The need for developing and validating a standardized instrument for measuring educational variables and construct is very important in evaluating educational problems. This study is therefore conducted to develop and standardized an instrument for measuring Competency of Secondary School Principals in Akwa Ibom State. In carrying out this study, three research questions and two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted the instrumentation research design. A total of 1349 teachers were selected from a population of 11,036 teachers to rate their principals in the public secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State. The instrument developed was titled Principal Competency Scale (PCS). A total of 71 items were written initially for the instrument. The instrument was face validated by seven experts; three lecturers in Educational Evaluation from the Department of Educational Foundations, Guidance and Counselling University of Uyo, two secondary school principals and two secondary school teachers in Akwa Ibom State. The two components of the principal competency measured were named; Human Relation Competency and Administrative Competency. The instrument was then administered to 1149 teachers and the scores were subjected to factor analysis to determine the construct validity of the instrument. Two components were extracted from the scree plot of the principal component analysis. Internal consistency reliability was computed for the instrument using Cronbach Alpha, which yielded a coefficient of 0.897. The instrument after the validation was trial tested on a sample of 200 teachers to determine how it functions among gender of principals. Mean was used in answering research questions and independent t-test was used in testing the hypotheses. The result of the analysis indicated a significant difference in principals’ human relation competency based on gender and no significant difference in principals’ administrative leadership competency based on gender. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that the Principal Competency Scale should be used in measuring the competency of principals in secondary schools regardless of gender.
Keywords: Development, Validation, instrument, secondary school’s principals
