Principals' implementation of national reforms in the educational arena resembles a wild ride on a roller coaster as they face with contradicting demands, ongoing confusion and ambiguity. As critical change agents, principals interpret and translate reform demands into local practices through a process of sense-making. This current qualitative…

This paper proposes a framework for analyzing program design features that seem to matter in implementation. The framework is based on findings from a study conducted by the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) between 2004 and 2007 that explored how reform ideas and practices created by five external provider organizations were…

This article focuses on the response of educational leaders to No Child Left Behind's (NCLB) market-driven and sanctions-laden reforms as part of a political spectacle in which discourses link accountability and educational effectiveness to the advance of capitalism. Drawing on data collected during a multiyear ethnography of NCLB, this article…

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the principal in a systems change effort. Utilizing Response to Intervention (RtI) as a means of studying principals as change agents, this researcher examined the principals' ability to implement and sustain a reform effort such as RtI as perceived by the principal, problem solving team, and…

The context of leadership in the public school has become increasingly complex with the pressures of high stakes testing and accountability, changing student demographics, and financial challenges. Stakeholders must work together to develop effective strategies to increase student academic performance. Successful superintendents must optimize…

Globalization affects all the areas of the world economy, nations, countries, institutions and people (Armstrong, 2007; Suarez-Orozco, 2004). Meaning of this complex phenomenon is understood differently by leaders and the people involved in activities related to global economies. Higher education institutions such as universities are in the midst…

Schools are expected not only to conserve society's values and standards, but to be dynamic organizations with built-in mechanisms for incorporating rapid, far-reaching change. Although change is unlikely unless at least one highly motivated individual assumes the role of initial change agent, lasting change requires more than the efforts of a…

This study was undertaken by the Ontario (Canada) Public School Men Teachers' Federation to: (1) describe current practices and problems in curriculum implementation in Ontario public elementary schools; (2) provide information about the attitudes of federation members toward practices; and (3) identify barriers that block educators from…

For the past five years, researchers at the Research and Development Center for Teacher Education have studied the role of school principals and other educational leaders in facilitating school improvement. Through this research, much has been learned about the school improvement process and what facilitators do on a daily basis to bring about…

A survey of 35 principals was conducted to determine their perceptions about the impact environmental influences had on the desegregation planning process and its outputs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A model based on the principle of general systems theory was designed by the investigator and used as a conceptual framework to conduct the study. The…

Describes a study that investigated flexible scheduling in elementary school libraries that had received no funding to implement the change, focusing on the role of the principal in the implementation of flexible scheduling. Discusses change and leadership and examines the perceptions of principals, teachers, and librarians. (Author/LRW)

Uses explanatory case studies to examine three midwestern secondary schools' adoption of inclusion, based on Michael Fullan's views concerning the principal's pivotal role in school reform efforts. Findings support Fullan's perspectives and indicate lack of understanding about inclusion. Although the schools claimed to have implemented inclusive…

This chapter, from a guide for designing, implementing, and evaluating instruction and services for students with disabilities, acquaints the education administrator with the what, why, and how of interagency collaboration. System-level interagency collaboration involves joint planning, joint implementation, and joint evaluation between…

Research on leadership for change should focus more on what leaders do and less on who the key leaders are. This study identifies a set of change leadership functions, including providing and selling a vision of change, obtaining resources, providing encouragement and recognition, adapting standard operating procedures, monitoring the improvement…

Researchers using a combination of principal logs, on-site observation, face-to-face interviews, and regularly scheduled telephone interviews documented how principals intervene in the management of school change on both a day-to-day and a year-long basis. The data are from the Principal-Teacher Interaction Study conducted at the Austin campus of…