The role of the public school principal has expanded dramatically in recent decades. The expanded role means they are now significant multipliers of effective teaching and have a real opportunity to affect student achievement. Most states have spent recent years working to improve teacher effectiveness, recognizing its importance in improving…

In traditional academic instruction, the classroom may be viewed as a kind of speech community composed of an expert (the teacher) and those who are at various stages of socializing into the cultural models and norms of that community (students), although this is an overly simplistic and unilinear view. In executive development programs, students…

Over the last decade, the Russian education system has undergone significant transformation that has radically changed the expectations placed upon the school principals. This current reform process has placed far greater responsibilities and accountabilities upon principals to secure school effectiveness and improved student learning outcomes.…

This article describes a novel effort in New York City, the Learning Partners Program, which matches veteran principals with two or more newer ones. In 2014-15, the first full year of the effort, the city's Department of Education put 73 of the city's more than 1,800 schools into 23 groups of threes and one group of four. Every group comprised one…

Over the past decade, numerous business schools have begun experimenting with studio-based inquiry, often drawing inspiration from professional studios used within art and design schools and from business and governmental studios used for problem-solving and innovation. Business school studios vary considerably in form, ranging from temporary…

Purpose: The past decade has seen considerable debate about how to best evaluate the efficacy of educational improvement initiatives, and members of the educational leadership research community have entered the debate with great energy. Throughout this debate, the use of randomized experiments has been a particularly contentious subject. This…

This qualitative study explores the preparation and practice of school leaders in Taiwan based on indepth interviews and observations with six Taiwan school directors serving geographically diverse student populations. The journey leading to school leadership and the challenges that this representative group of educational leaders face are…

This article will present information and research on how a college of education is intentionally developing principals to lead with confidence and racial competence. The nation's student achievement research is sobering: our current school systems widen already existing gaps between white students and students of color, (Darling-Hammond, L. 2004,…

Partnerships between universities and school districts are increasingly being identified as a means to overcome the difficulties of preparing the next generation of urban high school principals. This article examines the development of such a multiorganizational partnership with a large urban school district, two universities, and a national…

School principals need to be well prepared to manage school facilities assigned to their care. Educational leadership programs can make best use of the Educational Leadership Constituent Council (ELCC) Standards to develop a course of study to address school facility management issues. Every standard has its facility implications that lead to…

This paper presents assessments by students actively engaged in a recently redesigned Doctor of Education (EdD) program, delivered at a research-extensive university participating in the the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED), to prepare leaders for a statewide system of community and technical colleges. Because a unique feature of…

Professional preparation in educational administration has been a university-based state requirement that oriented aspiring school administrators to the roles of principal or superintendent. Professional and state expectations for preparation, development, and credentialing are shifting as the complexity of leadership and administration has…

The relevance of administrative preparation programs has been questioned. The questions center around how well programs are preparing school leaders to deal with the myriad of requirements placed in front of them (i.e. demands relate to issues of accountability, changing demographics, aging professionals, demanding publics, and school…

At the present juncture, South Africa is one of the few countries that do not require a compulsory and specific qualification for principalship. This particular need has been part of a discussion among educational leaders for the past thirty to forty years. Despite all the laudable efforts to redesign the landscape of Educational Leadership and…

Discusses the nature of reflective practice and its importance in school leaders' preparation and professional development. Professional preparation that develops reflective practice helps resolve the theory-practice dichotomy and improve professional practice. Preparation programs must provide experiences that elicit critical application of…