Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is increasingly recognized as a critical topic in today's educational landscape. This is because contemporary education outcomes need to equip students for the demands of 21st-century jobs. In this context, the role and strategic actions of school principals emerge as critical…

The main issue that is discussed today in schools, in educational institutions, by researchers and education experts, is the quality in education. In addition to numerous discussions on issues of educational quality, in addition to defining quality standards and criteria and in addition to establishing criteria to measure quality, the role of the…

The purpose of this study was to examine the roles and responsibilities of elementary school principals in relation to how they are evaluated and what is included in their job descriptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the numerous policies that surround education and the COVID-19 pandemic, this study examined elementary school…

Initiatives to increase leadership accountability coupled with efforts to promote data-driven leadership have led to widespread adoption of instruments to assess school leaders. In this article, we present a decision matrix that practitioners and researchers can use to facilitate instrument selection. Our decision matrix focuses on the…

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) expects all Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grantees to conduct an evaluation of their programs. Experience with earlier rounds of TIF grants has shown that evaluations can provide valuable information for managing and improving TIF-supported activities, as well as evidence that these activities have had a…

Over the last decade, teacher evaluation has moved onto center stage in efforts to strengthen schooling. In this article, we address the question of whether focusing on this administrative process is likely to accomplish what reformers hope. We answer that question by examining the available evidence, both direct and indirect. We deepen the…

This study addressed the impact of VAM, concerns with VAM data, uses and interventions educational leaders provided teachers, and components perceived as necessary for VAM effectiveness as an evaluation tool. The demographics used for this study were position, school size, and experience. Due to the documented need for educational accountability…

This paper presents a newly implemented model of principal preparation at a public university in the southwestern United States. The authors begin by identifying a number of innovative practices currently being carried out within educational administration programs across the United States. Informed by the context of these national models, the…

Purpose: The Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning (CALL) is an online task-based assessment of distributed instructional leadership. In developing CALL, researchers faced the challenge of structuring survey items that would measure leadership practice rather than individual traits. Critical in this work was developing items that…

Principals play a central role in how well a school performs. They are responsible for establishing school goals and developing strategies for meeting them. They lead their schools' instructional programs, recruit and retain teachers, maintain the school climate, and allocate resources. How well they execute these and other leadership functions is…

These days, everyone seems to be wringing their hands about how to construct new evaluation systems that will make teachers better. This unnecessary angst has led to crazy experiments in reform that have embraced churn for the sake of churn, put school districts at risk, and demoralized many of the most talented teachers. A few school districts,…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to report a study of the strategies members of principal selection panels use to select the best candidate for a principal position. Design/methodology/approach: The study draws on both qualitative and quantitative data. The quantitative analysis drawn on data collected from school supervisors and school…

This article describes an ICT-based and capability-driven model for assessing ICT in education capabilities and maturity of schools. The proposed model, called ICTE-MM (ICT in School Education Maturity Model), has three elements supporting educational processes: information criteria, ICT resources, and leverage domains. Changing the traditional…

School leaders are critical in the lives of students and to the development of their teachers. Unfortunately, in too many instances, principals are effective in spite of--rather than because of--district conditions. To truly improve student achievement for all students across the country, well-prepared principals need the tools, support, and…

Teachers have the greatest school-based effect on the achievement of any child in their classrooms, but highly effective principals can positively affect the achievement of every student in their schools. The difference between a highly effective principal and an average one is equal to two-to-seven months of extra learning per year for each child…