Meria Carstarphen, superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools, has nearly 20 years of experience in educational leadership, primarily in urban school districts. Her previous roles included superintendent in Austin, Texas, from 2009 to 2014 and administrator in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the District of Columbia. She serves as a commissioner and…

The members of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) strongly advocate that all professionals must come prepared and continue to develop through ongoing professional learning opportunities the skills necessary to promote the meaningful and appropriate participation of children and youth with exceptionalities in schools and community-based…

Des Moines (Iowa) Public Schools is one of six urban districts participating in an effort to redesign the role of principal supervisors. The Wallace Foundation's Principal Supervisor Initiative provides four years of support for these districts to transform the role, which has traditionally focused on operations and compliance, into one that…

In this commentary, drawing from reviews of research on literacy teacher preparation, the authors discuss points of leverage in preparation of literacy educators for deans and associate deans. Categories that leaders might attend to include: mediated field experiences, faculty development, and external reputation.

Delia Pompa's distinguished career in education policy has focused on the needs of immigrant students and English learners. She is a senior fellow for education policy at the Migration Policy Institute and was previously senior vice president for programs at the National Council of La Raza (now UnidosUS) and director of education for the…

The author spends a lot of time thinking about good professional learning vs. typical professional development. Based on her 20-plus years of experience, as well as a bit of inspiration from Reuben Duncan, assistant superintendent in School Administrative Unit 29 in Keene, N.H., she shares what she considers to be the ten best ways to waste…

In this webinar, Dr. Stephanie Hirsh, Executive Director of Learning Forward, presented the research on effective PLCs and shared her experiences in creating, assessing, and leading PLCs. This Q&A addressed questions participants had for Dr. Hirsh following the webinar. The webinar recording and PowerPoint presentation are also available.

Instructional coaching is a reality in many schools today, yet administrators often lack experience or background on how to utilize this professional development model effectively. Instructional coaching can help administrators balance the managerial and instructional leadership responsibilities required of their role. As districts adopt the…

Education bureaucrats in 45 states have approved the Common Core State Standards ([CCSS], 2010) as the de facto national curriculum. The implementation of the CCSS will be monitored by a national standardized test in language arts and mathematics. The confluence of a standardized curriculum enforced with a standardized test will entrench a…

When one thinks of seminal publications in college admission, the first piece that comes to mind is B. Alden Thresher's "College Admissions in the Public Interest" (1966). Thresher's work, relevant to this day, is credited with being the foundational document of the admission profession. McDonough and Robertson's 1995 study, commissioned by NACAC,…

In this webinar, Dr. Charles Basch, Richard March Hoe Professor of Health and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, presented the causal connections between health factors and the motivation and ability to learn. This Q&A addressed the questions participants had for Dr. Basch following the webinar. The webinar recording and…

This article presents an interview with Kentucky State president and APLU chairwoman, Dr. Mary Sias. President of Kentucky State University since 2004, Dr. Mary Sias added chair, Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities to her list of titles in November. In that capacity, Dr. Sias is charged with being one of the chief advocates for not…

This article presents an interview with Michael Shepherd, the 2011 NASSP/Virco National Assistant Principal of the Year. In the interview, Shepherd shares how the role of assistant principal is defined at his school. He also talks about how he practices instructional leadership. He puts a strong emphasis on instructional leadership and…

The role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) in higher education is continuously changing, and the career path to becoming a CIO is not always well defined. As campuses consider succession planning, and as CIOs and those who hope to become CIOs think about filling the IT leadership "pipeline," the transformation both of information…

Academics are all used to the idea that they have special ethical obligations. They may also, as administrators, recognize special administrative ethical obligations. But they do not like to think of themselves as businessmen, concerned with selling, and few of them indeed have thought directly and hard about the ethical constraints on marketing…