A survey of randomly-selected Alabama principals sought to compare a theorist's model of educational administration with the actual model used by working principals. The 172 principals ranked the importance of 13 statements about administrative priorities drawn from the theoretical model, a three-part construct combining administrative processes, resources, and objectives. The principals also provided data on their professional histories and their schools and volunteered extensive comments on the problems of their jobs. The principals' rankings indicated that all the statements were equally important, a finding that failed to support the theoretical model. Combined with the respondents' comments, these results show that principals do not share general agreement on education administration and that they work in situations of uncertainty in which problems and objectives must be handled on a piecemeal basis. (RW)