Anecdotal evidence points to the importance of school principals, but the limited existing research has neither provided consistent results nor indicated any set of essential characteristics of effective principals. This paper exploits extensive student-level panel data across six states to investigate both variations in principal performance and…

As middle managers in higher education, department chairs play a critical role in the university structure while operating in an ambiguous location between faculty and senior administration. This paper will take a closer look at the role of department chair, how chairs are selected and prepared for the position, what the job entails, qualities of…

The purpose of this paper is to summarize research about the experience of newer instructional leaders in Jewish day schools in order to identify best practice in supporting them. Data is drawn from the results of a narrative study that explored the socialization of ten Jewish day school principals in the first three years of their first position…

This Data Note describes findings from a nationally representative sample of secondary school principals about their well-being and job-related stressors one year into the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Understanding principals' views on these topics at a national level can help education leaders and policymakers identify ways to…

Purpose: The purpose of the article is to examine knowledge about successful principalship and discuss the methodology that has emerged throughout the history of the International Successful School Principals Project (ISSPP) and their implications for future progress. Design/methodology/approach: Historical analysis is used as a strategy for…

This present volume is the third in a series of education sector analysis (ESA) guidelines following two volumes published in 2014. The series provides methodologies and applied examples for diagnosing education systems and informing national education policies and plans. This volume proposes guidelines to strengthen national capacities in…

Senior administrators are often called upon to respond to hurtful incidents on campus. Effective response involves managing many aspects of campus reaction, including addressing the emotional condition of the campus community. Senior leaders must do the internal work if they are to provide the appropriate affective response to the emotional and…

Leading and managing schools across the globe requires accountability for the utilisation of resources entrusted to schools for improving the quality of teaching and learning in schools. Little, however, is known about the school managers' effectiveness in accounting for the schools quality teaching and learning. This paper explored school…

This report is the first in a series by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) that examines the current status of states' teacher policies. Updated on a two-year cycle, each will cover a specific area of teacher policy. This report focuses on state teacher policies governing what states require in evaluations of both teachers and…

State policy contributes to the overall environment that affects how school principals emerge, develop, and lead their schools. School districts are most proximate to the work that principals do and therefore have the most direct, regular engagement with candidates for the principalship, principals in training, and principals on the job. As a…

Purpose: This conceptual paper explores a novel model explaining teachers' perceptions of their effective leader through the lens of implicit leadership theory (ILT), using the concepts of school principals' sense-making and cognitive complexity (CC). Design/methodology/approach: The sense-making framework and CC theory were used to explain ILT,…

The purpose of this article is to review current research about the struggles facing effective inclusive schooling and the role the principal plays in bringing about improved equity, access, and achievement in K-12 public schools. Also, we examine the leadership pipeline and how principal preparation and professional development should address…

An increasing emphasis on principals as key to school improvement has contributed to efforts to elevate principal effectiveness that have taken various forms across the US. The primacy of the state as the focal point of educational reform elevates the value of understanding commonalities and differences among states in characteristics of…

This special issue set out to explore "Leadership Stories" and in particular "Unlocking the Path to Social Justice Leadership" in various countries around the world. All stories reported by the participants involved in the social justice strand of the International School Leadership Development Network (ISLDN), which defines…

The revisions to federal policy reflected in ESSA suggest that federal policy makers are acknowledging the growing research-base on principal effectiveness, and responding by shaping policy to create new opportunities for innovation and improvement in principal preparation and development. Principals, as multipliers of effective practice, are a…