The purpose of this 2-year-long qualitative and quantitative field study was to investigate the behaviors of effective secondary school principals in their respective school districts, to find commonalities in the behavior of principals who were deemed by their peers to preside over effective schools, and to report the interim results. The findings were garnered from the ethnographic method of shadowing four secondary school principals with a reputation for excellence, and collecting inbasket materials for visual analysis. In addition, questionnaires were administered to the principal, department heads, teachers, and a sample group of students and parents to determine teacher and student attitudes and school climate. Personal interviews with a small representative sample of teachers and students and a compilation of statistics regarding school absenteeism, student achievement measures, number of student dropouts, and discipline cases were also conducted. Although the four principals were considered to be effective by their peers, students, teachers, and community members, there was no common pattern of behaviors, activities, or leadership skills. It was found that the effective principal must have goals and values that fit the system and the community and meet the needs of staff and students. (JAM)