Method

Participants for this study were 1,685 Catholic school principals from all major geographic regions (New England, Mideast, Great Lakes, Plains, Southeast, and West/Far West), school locations (inner-city, urban, suburban, rural) and school structures (parish school, interparish, diocesan, and private) evident throughout the United States (McDonald & Schultz, 2010). Participants were selected from a convenience sample of 4,170 current primary school principals with a valid email address. The final sample population represents a 40% response rate from the pool of eligible participants and accounts for nearly one-third (29%) of all current Catholic primary school principals. Since participation in the study and completion of individual survey questions was voluntary, some principals elected not to respond to individual questions on the survey instrument. Therefore, the sample size reported for individual analyses may not equal the total sample of eligible participants indicated here. Additional demographic information on study participants is included in the descriptive statistics section of the quantitative findings.