This paper examines the preparation of school principals in Malaysia, and the aspiration of the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025 to ensure high-performing school leaders in every school. It reports on the principal preparatory programme, the National Professional Qualification for Educational Leaders, which is mandatory to those who aspire…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nine-point strategic leadership characteristics of Malaysian Quality National Primary School Leaders (QNPSL) and to indicate the implications of these findings for the current educational management and leadership practices in their quest for Malaysian quality education.…

Although researchers have succeeded in identifying knowledge and skills and personal traits and characteristics of effective leaders, they have not been nearly as successful in identifying or defining those elusive leadership qualities that fall into the affective domain--what the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)…

Teachers have the greatest school-based effect on the achievement of any child in their classrooms, but highly effective principals can positively affect the achievement of every student in their schools. The difference between a highly effective principal and an average one is equal to two-to-seven months of extra learning per year for each child…

Principals are critical to the success of any school improvement effort--from increasing academic rigor toward college- and career-ready standards to teacher evaluation and support. They ensure this success by building a strong, shared vision and leading effective implementation for staff, students, and families. The federal government has an…

Over the next five years, schools will be expected to replace more than 60% of key leadership in independent schools. This is just one example of the growing evidence of shortages of persons filling key leadership positions. Based on this increasing concern, there is a need to develop a strategy to ensure the efficacy of prospective heads and…

Seattle University's three-year doctoral program in educational leadership both teaches and tests the hypothesis that universal behaviors exist which are generic to effective leadership in any organization in any field. Leadership effectiveness research shows that the critical factor lies in appropriately integrating both task-oriented and…

Women continue to be underemployed in leadership positions in educational settings, both in K-12 and in higher education. Early attempts to include women in leadership have proposed that women shape their behaviors to conform with male-oriented management models. This paper describes the success of a seminar called Women in Leadership, which was…

Examines themes emerging from the articles in this journal issue on transformational leadership in education (the postmodern, critical theory, the need for more case studies, and the role of discourse). (SM)

This book provides a personal look at the styles of several school leaders, probes the literature on school leadership, and explores some of the instruments designed to measure leadership style. The introduction explains the need to change leadership styles as education changes. Chapter 1 examines the redefinition of leadership roles and the role…

An examination of futurist literature showed that, in addition to traditional leadership skills, there are eight emerging skills vital to future leaders. Leaders of the future will have to focus on both future and present issues simultaneously by planning for various time frames, sensing the rates of change and communicating goals to followers,…

This paper describes the results of a study that investigated the nature and consequences of a unique set of university-sponsored school leadership preparation programs. Begun in 1987, the Danforth Foundation Program for the Preparation of School Principals (DPPSP) was part of a two-pronged effort to more fully develop the potential of school…

This short paper surveys some of the key concepts concerning the behavior called "leadership" and explores the role of leadership in the management of further and higher education. It recounts briefly six hypotheses held about the nature of leadership (the trait theory, the situational theory, the social influence theory, the functional or…

The need for interpersonal skills among educational administrators was examined. Educational administration graduate students were found similar to the general population in attending, empathy, respect, and concreteness. After training of school administrators in interpersonal skills and group management, assessments indicated significant,…