Poor matriculation results in South African urban schools have resulted in the implementation of professional development programs for principals who wish to improve their qualifications and practice. This article studies principals' perceptions of the efficacy of using portfolios to assess their professional growth. Using a poststructural lens to…

Now that federal and state initiatives require school districts to provide job-embedded professional development, the next step is making it happen. This book helps districts define, develop, and implement a systematic inquiry-based process with a laser-like focus on both adult and student learning. This book's inquiry model challenges educators…

Although data driven-decision making has been the mantra of school reform for the last 10 years, school leaders benefit from frequent discussions in how to engage teachers in the process. As a result, the purpose of this paper is to apply Reeves' (2004) framework concerning Antecedents of Excellence in creating a school culture that routinely uses…

This article reports creative initiatives that 25 U.S. principals employed to support teacher learning in light of their financial resources. Nearly 90 hours of interviews with principals and 60 documents were coded to create narrative summaries and build profiles of how financial resources influenced how the school leaders supported teacher…

Here's an indispensable resource for everyone who uses Charlotte Danielson's acclaimed book "Enhancing Professional Practice" to support teacher education, evaluation, and professional learning. Drawing from the thousands of programs that rely on this research-based teaching framework, this handbook provides guidance in applying the 22 components…

Background: Through its Children First initiative, New York City policymakers promoted collaborative inquiry as a process for helping administrators and teachers use student data to improve instruction and raise student achievement. Since 2007, city schools were expected to engage higher proportions of faculty in the inquiry work each year.…

Regardless of where you are in your school improvement process, here's a book that helps you make sure you have all the right elements working for you in the right way. The authors take you through the core processes that are essential for all school improvement efforts--from establishing your mission to differentiating your supervision based on…

The purpose of this "Handbook" is to bolster the effective implementation of the intervention models and strategies outlined in the "2010 School Improvement Grant" (SIG) program--section 1003(g) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)--in order to achieve the program's clear goal--rapid improvement of persistently…

Can a capacity building policy encourage school leaders to engage in professional development that will increase their focus on student achievement and understanding of instructional leadership? To explore this issue, school administrators were interviewed and a content analysis of plans for professional development generated during the first year…

The purpose of this study was to explore the nature of recent educational reform efforts in Washington State and to determine what educators believe to be the most important future areas of focus. In particular, the researchers wanted to determine whether school-wide improvement efforts (i.e. School Improvement Plans (SIPs), School Improvement…

In nine chapters, this guide provides planners of professional development programs for school administrators, directors, and supervisors with background information for assistance with the design of local entry-year programs and activities by employing school systems. In chapter 1, the legal basis for entry year programs is examined through a…

Beginning in September, 2001 when the Portland Public Schools received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Urban Systemic Program (USP) initiative, the district focused, accelerated and strengthened its efforts to improve mathematics and science education K-12. Since its inception the authors at Inverness Research…

PRISM, the Pittsburgh Research-Based Instructional Supervisory Model, was initiated when the superintendent convened an Instructional Leadership Committee (ILC) to develop a plan for improving instruction and instructional leadership within the district. The Pittsburgh Public Schools' Learning Research Development Center then conducted a…

Voluntary organizations providing inservice activities for principals are the newest in the administrative development field. This paper explores those organizations' prospects, particularly the voluntary, administrator-directed "principals' center," and borrows its analytical framework from theories of group formation. The Principals' Center in…

The Roosevelt School District, with the lowest wealth per pupil of the 56 districts located in Nassau County, Long Island, New York, worked with the Urban Education Department of the University of Massachusetts' Division of Instructional Leadership to design and implement a degree-granting staff development program centered around identifying and…