Principals are the leverage point for education reforms and the primary drivers of school improvement. A critical part of maintaining a corps of effective principals is rewarding and retaining the best school leaders. Unfortunately, few systems systematically identify principals that make important contributions to student learning or celebrate…

The goal of this publication is to provide a snapshot of some of the publicly available resources describing efforts across Race to the Top States to ensure that turnaround schools have effective leaders. It is based on a review of Race to the Top State Annual Performance Reports, including State reports of Year 1 accomplishments and second year…

This paper reports on an interview study with directors of Head Start and child care programs who are collaborating with local education authorities to provide publicly funded preschool in New Jersey, USA. A standardized interview protocol was utilized with 98 directors chosen to represent a range of center types from across the three main regions…

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…

Each year, Austin Independent School District Department of Research and Evaluation (DRE) staff develop a plan of work to describe the scope of work for the coming year. The plans that make up this document identify programs to be evaluated and services to be provided by DRE staff and provide the blueprints for evaluation that staff will follow…

Considers the effects of the Leadership in Educational Administration Development (LEAD) Program. Reviews both program and project specific accomplishments. (JOW)

A comprehensive overview of purpose and content of the Program (an opportunity for Federal executives to learn first-hand about United States Congress in operation through work assignments with members of Congress and staffs of Congressional committees) and a report of reactions of participants to the Program is presented. Information for analysis…

This semiannual report of the Department of Education's Office of Inspector General summarizes the office's activities in auditing and investigating abuses in the use of federal monies in education and in improving the management of federally funded programs. The audits for a 6-month period ending September 30, 1983, are graphed and significant…

The Leadership in Educational Administration Development (LEAD) Program is a six-year, $35 million federal program to improve school leadership. This article provides an overview of LEAD and a brief description of major themes characterizing the LEAD center programs across the country. (JOW)

Focuses on the activities of an Oklahoma group which organized a corporation to help start small businesses in an eight-county area. (DM)

An editorial and two articles on quality control in evaluation are presented. Topics covered include definition and assessment of evaluation quality and development of standards for judging quality. Programs inspections activities of the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services are discussed. (TJH)

Issues in the future of a federal collaborative program, Leadership in Educational Administration Development (LEAD), are discussed in this paper. Problems attributed to LEAD are its antagonistic posture to educational administration programs in higher education and political conflicts of interest. Methodology involved analysis of successful LEAD…

Total quality management (TQM) is based on the fundamental philosophy that it is always more effective to do something right the first time than it is to correct deficiencies. It seeks to improve quality and increase customer satisfaction by restructuring traditional management and organizational practices. Common characteristics of TQM include…