Immigrant community college presidents are working to ensure the unpleasant, even frightening experiences of their younger years are not replicated among the current student body. Immigrant leaders interviewed by "Community College Journal"--Dr. Steady Moono, president of SUNY Schenectady County Community College; Dr. Lin Zhou, president…

This chapter outlines an interview conducted with a principal of a high-performing high school with a majority Latinx student population, regarding how she fostered and engaged in activism in her school and with her students.

The author offers his perspectives about the experiences that are associated with being a college or university counseling center director.

Adrianna Kezar recently sat down with Chancellor Tim White of the California State University system to discuss, among many other things, the newly released California State Graduation Initiative and what it will take to enact it. The key commitments of the initiative are: (1) hire more tenure-track faculty; (2) develop engaged advising; (3) solve…

The last decade or so has seen an emerging literature supporting the position that school leaders and school leadership are important. This article argues, however, that recent developments in the area of school leadership have led to an orthodoxy that needs to be challenged and tested. It is an orthodoxy that has been driven essentially by those…

When speaking of educational leadership today there are many characteristics of leadership that are needed that perhaps were not necessary five, ten, or fifteen years ago. Technology's impact on how students learn and how teachers teach has had educational leadership think about more innovative ways in which to prepare, deliver, and assess…

Emotional factors play a part in the learning process, and, so too for leadership. Fullan (2001) identified self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, social skills, adaptability, stress management and general mood as fundamental characteristics of emotional intelligence. If leaders exemplify these characteristics, this will positively…

The author has been musing on how directors perceive their roles and choose their leadership style, particularly when changes are needed in their centers. In community-based ECE programs the author typically sees a preference for the idea of director as a facilitator, rather than a supervisor, and for shared leadership rather than a ship's…

Jim Collins's "Good to Great" has attained near-scriptural status in organizations, including nonprofits, which Collins says constitute a third of his readers. The pivot point in "Good to Great" is the Hedgehog Concept. The "Hedgehog Concept" (HC), this author claims, is dangerous for schools because it distorts the nature of education. As Collins…

This article shares reflections in the rearview mirror of a departing board chair. The author has served seven years as board chair of Redwood Day School (California). As he departs, he figures out a few things that might be worth sharing. The author shares his responses to some Frequently Unasked Questions.

The aim of this article is to articulate the basic elements of a comprehensive ethic of academic administration, organized around a set of three cardinal virtues: "commitment" to the good of the institution; good administrative "judgment"; and "conscientiousness" in discharging the duties of the office. In addition to explaining this framework and…

Educational leaders in the United States are faced with a society seeking instantaneous perfection, immediate and perfect solutions. In education, this leads to a demand for push-button administration and an abandonment of trust in educators' judgment. As exemplified by the No Child Left Behind Act (2002), the search for quick fixes results in…

From the first female president of the American Council on Education (ACE) to the first female and Hispanic president of Texas A&M University, women have been appointed to a number of high-profile presidencies over the past year. Yet, according to ACE's "The American College President" report for 2007, women and people of color still occupy…

Since joining her city's first flat-track roller-derby league more than a year ago, the author relates that she discovered some surprising, interesting things about her university's tolerance for its employees' "second lives." To be taken seriously, the author relates that she offsets any possible concerns about her professional legitimacy by…

Investigates the correlation between creativity and good leadership. (Author/JM)