In the 21st century, policymakers and educators agree that improving the quality of K-12 education requires effective leadership practices and collaborative efforts. Particularly, research has shown that a leadership approach that focuses on a continuous improvement can achieve impressive results. Successful leaders empower teachers to be the best…

This article provides Stephen J. Nelson's perspectives on challenges faced by college presidents today, how and when to use the bully pulpit of the college presidency, and advice for future college presidents. Nelson recently wrote his fifth book about college presidents, "College Presidents Reflect: Life in and out of the Ivory…

A presidential code of conduct is needed more today than ever before. College and university presidents are being required to do more without the proper training to succeed. Presidents from outside the academy enter academia with normative patterns and codes of conduct that served them well in their previous occupations but now have the potential…

Evaluating an unsatisfactory teacher is mentally and physically exhausting and might take months or even years to resolve. Commonly, the principal handling the unsatisfactory teacher evaluation will have his or her professional and personal conduct scrutinized. For that reason, principals must maintain professional boundaries by avoiding social…

In her six-year study of high-performing high-poverty and high-minority schools across the United States, the author tries to clarify the reasons that these schools have succeeded in closing achievement gaps, in hopes that other schools will follow suit. The principals of these schools suggest five crucial elements that drive their success: (1)…

Administrators sometimes let themselves get locked into the "front end" of their buildings. There are phone calls to take, emails to answer, payments to post, and events to plan. It's easy to find the day coming to a close and they haven't even taken time to grab lunch or venture beyond the lobby of the building. In this article, the author…

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…

Legacy thinking is about a person--as an individual. How he interacts with others on a one-to-one basis every day. Someone with personal hopes, goals, desires and expectations. Thinking about one's legacy can help one better understand his strengths and weaknesses and help him steer his legacy in the right direction. In this article, the author…

Administrative power for some school teachers can be an aphrodisiac that can be applied negatively, especially when a leader has devastating instinct for the weaknesses of others. A leader's intellect and heart closes shop and ceases to function when drunk on power. In this article, the author describes how the use of administrative power can be…

Much is left to be known regarding the impact of school principals on student achievement. This is because much of the research on school leadership focuses not on actual student outcomes but rather on other peripheral results of principal practices. In the research that has been done in this area, significant relationships have been identified…

Modern principalship is often characterized as complex, convoluted, and filled with paradoxes and ambiguities. But it also has predictability, behaviors that seem constant for students, teachers, and principals. Their predictability makes them a normal part of the schoolhouse culture. This light-hearted article lists some of these constants.

This article utilizes an acceptance of an evolutionary pattern in how humans have understood the nature of leadership in order to extend this pattern into the 21st century. Based on the works of numerous writers, such as Gebser, Sorokin, Bellah, Habermas, Foucault, Berger, and Wilber, it is possible to outline the origins of predominant worldviews…

This discussion focuses on a research project designed to identify critical leadership behaviors and characteristics of very successful elementary school principals. The project which ultimately became a book published jointly by the National Association of Elementary School Principals and Corwin Press used research methodology inspired by…

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…

Describes how the author survived for more than a quarter of a century as a minor university administrator by applying a "schizoid narrativizing strategy" to the art of running, and being run by, an academic department. Notes that established written departmental procedures are indispensable. Discusses briefly the state of the academic economy.…