Purpose: In recent years, a new wave of teacher-led political action has erupted resulting in work stoppages in several states across the United States. This study examines how superintendents navigated this Red for Ed movement in two representative states. Methods: Framed as a multisite, embedded case study, we drew from public documents and…

Purpose: Decades of research in educational leadership has extolled the importance of principals in both the effective functioning of teachers and the overall performance of schools. The mechanisms explaining what makes principals effective in the eyes of teachers, however, are not well known. This study builds on prior research to posit that…

Purpose: Our primary purpose is to examine the implementation of college- and- career- readiness content standards in Kentucky, Ohio, and Texas through the lens of distributed leadership theory, and to determine the affordances and challenges of this distributed leadership through the lens of policy attribute theory. Research Methods/Approach: We…

Purpose: Despite the popularity of open enrollment as a school choice mechanism, there is little research on how principals behave in a district-run competitive setting. This study adds to our understanding of how open enrollment policies affect the role of the principal as well as educational equity by examining the roles and behaviors of school…

Purpose: Effective styles of principal leadership can help address multiple issues in struggling schools, such as low student achievement and high rates of teacher attrition. Although the literature has nominated certain "idealized" leadership styles as being more or less effective, such as transformational, instructional, and shared…

Throughout the world, educational policy makers, practitioners, and scholars have acknowledged the importance of principal leadership in the generation and implementation of innovations. In many studies, transformational leadership has emerged as a promising approach in response to increasing demands to develop and implement innovations in…

Purpose: To fill the gap in theoretical and empirical knowledge on late career in principalship, the aim of this study was to explore the career experiences, needs, and behaviors of principals at this stage. Research method: Life history and semistructured interviews were conducted with 20 late-career principals, 20 schoolteachers, and 10…

Uses two sets of survey data from random sample of North Carolina school principals to investigate principals reported behavioral responses to the state's accountability and incentive program. Finds that the state's ABC program is a powerful tool for changing the behavior of school principals in both intended and unintended ways. (Contains 2…

Uses grounded-theory methodology to study sample of 50 teachers who believed they were subjected to mistreatment by principals. Briefly discusses descriptive, conceptual, and theoretical findings about principals' actions that teachers define as mistreatment. Discusses more fully harmful effects of such mistreatment on teachers' classroom…

Examines how student health care in a K-8 Title I district functioned overall and how school administrators interacted with on-campus health care providers. Minorities received inadequate care. Administrators did not routinely associate students' health with their school performance and were not adept at assisting providers. (Contains 65…

Examines 94 Israeli elementary school principals's work behavior, using a structured observation technique. Principals exhibited certain work characteristics (brevity, variety, fragmentation) supported in other research. They differed from conventional job descriptions in demonstrating internally oriented social (but not political) inclinations,…

Examines experiences of two female high school principals to explore how women administrators think and speak about their worlds. Ruth, a tall, black, conservatively dressed innercity principal, takes no nonsense from staff and students and seems to lack vision. Linda, an exuberant redhead, has a more soft-spoken style and seems to be heading her…

Examines factors affecting teacher expectancy through hierarchical linear modeling of data from two large-scale surveys of teachers working in schools with high-stakes accountability programs. Finds following significant predictors of teacher expectancy: Teacher perceptions of program fairness, student performance feedback, lack of goal conflict,…

Using Weicke's environmental-enactment theory, explores how 18 "successful" principals enact and structure the internal and external school environment. Examines what specifically captures principals' attention, using the critical-incident technique. Principals' environmental attention-structure seems driven by their concerns for…

Background: The paradox of relying on routines and standard practices, which protect institutional functioning from the vagaries of personality, often comes at the cost of thoughtful adaptability. Purpose: The objectives are to conceptualize and apply the construct of mindfulness to schools and to explore trust as a school condition that fosters…