School leaders, specifically principals, play a pivotal role in shaping student learning outcomes. The benefits of strong leaders extend beyond academic achievement, such as reductions in absenteeism and exclusionary discipline. While quality principals are critical for creating and sustaining quality schools, the staffing pipeline is facing…

Anecdotal evidence points to the importance of school principals, but the limited existing research has neither provided consistent results nor indicated any set of essential characteristics of effective principals. This paper exploits extensive student-level panel data across six states to investigate both variations in principal performance and…

State policymakers, including state leaders, districts, and professional associations, play a role in fostering an environment that supports the development of effective school principals, with the broad policy objective of achieving high principal quality across the state. This report examines how seven states use state policy levers to advance…

States play a role in fostering an environment that develops and supports effective school leaders. Prior research has highlighted opportunities to enhance state involvement in supporting school leadership through a range of policy levers, especially by promoting improvements to principal preparation (Manna, 2015; Davis, 2016). The Wallace…

America and the South seem to have turned a corner on the deep and prolonged recession that started in 2008. The stranglehold it has had on jobs and job prospects caught many by surprise, and it has caused education leaders to refocus state policy on the relationship between career preparation and education. This report provides updates on the…

Human capital theory suggests the knowledge, skills, and abilities one obtains through experience, on-the-job training, or education enhances one's productivity. This research was based on human capital theory and promotability (i.e., upward mobility). The research offered in this dissertation shows what effect obtaining information security…

In March of 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that "if an employment practice which operates to exclude Negroes cannot be shown to be related to job performance, the practice is prohibited." Although the decided case concerned discrimination on the basis of race, the act also bars discrimination because of religion, sex,…

The fields of Computer Information Systems (CIS) and Information Technology (IT) are experiencing rapid change. In 2003, an analysis of IT degree programs and those of competing disciplines at 10 post-secondary institutions concluded that an information technology program is perceived differently from information systems and computer science. In…

This study sought to: (1) examine the impact of national certification, state registration, counselor education accreditation, and state certification on the hiring practices of local school systems; (2) assess the knowledge that school personnel officers have of various counseling credentials; (3) assess the knowledge and attitudes of prospective…

This paper presents a profile of North Carolina's Star Rated License System prepared as part of the Child Care Quality Rating System (QRS) Assessment Study. The profile consists of several sections and their corresponding descriptions including: (1) Program Information; (2) Rating Details; (3) Quality Indicators for Center-Based Programs; (4)…

Discussed is a comptency-based program (CBP) for certifying teachers of gifted and talented students in North Carolina by 1977. It is explained that the CBP offers an alternative to required graduate study and involves a visiting team's evaluation of the teacher's knowledge of the gifted and ability to develop and implement a comprehensive…

This is a report of a statewide study of kindergarten practices in North Carolina in 1988 which involved classroom observations (N=103 randomly selected classrooms) and questionnaires returned by 218 elementary school principals (an 86% response) and by 375 kindergarten teachers (an 81% response). Several questions were addressed by the study. (1)…

A survey of the medical technology profession in North Carolina was undertaken in 1981 by the North Carolina Area Health Education Center to promote statewide planning. One survey focus was institutional characteristics, including: current staff level, budget vacancies, qualifications to fill vacancies, number of resignations in the last year, and…