Leadership in educational settings, especially in schools, has a long history. Instructional leadership is a leadership style that is seen to increase school effectiveness. This study aims to map bibliographic data on instructional leadership over the past eight decades (1941-2022). The quantitative research approach to analyzing bibliographic…

Using the "story constellations" version of narrative inquiry, I tell of two schools--Cochrane Academy and Hardy Academy--that evolved from a shared social narrative history and that were given stories of school and stories of reform that had many features in common. I detail how the founding principals' narratives informed the teachers' knowledge…

There is a disconnect between what principals are being asked to manage and accomplish and the level of support they receive to meet expectations. At a time when rhetoric on the principalship is focused on collaboration, most principals find themselves working in an isolated position within hierarchical organizations. And while principals are…

The idea of collective decision making in schools has been a popular democratic educational reform model. One of its claims is that participation in school decision making empowers teachers and improves teaching. This research investigates this claim by exploring seven teachers' experiences with a unique democratic school reform in Porto Alegre,…

The Foxfire Teacher Outreach Network has expanded teacher thinking and practice. Similarly, the principal must possess complementary attitudes and actions for a school to become a setting where change can occur, staff and students can flourish, and risk-taking is valued. This article explores the challenges facing administrators who create…

Summarizes a study of two principals' efforts to restructure schools serving predominantly Native American populations as learning communities. Presents an empirically based conceptualization of community for cross-cultural settings and identifies implications for school leaders. Although consensus can't always be achieved, learning communities…

Synthesizes evidence from three independent studies of conditions fostering organizational learning in schools conducted in different contexts, but using comparable methods. The purpose was to identify such conditions from state, district, and school sources, relying on qualitative data from 111 teachers in 14 schools. Collegial atmosphere and…

Since 2002 the Consortium on Chicago School Research, in collaboration with the Mills College in Oakland, California, has conducted a series of studies on the Chicago High School Redesign Initiative (CHSRI)--a partnership between Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the Gates Foundation, and local Chicago foundations to create approximately two dozen…

Helping every youngster reach his or her potential is a daunting task, but it can be done. Site-based administrators who incorporate leadership guidelines that define the vision, create a positive climate, initiate action, and advocate an equitable learning environment for all students will awaken one day to discover that all students are…

This paper analyzes the empirical evidence available to date concerning the evolving role of the principal. First, it briefly describes the effects of fundamental reform measures on the work environment of school principals, with a focus on work overload and role ambiguity. The second section unpacks the available body of empirical research to…

Findings of a study that examined teachers' and principals' perceptions of organizational changes affecting their professional work as a result of restructuring are presented in this paper. The multiple case study of two elementary, two middle, and two high schools derived data from interviews with each principal and from questionnaires…

Every month, "Leadership" features articles written in an informal, conversational style that provide practical information for school administrators. This issue of "Leadership" contains the following titles: (1) "A Culture of Greatness"; (2) "Achieving and Sustaining Greatness" (Sandra Carsten); (3)…

The "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) Act has made schools accountable for assuring adequate yearly progress of students. Therefore, it has become critical to identify school-level variables that can be controlled to affect student achievement, especially given that, thus far, most school reform efforts have failed to significantly affect…

This paper focuses on the instructional leadership role behavior of school principals in relation to the management of special education programs. A framework is presented of the principal's role in seven broad areas of instructional management: community, beliefs and experience, institutional context, principal's routine behaviors, instructional…

This article recounts the journey of a high school administrator to the concept of feminist administration. It offers a first definition of feminist administering through parallels with feminist pedagogy and makes some tentative suggestions about the application of the concept to the school restructuring movement. (IAH)