When 16 finalists come to Washington next week to make their final pitches in the $4 billion Race to the Top competition, most can expect to go home empty-handed. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, in announcing the finalists last week, said that no more than $2 billion will be divided among "very few winners" when the awards are…

New Leaders for New Schools, a nonprofit organization committed to training school principals, heads the Effective Practices Incentive Community (EPIC), an initiative that offers financial awards to effective educators. New Leaders and its partner organizations have received from the U.S. Department of Education tens of millions of dollars in…

Efficacious people set high, clear goals for themselves, orchestrate more efforts to succeed, persevere despite obstacles, are possibility thinkers, and are less vulnerable to frustration and depression than others. Self-efficacy and organizational efficacy can be developed through coaching techniques, such as cognitive and behavior modeling,…