This exploratory study investigated which characteristics of a principal are identified as effective by teachers in the same school setting. The data were obtained from the Schools and Staffing Study of 1988, from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The Teacher Questionnaire of the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) questioned 52,000 teachers and their principals in 9,300 public schools in the 1987-88 school year. Using only public school responses by teachers that could be linked to a particular principal reduced the sample size to 39,014 teachers. Each teacher's responses on a Likert-like scale of 18 items were summed to create a scale assessing perceived principal effectiveness (PPE). The PPE composite scale yielded a Cronbach's Alpha of .9024, demonstrating a strong internal reliability coefficient. Findings indicated that principals with only a B.A. degree who were young, less experienced, lower salaried, female, and held elementary principalships in smaller communities were perceived by teachers to be more effective. Cautions about these findings are made until the PPE scale can receive an external validation. A second study of principals' perception of their time usage and its relationship to teachers' perceptions of effectiveness did not reveal any relationship between time usage and principal effectiveness. The appendix includes: Schools and Staffing Survey--School Administrator Questionnaire, 1987-88 and Schools and Staffing Survey--Public Teachers Questionnaire, 1987-88. (14 references) (CRW)