Over the past decades, principals have experienced an increased pressure emanating from the responsibility for managing change and building organisations, whilst striving to improve students' learning outcomes (Abrahamsen, Aas, & Hellekjaer, 2015; Hargreaves & Fink, 2006). Leadership learning programmes appear to emphasise the requirements…

The purpose of the study reported on here was to explore the extent to which the role of the principal as ex officio member of the School Governing Body (SGB) facilitated or hindered the development of strategies that are effective and sustainable for the maintenance of school facilities. The rationale for this study was that the South African…

Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) invited 10 districts to participate in a community of practice designed to increase understanding of how to braid and blend federal funds. District teams composed of principals, superintendents, business managers, and other district leaders participated in four 90-minute virtual sessions. The purpose of…

Municipal officials know that education is tied to quality of life and public safety; cities are better off when more people are well-educated. Mayors across the country are dedicating staff to focus on key education issues--to work on partnerships between school districts, their colleges and universities, and to create multi-sector partnerships…

The role of the principal has changed over the years from manager to instructional leader. School principal's responsibilities have increased and are often required to lead educational programs under a growing number of local and federal accountability structures and mandates (Wallace, 2012). With the recent change in the state and local school…

Competing in a new global economy is a top national priority. Citing declining student performance in core subjects, policymakers are calling for solutions that give students an edge. The Association of American Educators (AAE) knows that a growing network of professional educators will be instrumental in building the bridge between sweeping…

Providing access to robust connectivity is critical to ensuring today's students are college and career ready. As such, federal, state, and district-level leaders have dedicated a significant amount of time, effort, and resources toward improving our schools' external broadband access, including both Internet access and wide area network (WAN).…

Background: Schools, school districts, and communities seeking to implement the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model should carefully and deliberately select planning, implementation, and evaluation strategies. Methods: In this article, we identify strategies, steps, and resources within each phase that can be integrated into…

In 2014, state and national leaders found many aspects of turning around America's low-performing schools even more daunting than in the previous year. These views were revealed in the Center on School Turnaround's (CST's) 2014 February/March survey of school turnaround leaders in State Education Agencies (SEA) and directors of the nation's…

This guidebook will help the staff members of education agencies gain an understanding of what Education Enterprise Architecture (EEA) is and how it can help an agency accomplish its vision and goals. The audiences for this guidebook include agency staff already charged with leading agency-wide planning and implementation that encompasses the…

Today's teachers and principals are facing the highest accountability measures in the history of education while also grappling with the fallout of the worst economy since the Great Depression. This unprecedented combination of high-stakes accountability and diminishing resources has led to understandable fatigue and great concern as educators…

General education teachers have limited opportunities for professional learning that is designed to develop their capacity to differentiate curriculum and instruction adequately for gifted students. Administrators' decisions related to professional learning for general education teachers in gifted education are influenced by many factors. This…

If the results of the most recent international achievement tests were graded on a curve, U.S. students probably would rank somewhere in the B range. They placed 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in mathematics among 70 countries whose 15-year-olds participated in the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) testing, the…

The goal of the Center on School Turnaround (CST) is to provide technical assistance on research-based practices and emerging promising practices that will increase the capacity of states to support their districts in turning around the lowest-performing schools. When the CST opened its doors in October 2012, it began its work by asking the…

This article features a major statewide initiative in North Carolina that is showing how a consortium model can minimize risks for districts and help them exploit the advantages of cloud computing. Edgecombe County Public Schools in Tarboro, North Carolina, intends to exploit a major cloud initiative being refined in the state and involving every…