While instructional inequity persists throughout U.S. schools, urban schools serving students with a wide array of out-of-school factors that affect their schooling are especially challenged to ensure that Black and Brown students receive what they need to learn as consistently as white students do. Critical race theory helps explain why this…

In this paper we present the Advancing Racial Equity in Community College Model which maps out the organizational conditions shaping institutional transformation. Focused on two dimensions, the level of "organizational support" and "shared responsibility" to enact equity, we describe four quadrants with distinct organizational…

Collaborative efforts are key to transforming schools into communities of powerful learning where all students excel academically and develop the agency, integrated identity, and competencies necessary to have successful lives as adults. Such efforts start with leaders, learning to cultivate anti-racist systems, structures, policies, and…

Few question the difficulties of being a college or university president in today's era. The work of college and university presidencies is getting harder not easier with the passage of time. In this article, the author discusses how leadership in higher education is due for a change. She offers and discusses a solution of co-presidency.

How our schools are structured plays an important role in facilitating innovation. Transforming the field to best benefit students depends upon an organizational evolution.

Award-winning educator Tina M. Owen-Moore details the beliefs and practices that made the Alliance School of Milwaukee the focus of national attention as the first school to open with the mission of being bully-free. "The Alliance Way" illustrates how creating a safe, inclusive, and academically challenging environment goes beyond a…

Educational reform implementation in today's fast changing world requires a critical transition from individual to school sense-making processes. Managing expectations from above (e.g. external demands) and below (e.g. internal school goals) while performing within multiple overlapping contexts, principals seem pulled in many different directions…

Children who are well nurtured, appropriately cared for, and provided with positive learning opportunities in their early years have a better chance of becoming healthy and productive citizens of nations and of the world. This article reviews the art and science of policy planning for early childhood development (ECD) from a diplomacy perspective.…

In a learning system, central office personnel assume collective responsibility for schools and go about their work very differently. They are responsible not only for departments and programs, but also for student learning. They demonstrate that responsibility by engaging in data informed conversations about student achievement. Central office…

Discover how education innovations can produce astonishing results in student success both in and out of school. The educators featured in this book were motivated by the conviction that even the best status quo education was not serving current student needs. They responded with radical changes that tap into recent ideas about educational…

Decentralization is an effective approach for structuring campus learning and success centers. McShane & Von Glinow (2007) describe decentralization as "an organizational model where decision authority and power are dispersed among units rather than held by a single small group of administrators" (p. 237). A decentralized structure…

As the last century closed, and a bright new millennium dawned, the concept of "student voice" within education emerged as something to be "identified" and "captured." In effect, it became reified and driven by a raft of government and institutional policies and strategic initiatives; initially within the compulsory…

The goal of this paper is to describe what is needed to develop and implement a more robust and effective learning agenda focused on addressing fragility that effectively informs policy decisions. In particular, the paper makes three overarching recommendations: (1) Focus the learning agenda on the "collective wisdom" on supporting peace…

Communities and governments can learn from each other to provide access to education and meet the learning needs of their most vulnerable children. Education Diplomacy can be used to prioritize education challenges, build mutual understanding, and shape consensus toward solutions that are supported by empowered parents/guardians, teachers, school…

The educational landscape around standards, assessment, professional development, and funding is changing at a rapid pace. This article asks how can education institutions--and educators--respond with a balance of urgency and coherence? How can education institutions temper the need for risk-taking and innovation with the responsibility to deliver…