While schools' official vision statements--statements school leaders write telling their own deep vision for what they want their school to be--generally aren't empowering, they could be. A well-crafted vision statement is a powerful tool because it articulates the promise a leader and school staff make to students and provides focus. Drawing on…

Author and educator Owen Griffith shares how leaders can infuse small acts of gratitude to energize their schools and create a positive, thriving culture. Leaders must begin by practicing gratitude personally, then slowly introducing the practice to their faculty and eventually students. With the right attitude and creativity, the acts of…

Inspired by real-life events, this case describes the start of a seemingly solid working relationship between two elementary campus administrators and its demise as the result of inadequate communication and distrust. Initially, these two leaders benefit from differing supervision styles, but these differences eventually lead to increased tension…

Recent efforts to attract and retain effective educators and to improve teaching practices have focused on reforming evaluation and compensation systems for teachers and principals. In 2006, Congress established the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF), which provides grants to support performance-based compensation systems for teachers and principals in…

This article focuses on one dean's approach to securing and maintaining faculty involvement in developing a School of Education CPED Initiative. Using the conceptual framework of "execution" (Bossidy & Charan, 2002), the author describes how the goal of creating a "change-capable" culture (a) demanded congruence between the…

It's said that buried in every journalist is a novel waiting to be written. Something similar seems to apply these days to school administrators, particularly superintendents. Not a novel, perhaps, but some kind of writing, from book to blog. The urge might be personal, but more and more, writing from a school executive's point of view has become…

The phenomenon of harassment in Russian universities creates an environment that can be both threatening to the individual and a source of poor performance by the work group. Policies need to be developed to deal with this destructive form of behavior. [This article was translated by Kim Braithwaite.]

Leadership is a lonely obligation. Every leader, no matter how many followers, is an individual actor, sharing ideas and concepts, mostly verbally, in the hope of producing a result that benefits the operation and the people whose lives those operations affect. Every school leader asks himself or herself: How can I effectively move the…

When an owner or manager in the child care industry recognizes a worker who is very good at her job, she may consider promoting that worker into a management position. That can be a problem, while the superior worker may have had many years of practice at hands-on work, she probably has had very little--if any--training, in how to manage others.…

New administrators in urban schools face enormous challenges. The novice leaders in this study are graduates of a preparation program at UC Berkeley, and are participants in a leadership induction program. This research examines one aspect of their new position--disciplinarian--through the lens of leadership stories. Although the middle manager…

This article is an attempt to reflect on the doubting process as an emerging perspective in school change. After introducing the notion of doubt and its importance to school change, the author describes conditions influencing the doubting process. She reflects on these conditions in a case example of a secondary school principal who doubted the…

Discusses the child care center director evaluation process when conducted by a board of directors to enhance the director's effectiveness. Considers frequency of evaluation and assessment criteria for center and leadership and managerial objectives. Describes the evaluation process, including reorientation meetings, information gathering,…

Presents and analyzes qualitative data collected during interviews with 30 senior female administrators working at community colleges in the Midwest. Reveals three patterns of leadership identity for women: adaptation, reconciliation, and resistance. Discusses each category in respect to leadership identity, communication style, and gender issues.…

Analyzes approaches to facilitating administrative behavior that is both adaptive and interactive with the students and community. Provides a case study outlining the means through which such behavior was achieved. Contains 12 references. (YKH)

The first and perhaps most important thing for a director to remember is that THINGS WILL HAPPEN! The mix of parents, teachers, children, regulations, building problems, and so on is so complex and filled with so many elements out of control that things happening--good and/or bad--is a given. In this article, the author shares some skills from…