This "Research Roundup" focuses on how schools can benefit when educational leaders use data to challenge their intuition and assumptions in their decision-making. In "Building an Automated Student Record System: A Step-by-Step Guide for Local and State Education Agencies," Barbara S. Clements provides administrators with a quick but comprehensive…

Increasing evidence shows that school leaders, throughout all stages of their careers, can benefit from a mentoring system in which a seasoned leader helps the protege combine theory and practice with experience. This research roundup reviews works that provide support for principal mentoring and share strategies for establishing mentoring…

Although principals are essential to their schools' effectiveness, they often receive only perfunctory evaluation. Themes from current literature on principal evaluation are highlighted in this digest; they include the reasons for principal evaluation, initial steps in designing evaluation systems, methods and sources of evaluation, and models of…

There are no simple answers to the tricky business of managing conflict within organizations. Almost every conflict is a unique case with its own issues, participants, dynamics, and consequences. Still, it appears possible to differentiate between organizations that handle conflict productively and those that do not. Successful organizations view…

This serial offers a collection of articles on academic standards, while focusing on whether it is possible to ensure both equity and high standards in education. It looks at ways to close the achievement gap between students in high-poverty schools and their middle-class peers, and offers a chart that outlines what various stakeholders can do to…

A collection of humorous anecdotes, poems, and essays written by M. Dale Baughman, who is retiring as editor of "Contemporary Education," focuses on a variety of topics including: (1) humor and the child; (2) the school's role in community life; (3) school administration; and (4) educational research. Also included is an editorial about…

Never before has the need for effective mentoring programs for principals been more urgent. Record student enrollment, an anticipated retirement of about 40 percent of principals, and a shrinking pool of those who aspire to be principals have brought about a shortage of principals and an alarming lack of qualified applicants. This research roundup…

Offered as a contribution to developing better trustees, this collection of essays represents a variety of viewpoints on the nature and extent of trustee services. The following articles are included: (1) "The Illinois Public Community College Board Members," by Gary Frank Petty and William E. Piland; (2) "Active Trusteeship for a Changing Era,"…

This special serial issue discusses a controversial article on university school-administration programs. The issue opens with an abridged edition of the article written for the "Phi Delta Kappan" which argues that what little evidence there is on educational administration graduate programs' efficacy indicates that such training is ineffectual.…

This bulletin outlines the major components of a crisis-preparedness and response plan for schools. It lists the critical components of a safe-school plan, such as community coordination, curriculum, proactive student discipline policies and procedures, safe physical environment, school security, staff and student training, evaluation and…

Presents a series of articles that cover a range of issues with regard to the Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers. Papers explore ways to balance natural and human settings, provide an overview of a professional leadership academy, describe the preparations for an effectiveness skills program, and outline some of the concerns…

The eight chapters of this theme issue address two broad themes related to the study of school leadership in four countries. The first is the changing role of the principal/headteacher as a result of legislated change and societal expectations. The second is the implications of these changes for the roles of principals and headteachers. (SLD)

This publication reviews five information sources about new designs and recommendations for principal preparation programs. In "The Landscape of Leadership Preparation: Reframing the Education of School Administrators," Joseph Murphy examines the nature of current problems in administrator preparation. He argues that before they can draw sound…

A number of researchers and national commission reports have recommended increased autonomy of public schools through school-site management. School-based management entails focusing the full resources of the system at school level and allowing decisions to be make at that level where faculty and principal constitute a natural management team.…

This report is comprised of brief summaries of various research-based and theoretical concepts and techniques--taken mostly from business management--that might improve educational administration. The topics discussed include (1) a list of successful business practices identified by the book, "In Search of Excellence"; (2) Theories X, Y,…