As part of a study of teacher effectiveness and job satisfaction, a research team interviewed 85 elementary and secondary classroom teachers in 5 school districts in the San Francisco (California) Bay Area to gather teachers' perspectives on administrative leadership. Teachers portrayed effective principals as creating environments around the classroom that minimize uncertainty and maintain a positive atmosphere. The principal's role thus focuses neither on inspiring effective teaching nor on proposing innovations, but on limiting the factors that impede the teacher's own abilities to teach effectively. This view of the principal's role conforms neither to the research-based vision of the principal as a somewhat powerless middle manager nor to the view in the effective schools literature of the principal as actively involved in classroom affairs. Focusing on the needs of a varied staff in a given school requires principals to provide leadership based on problem-solving rather than on conformity to research-generated prescriptions. Agreement among teachers and principals on the principal's role will enhance the potential for concerted efforts at school improvement. (PGD)