Purpose: In the last 13 years, schools across the country spent a significant amount of time, money, and energy transitioning to the Common Core State Standards. States have also adopted high stakes accountability systems to track the achievement and growth of students. Despite these efforts, most schools are demonstrating only modest growth in…

Decisions about who is in charge of school systems often make the news. High-profile cases such as the recent takeover of the Houston Independent School District by the State of Texas -- where one of the first steps by state leaders was to replace the superintendent -- highlight the central importance of district leadership as well as the public…

Since 2013, most states have passed laws or implemented policies related to evidence-based reading instruction, with many doing so just in the past few years. Most of these laws and policies focus on integrating phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension into high-quality reading curriculum, teacher preparation standards,…

In these challenging times, it is essential that principals serve as equity-oriented, antiracist, culturally competent leaders accountable for students' performance, school improvement, and policy requirements. Many studies focus on professional development (PD) for teachers but not school leaders, thus the value of the present analysis is that…

SEL instruction is critical in schools because communities and educational leaders are starting to understand the interconnected nature of social-emotional learning and academic skills such as goal setting, managing emotions, maintaining positive relationships, showing empathy, and making responsible decisions (Data Quality Campaign, 2018). The…

As the world of education has changed, so have the roles and expectations of the evaluating administrators. Public schools have begun to insist that principals take much of the responsibility for teachers' instructional development and support. Some principals use a managerial approach, and others use a coaching style of motivating their…

Background and Purpose: District school improvement efforts have increasingly focused on improving the quality of support principals receive from the central office. This study uses the theoretical lens of recoupling to examines efforts by one urban district in the midst of change to revise the role of principal supervisors. Analysis focuses on…

The role of the Heads of Departments (HoDs) in the school structure is to provide middle leadership. They assist the principals on the day to day leadership of the schools. They are responsible for ensuring the achievement of their departmental and school vision and mission. This study sought to explore the nature of the challenges faced by the…

The COVID-19 pandemic changed schools' reality and posed a wide range of challenges for school leaders, such as a re-examination of principals' and teachers' authority and leadership in the schools' virtual spaces. Teaching methods and social-emotional aspects of learning were challenged as well. The school faculty had to redesign their…

This empirical investigation, grounded in the philosophical underpinnings of phenomenology, delved into the lived experiences of educators in relation to the technological leadership exhibited by their respective school principals or administrative heads. The study primarily endeavoured to comprehend the unique journeys of teachers as they…

Quality education is an effective equalizer in an unequal world. The link between cyclical poverty and a lack of quality education is well understood, as is the inextricable link between the provision of quality education and sustainable economic growth. As governments, policymakers, civil society, and ordinary citizens work together to make…

Strong leaders require emotional intelligence (EI). Research on EI of educational leaders is minimal. Due to the lack of research and literature in education on the emotional intelligence of school leaders, one may only assume that principals have the same leadership characteristics that are noted in current leadership books and publications.…

The heart and soul of any successful organization is outstanding leadership. In education, school divisions are always striving to increase school achievement and as such hold school leaders accountable for this growth. Leaders require explicit leadership skills. This article shares a proposal in which school leaders participate in direct literacy…

This qualitative study compares the instructional leadership practices of rural and non-rural principals, seeking to understand contextually based differences in how principals create a focus on teaching and learning. Principals across settings report similarities in instructional leadership tasks; however, they reported significant contextual…

At the height of pandemic-era procedures amidst great changes and uncertainty, school principals across the world were challenged to navigate and restructure ways to lead their schools. While leveraging crisis management leadership, principals needed to be attentive and adaptive to the emotional wellbeing and health of their employees. Today…