engage school staff in developing a new school vision. Faculty members review the current vision statement, examples of others’ vision statements, and school data. The team divides staff into groups with discussion questions; for example, “What kind of school do we aspire to be?” What other question would apply?

a. “How is our school just the same as any other school?”

b. “What do we think our vision statement should reflect?”

c. “What should we keep on doing to realize this vision?”

d. “What is evidence we are meeting the current vision?”

4. Among standards informing effective professional development (PD) for teachers, which is/are most characteristic of strong school leaders?

a. Valuing ongoing learning, promoting continuous improvement, and inquiry, collaboration, and problem-solving

b. Realizing good PD’s value, promoting teacher participation, and communicating PD benefits to stakeholders

c. Human, financial, and temporal contributions; allocation coordination; and investment return assessments

d. Rigorous analysis of varied, disaggregated student data for proficiency standards, learning gaps, and results

5. What best reflects research findings about factors influencing school achievement gaps?

a. School curriculum and resources correlate with student achievement more strongly than socioeconomic status (SES).

b. SES correlates more strongly with achievement than school resources.

c. Student SES correlates more strongly with student achievement than school curriculum does.

d. Student achievement correlates more strongly with SES and school resources than curriculum.

6. After several years of declining test scores, the new principal of Johnson High School has been directed to begin a comprehensive restructuring process for the school. The principal has met with the School Improvement Committee to revise the vision and mission statements and develop goals and objectives for a three year plan towards school improvement. Which of the following would be the most effective strategy for the collection of data to use for the development of academic goals and objectives?

A) Ask the previous principal and administrative team to prepare a presentation that will highlight the areas that need the most improvement with accompanying data

B) Interview subject area teachers from each department and use this qualitative data to develop academic goals and objectives

C) Examine and utilize state and federal academic report cards which include quantitative data from the schools past three years

D) Start fresh by using the current goals and objectives for one year then developing new goals and objectives for the next year based upon that data

E) Collect both qualitative and quantitative data from multiple sources utilizing members of the committee.

7. A significant part of the restructuring plan will be the assignment of new teachers and the reassignment of returning teachers within academic departments. Which of the following would be the best procedure for assignment during this change process?

A) Use a seniority system which allows teachers to select their courses they want to teach based upon length of service in the district and the building

B) Allow department chars to assign teachers to individual courses based upon a set of subject specific standards.

C) Examine the data on teacher performance, departmental needs and alignment with the School Improvement Plan to assign teachers.

D) Use a lottery system that allows teachers to sign up for the courses that they wish to teach and randomly pick them to be fair and unbiased

E) Request that district administration in conjunction with Human Resources develop a teacher assignment plan so you will not be viewed as biased or unfair.

8. After collecting the data for the development of the goals, the School Improvement Committee found it needed a process to analyze the data. Which of the following is the most efficient strategy to analyze the data and prepare a report?

A) Create subcommittees to examine specific segments of the data based upon pre-established parameters and prepare a draft report for submission to the committee

B) The principal and administrative team should collect and analyze all data and prepare a report for the committee to save time and insure it is relevant

C) The entire committee should meet weekly during the year and examine all of the data in chunks, disaggregate it, and prepare a report collectively.

D) The committee should send the data to the district administrators and request that they prepare a report to insure accuracy and save time.

E) The committee should request funds to hire an external consultant to analyze the data and get it back to them before the end of the first semester.

9. Coach Maria Martinez has been recently selected as the county’s new Athletic Director. She is the first female to hold the position in a county that is dominated by several prolific male coaches who have won numerous state championships. The summer coaches’ clinic and banquet will be held at Martin High school and hosted by Jim Smith; the school’s principal and himself a former championship football coach. Martinez will be the keynote speaker for the event, but at the beginning of the meeting; she is met by uncooperative chatter and behavior by these coaches who have outwardly expressed that a “woman cannot do this man’s job”. In addition; they are upset that one of their male coaching colleagues was not selected for the position. Which of the following would be the best course of action for the hosting principal?

A. Let her squirm – if she cannot take the heat – the she does not deserve to have the position and they are right to heckle her.

B. As the host, call for a level of decorum that befits their professions – inform the coaches that they must respect the position if not its holder

C. Move quickly to her defense and take over the meeting. The coaches respect the male principal who is a former coach.

D. Immediately step in and end the meeting. She is obviously not ready to lead the organization and this cannot happen in your school.

10. The superintendent has directed the principal of Carver High School to form a committee to investigate the allegations of bias and unfair practices in the selection of students for scholarships, class rank, and other student awards. In addition, this committee will make recommendations for improving these practices so that they are fair, transparent, and void of racism and other forms of discrimination. After collecting the data, the principal has uncovered that several current and past faculty members did actually change grades and misrepresent the results of elections. The principal is faced with the choice of selecting which information/data can be released to the committee which is made up of parents, teachers, staff, and students. Which of the following is the best option for the principal to take?

A. Immediately release all of the names, incidents, and wrongdoings. This will expose the culprits and insure that it does not happen again.

B. Inform the committee that they will need to disband with a simple explanation that they cannot know the answers and the data.

C. Release information to the committee that does not name personnel as employment law prohibits it. Concentrate on developing recommendations for improvements.

D. Immediately bring the faculty members guilty of the wrongdoing to the committee so that they can explain their actions and begin to search for improvements.

11. Samuel Longfellow, a sophomore student, has been brought to the office for fighting for the second time in a month. Samuel is an openly gay student who complains that other students pick on him by calling offensive and hurtful names. His reaction to their insults and taunting is often a verbal and/or physical confrontation that leads to him getting the worst of the fight. His mother has complained to the assistant principal that her child is being harassed, but each time Samuel has actually thrown the first punch according to witness accounts. She takes her complaints to the principal and asks what he will do about the intolerant atmosphere of the school. Which of the following is the best option for the principal to take?

A. Seek resources for the faculty, staff and students to receive some form of sensitivity training that will increase respect for all students

B. Inform the mother that the atmosphere of the school is fine – her son is the aggressor and tell her if he changes his sexual orientation – the abuse will likely stop

C. Modify the student’s schedule so that he does not come in contact with his antagonizers and ask him to stay away from them at all cost

D. Find resources to get counseling for the student so that he can deal and possibly change his sexual orientation.

12. At a recent School Board meeting; a group of Latino parents have made a statement that the middle school that their children attend does not respect their culture. The parents stated that their children cannot participate in a significant number of activities and even some sports because of their limited ability to speak and understand English. The Superintendent has directed the principal to meet with the parents and report back to him on how he resolved the situation. Which of the following is the best option for the principal to take prior to reporting back to the Superintendent?

A. Meet with the Latino parents and inform them that their children should take additional English classes and possibly participate when they can speak it better.

B. Meet with the Latino parents and offer them additional resources that will include ESOL classes and inform them they cannot participate until their skills improve

C. Meet with the Latino parents, offer additional resources to help them both learn English and hire a Spanish-speaking teacher to aid them with activities

D. Meet with the Latino parents and inform them that they can come to school and assist their students when they attend the after-school activities if they wanted to.

13. At Ben Franklin Elementary, the grade-level teams were finding it difficult to plan together. Professional collaboration was one of the goals for the school. The teachers have come to you to ask for help with the scheduling to make this happen. What will be the key to leading them in reaching this goal?

A. Requesting more money to hire subs for them a half day a week.

B. Ask if they’d be willing to stay after school an hour once a week so this important opportunity would take place.

C. Sit down with the specials teachers, art, music, and physical education, to see if the schedule could be changed so all grade levels went to specials at the same time.

D. Get parent volunteers to come in and stay with the classes once a week.

14. The standing rule for creating new clubs at Goforth Middle School is that any student club must:
1)         Have by-laws that address rules for membership
2)         Must honor and respect diversity and not show bias (Title IX), and
3)         Must have at least two teacher sponsors.
The principal received the following club requests:
1. Guitar & Waffles Club, for students who like to play acoustic guitars and eat toasted waffles.
2. The Gender Bender Club, for LGBTQIA students.
The Guitar & Waffles Club turned in a copy of their by-laws, agreed to avoid discriminating against anyone, and has one teacher sponsor. The Gender Bender club has no by-laws, agreed to non-discrimination, and has two teacher sponsors.
The principal has the final say on club approval. What should she do?

A. Approve the Guitar and Waffles Club because they can easily find a second teacher sponsor.

B. Approve the Gender Bender club so no one can accuse the school of bias.

C. Deny both clubs. It’s clear that neither met the requirements.

D. Tell the sponsors that when the club has satisfied all three requirements, she’ll review the request again.

15. The middle school principal has found a disturbing social media post from one of his teachers. In the post, she called middle school students derogatory names and made negative statements. When called out on her behavior for being so hateful, she wrote, “I hate everyone equally.” Many people jumped into the discussion, calling the teacher a bigot, a racist, and someone who is unfit to teach students.

What steps should the principal take?

A. Let it go. She posted the comment after school hours.

B. Talk to the teacher privately at school the next day. Tell her that these comments will not be tolerated, and that you are placing a letter about your discussion with her in her personnel file.

C. Send the teacher to training so she can become more tolerant of children from diverse backgrounds.

D. Fire the teacher. It’s obvious that she hates children.

16. An elementary school that teaches grades PK-5 is preparing its students for taking their standardized assessments in the spring. The teachers have worked diligently throughout the year, and most students have shown remarkable progress from where they were at the beginning of the year. The school principal has recognized that time is short. She has developed a new mission to encourage teachers to do everything they can to helps their students. The high-stakes test will be administered in four weeks, and only the students in grades 3-5 will be tested. In preparation, the teachers have analyzed student data and regrouped students according to areas of need. Every instructional moment is being used to its fullest. Teachers offer tutoring before and after school, and they have begun Saturday sessions. Which of the following statements most closely aligns to the sense of urgency the principal created and could be used schoolwide?

A. When the student is ready.

B. Whenever you can.

C. Today is best, but no later than tomorrow.

D. If you have time.

17. A local elementary school has been consistently providing a high-quality education for its students. The school currently is performing in the top 20% of all schools in the state, and all subgroups are almost in the top 40% of schools across the state. The principal has decided that the school is ready to apply for blue ribbon status, which requires the school to be in the top 15% of schools statewide and all subgroups in the top 40%. To get the school Blue Ribbon ready, what steps should the principal take?

A. Generate interest among the faculty and in the community, analyze relevant data, develop a vision that aligns with Blue Ribbon requirements, train teachers, focus on child success, apply for consideration as a Blue Ribbon school.

B. Train teachers. focus on child success, apply for consideration as a Blue Ribbon school, generate interest among the faculty and in the community.

C. Develop a vision that aligns with Blue Ribbon requirements, train teachers, focus on child success, apply for consideration as a Blue Ribbon school, analyze relevant data.

D. Analyze relevant data, apply for consideration as a Blue Ribbon school, generate interest among the faculty and in the community.

18. One of the teachers at an elementary campus has been teaching at that school for 29 years. She has made it clear to everyone, including her students that next year will be her last year teaching because she intends to retire. The principal has been working with the faculty on trying new teaching methods that require cooperation and collaboration between the teachers. The less experienced teachers like working with the more experienced teachers. The veteran of 29 years refuses to work with anyone. She repeatedly says, “I’ve taught the same way with the same lessons for 29 years. I’m not changing now."

What should the principal do?

A. Wait until the teacher retires at the end of next year before implementing new initiatives.

B. Meet with the teacher in private to discuss the situation and direct her to work with others.

C. Meet with the teacher in private to discuss the situation and explain that she is expected to implement the initiatives just like all the other teachers.

D. Meet with the teacher in private to discuss the situation and explain how her advice to less experienced teachers would be helpful.

19. An elementary school principal implemented a new initiative that required teachers to analyze student achievement data. The teachers worked in teams to look deeply at student responses to questions, and they formulated “hot spot” plans to target weaknesses and build strengths. Then the teachers developed an instructional plan and implemented it. When the results came back, student growth had increased by 23%. The principal and the faculty were excited with the students’ results. They celebrated and planned to do the same thing next school year.

A. Be more strategic next time.

B. Evaluate their actions.

C. Notify parents.

D. Get new student data.

20. For the last eight years, Skinner Elementary had one mission: We the faculty at Skinner Elementary teach all children to learn at our school. Since the mission statement was written, the student enrollment changed, and it became more ethnically and racially diverse. As a result, the teachers and school administrators worked with the newer community members to better understand their needs and the needs of their children. The parents wanted to be partners in their children’s education. They wanted to know how they could help teachers educate the students at Skinner Elementary. The outreach efforts between school and community changed the way Skinner Elementary worked. Suddenly, the mission statement seemed out of place.

What should the principal do about the mission statement?

A. Put together a committee of teachers and parents to write a new mission statement.

B. Hold a contest for students to write a new mission statement.

C. Ask teachers to write a new mission statement.

D. Nothing; no one reads them anyway.

Published by control