School middle leadership is a complex and increasingly important school leadership position, with research showing the significance of middle leadership to school improvement and teacher development. The purpose of this article is to identify and analyse empirical peer reviewed articles on middle leadership from 2006 to 2020, to understand how…

The purpose of this study is to examine the problem of practice found in discipline disproportionality of Black students with disabilities in an urban school district with a majority Black student and teacher population. Through personal interviews with building level administrators, data was gained to determine common themes that impact…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how elementary school principals adjust their leadership practice in response to Washington's new teacher evaluation policy. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a modified content analysis of open-ended survey responses collected from elementary school principals in Washington State.…

Schools in Abu Dhabi are going through transformation and reform. The New School Model (2010) introduced changes to the curriculum and teaching and learning methodologies. In line with these changes, recently introduced "Principal Professional Standards" and "Performance Evaluation" documents have conceptualized new roles and…

In Hong Kong, there is an acute need to provide newly appointed principals with opportunities for continuous professional development so that they could face the impact of reforms and globalization on school development. The Education Bureau has commissioned the tertiary institutions to provide structured professional development courses to cater…

Principals serve as both instructional and administrative leaders in their schools. Their roles and responsibilities vary from managing school compliance issues to facilitating and assisting teachers with their instructional duties. In order to support principals in public schools, district leaders and others are working to build the kinds of…

In order to create a productive school culture, effective, sustainable change must occur at every level throughout a school system. This paper focuses on the components and process that break the barriers to change to create a productive school culture for change that transcends through the classroom, the school level, and district level. Ongoing,…

The 1983 publication of "A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform" (National Commission of Excellence in Education) "initiated the longest sustained period of attention to public education in the nation's history and ignited a new wave of interest in teacher preparation" (NRC, Committee on the Study of Teacher…

The success of a Professional Development School (PDS) is dependent upon the PDS principal and her/his ability to negotiate diverse job responsibilities, the most important being an effective instructional leader. Therefore, the issue that was addressed in this study was: What are the exemplary practices of PDS principals in the area of…

When people hear the term "urban", they immediately associate it with negative attributes such as poverty stricken students and families, ill-prepared students, run down facilities, and an inconsistency in teachers. When compared to any kind of school whether its' private or public, urban school districts have the worst label of all. Why is there…

Presents the Professional Development School (PDS) experiences of a participant who was both a school principal and the director/superintendent of a university laboratory school at the beginning, and who is now an Associate Professor and the director of an institute where she facilitates the creation of PDS relationships. (SM)

This paper presents findings of a study that examined outcomes of a professional-development program designed to help department heads in Ontario, Canada, facilitate change in secondary schools. Department heads in three schools in two Roman Catholic school districts in Ontario participated in the program. The heads were faced with implementing…

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) sets standards for the teaching profession and certifies teachers who meet those standards. Currently there are NBPTS-developed standards for 27 fields, such as age range (e.g., early childhood, adolescence, young adulthood) and content area (e.g., English/language arts, middle…

The School-Based Improvement Project (SBIP) is a joint venture of the Office of Community Education of the Massachusetts Department of Education and the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents (MASS). SBIP is a multiyear professional-development initiative designed to help public school superintendents become effective leaders in…

Very few people would disagree that the work of the principal is multifaceted, hectic, and fraught with uncertainties, and given the ongoing press for accountability, the very work of the principal as instructional leader is shifting to ensure "results." There are myriad day-to-day activities that take principals away from the important work of…