Calls for evidence-based practice are pervasive. In response, extensive scholarship has employed four categories of research use--instrumental, symbolic, conceptual, and imposed--to examine how research is used in schools and districts. We draw on sociocultural learning theory and empirical data from one school district to newly theorize latent…

Professional development (PD) for school leaders is focused primarily on documenting professional learning and identifying growth areas. However, the impact of reflections related to PD on sustaining school leaders' instructional capacity remains rather unaddressed. We examined how practicing school leaders develop their instructional leadership…

High-quality professional learning can support in-service leaders' effectiveness by developing the skills, knowledge, and competencies necessary for addressing their full range of leadership responsibilities. however, recent data show that leaders' access to professional learning varies across states and communities and that leaders in…

We present a framework for understanding the relationship between individual differences in leaders' motivations and their engagement in leader development, and we empirically test that framework across three different operationalizations of engagement, demonstrating that the motivation to develop as a leader (MTDL) is distinct from other…

As campus leaders called students, faculty, and staff back to in-person courses and student activities after the COVID-19 global pandemic, they were faced with employee retention challenges, burnout, recruitment limitations, and the changing nature of on-campus learning; there is ongoing discourse around these challenges and the extent to which…

While there has been national attention to the crisis of retaining teachers, principal turnover is also high. In this artile, five education leaders highlight how principal supervisors can improve principals' job satisfaction and retention.

Many Senior Leadership Teams (SLTs) are engaging in professional development to nurture explicitly anti-racist practice. Teachers' knowledge gaps about racism, its traumatic, lasting impact and how racism is generated through schooling persist within a cloak of silence. This small-scale study explores interview data from senior leaders in English…

This qualitative case study sought to better understand the complexity of developing executives to lead in a landscape of disruption and uncertainty, and how to evaluate the effectiveness of the development intervention in a world that is constantly changing. The purpose of this study was to explore how executives make meaning from what they…

This phenomenological inquiry sought to answer the research question: How do the experiences of participating in professional development activities influence human resources leaders' personal and professional transformation? The framework of the study was transformative learning theory. Data were collected using semi-structured questions in…

Effective school-level leaders impact student achievement. McREL's analysis of research found that effective leadership is not about leader personality or style; rather, it's about a set of 21 specific actions and behaviors that are significantly associated with higher levels of student achievement. This report translates the 21 actions into a…

Tauheedah Baker-Jones is Atlanta Public Schools' first chief equity and social justice officer. She developed and now oversees the district's Center for Equity and Social Justice and the district's equity framework. In this article, she shares some of her experiences and learnings, as well as reflections on how districts can enable equity officers…

This program evaluation study used an objectives-oriented evaluation to determine the impact of professional development on effective communication to enhance leadership skills of school and district leaders in a southwestern Florida school district. Professional development is offered by the district to teachers, school leaders, district leaders,…

Research conducted to date has highlighted barriers to initial adoption of universal behavior screening in schools. However, little is known regarding the experiences of those implementing these procedures and there have been no studies conducted examining the experiences of educators in different stages of implementing various tiered systems of…

Recent research has confirmed what students, families, educators, and advocates have always known to be true: School leaders really matter. School leaders play a fundamental role in recruiting and supporting strong educators, driving rigorous instruction, creating school cultures that are inclusive and inviting, and working toward positive…

The relationship between faith-based institutions and students who identify as LGBTQ+ has attracted considerable attention of late. Most of this scholarly attention, however, has focused upon the students themselves. In this article, we examine the contemporary experience of 371 student affairs leaders (SALs) who serve as the primary mediators…