SLLA Ethical Leadership and Integrity 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A new assistant principal observes that the principal regularly belittles teachers in staff meetings. The most ethical course of action for the assistant principal is to:
- Stay silent to avoid jeopardizing their career
- Privately speak with the principal about how the behavior affects staff morale (Correct answer)
- Immediately report the principal to the school board
- Align with the principal's behavior to maintain a unified leadership front
Correct answer: Privately speak with the principal about how the behavior affects staff morale
Ethical leadership includes respectfully confronting problematic behavior at the appropriate level before escalating to higher authority.
Question 2: Which of the following BEST describes 'ethical dilemmas' in educational leadership?
- Situations where a leader violates an obvious rule
- Situations where two or more legitimate ethical principles conflict with one another (Correct answer)
- Administrative decisions that require legal review
- Any decision that may upset a stakeholder group
Correct answer: Situations where two or more legitimate ethical principles conflict with one another
Ethical dilemmas arise when competing moral values—such as fairness vs. individual need—both have legitimate claims, making a clear-cut 'right' answer difficult.
Question 3: A principal who consistently enforces rules for some students but allows exceptions for athletes or high-achieving students is violating which ethical principle?
- Transparency
- Equity and justice (Correct answer)
- Community engagement
- Professional competence
Correct answer: Equity and justice
Applying rules inconsistently based on student status violates equity and justice, which require fair treatment for all students.
Question 4: When a school leader discovers financial mismanagement by a district official who is also a close professional mentor, the leader SHOULD:
- Protect the mentor by staying silent
- Report the misconduct through appropriate whistleblower channels (Correct answer)
- Conduct a personal investigation before deciding whether to report
- Resign to avoid association with the misconduct
Correct answer: Report the misconduct through appropriate whistleblower channels
Ethical school leaders are obligated to report misconduct regardless of personal relationships, using established whistleblower protections.
Question 5: The practice of 'ethical listening' in school leadership involves:
- Only listening to staff with the most seniority
- Genuinely considering all stakeholder voices, especially marginalized ones, before making decisions (Correct answer)
- Documenting complaints to protect against legal liability
- Listening only to concerns that can be acted upon immediately
Correct answer: Genuinely considering all stakeholder voices, especially marginalized ones, before making decisions
Ethical listening means authentically hearing all voices—particularly those typically excluded—as part of a just decision-making process.
Question 6: A school leader who publicly credits others' work as their own in grant proposals is violating which core ethical principle?
- Justice
- Honesty and academic integrity (Correct answer)
- Community collaboration
- Equitable resource distribution
Correct answer: Honesty and academic integrity
Claiming others' intellectual work as one's own is plagiarism—a direct violation of honesty and the professional integrity expected of school leaders.
Question 7: In the SLLA context, a school leader's obligation to 'model ethical behavior' means:
- Discussing ethics only during professional development sessions
- Consistently demonstrating through actions the values expected of staff and students (Correct answer)
- Publishing an annual ethics report for the community
- Enrolling in ongoing ethics training programs
Correct answer: Consistently demonstrating through actions the values expected of staff and students
School leaders build ethical cultures by embodying the values they espouse through their daily decisions and interactions.
SLLA Ethical Leadership and Integrity 3
A new assistant principal observes that the principal regularly belittles teachers in staff meetings.
The most ethical course of action for the assistant principal is to: