The road to leadership is not necessarily one that educators plan carefully with a series of logical steps. Certainly some educators start as teachers and then systematically work through a traditional hierarchy on their way to the superintendency. No matter their role or their path, education leaders demand more from themselves and others and…

While people at all levels of education are talking about teacher leadership, few are talking about the bold type of leadership that puts teachers in charge of whole-school success. Many current forms of teacher leadership have teachers carrying out solutions that others have created. Rarely does teacher leadership involve teachers designing and…

This article describes a professional learning plan created in the Fort Wayne Community Schools (Indiana, USA) for principals working and learning together on the RISE Indiana Teacher Effectiveness Rubric. This training plan ensures that principals are observing instructional practice in the same way and in agreement with the district's instrument…

A web-enabled computer simulation program presents real-world opportunities, problems, and challenges for aspiring principals. The simulation challenges areas that are not always covered in lectures, textbooks, or workshops. For example, using the simulation requires dealing--on-screen and in real time--with demanding parents, observing…

This article describes a novel effort in New York City, the Learning Partners Program, which matches veteran principals with two or more newer ones. In 2014-15, the first full year of the effort, the city's Department of Education put 73 of the city's more than 1,800 schools into 23 groups of threes and one group of four. Every group comprised one…

Being a principal was the most demanding job the author ever had. He worked hard, mostly in isolation. Like most principals, he struggled to manage the position's political and bureaucratic necessities in order to concentrate on what he thought was the fundamental work of schools: teaching and learning. He struggled to continue to learn and grow…

Through its engagement with grantees on initiatives to improve school leadership, The Wallace Foundation came to recognize the important role that state organizations play in advancing effective leadership in districts and schools as well as the importance of coordination among state- and district-level policies. The authors have recently…

Educators and policy makers have placed leadership development at the top of the school reform agenda, believing that aspiring and new school leaders can learn the necessary skills to improve the most challenging schools. Leadership development builds the capacity of educators (teachers and administrators) to be effective in leadership roles or…

Findings are reported from a series of studies of staff development coordinators, principals, and superintendents carried out in Georgia. The staff development needs of the three groups are identified, ranked, and compared. Implications for staff developers are proposed. (IAH)

Eleven staff development programs for school administrators are analyzed, emphasizing the principles and characteristics which distinguish these programs from past practice. Differences are classified into the headings of focus, content, and program delivery. (MT)

This article describes principals' centers and the principals' center movement, identifying key issues raised by them. Future directions and persistent questions for the principals' center movement are developed. (MT)

The Metropolitan Principals' Academy was formed in 1984 by eight suburban school districts in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in order to help administrators become more effective. The academy is described, and the research-based model of leadership which guides it is examined. (MT)

The Fall River Institute for Leadership was established in 1984 to aid administrators in learning about recent studies, programs, and practices in the field of leadership development and to help Fall River's 102 administrators refine their leadership skills. This article provides an overview of the institute's program. (MT)

The Akron Public Schools conduct three interrelated programs for principals to ensure school improvement. They are Administrative Supervision Workshops, /I/D/E/A/ Principals Inservice Program, and Operation Curriculum for School Improvement. The programs, and how they overlap, are described. (MT)

The Worthington School District uses the Social Style Model in a two-day seminar to help administrators become aware of the effect of their behavior on others and to understand the effect of others' behavior on them. The program and its benefits are discussed. (MT)