In education systems around the world, planners and policymakers are calling for more attention to whole-system improvement. To best address teaching and learning outcomes, teachers and head teachers need whole-system support to build professionalism and improve their practice. The middle tier of education systems, composed of professionals…

Background/Context: Rural districts often struggle to provide organizational structures that support knowledge-building and sharing among educators, contributing to the challenge of change implementation in rural contexts. Although prior scholarship identifies social relationships centered on trust as important for fostering educator learning, we…

Background/Context: In recent decades, federal policymakers have pushed for education to be a more "scientific" endeavor. While scholars have considered the implications of this orientation for educational researchers, less attention has been given to its impact on educational practitioners. Purpose/Focus of the Study: By focusing on the…

Kuwait is seeking to diversify its sources of income by modernizing the education system and providing its young people with the knowledge and skills needed for life in the 21st century. To this end, it is constantly trying to improve the whole educational system by introducing developmental projects and policies. Central to this process is the…

Principal preparation programs are of great importance with high stakes accountability and the ESSA Act advocating for the needs of all students. School leaders can no longer neglect inequities and must move rhetoric to action. This study examines the utilization of the reconceptualized equity audit to identify, address, and eliminate inequities…

Principals' implementation of national reforms in the educational arena resembles a wild ride on a roller coaster as they face with contradicting demands, ongoing confusion and ambiguity. As critical change agents, principals interpret and translate reform demands into local practices through a process of sense-making. This current qualitative…

This article focuses on the response of educational leaders to No Child Left Behind's (NCLB) market-driven and sanctions-laden reforms as part of a political spectacle in which discourses link accountability and educational effectiveness to the advance of capitalism. Drawing on data collected during a multiyear ethnography of NCLB, this article…

Data regarding intervention utilization among the target population are critical to interpret evidence from efficacy trials for school-based interventions. When use of the intervention is voluntary, intervention diffusion becomes a particularly critical variable. We examined the use of Instructional Consultation Teams (IC Teams), a voluntary…

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the principal in a systems change effort. Utilizing Response to Intervention (RtI) as a means of studying principals as change agents, this researcher examined the principals' ability to implement and sustain a reform effort such as RtI as perceived by the principal, problem solving team, and…

Despite the key role that principals play in leading schoolwide change, districts' efforts to support principals are often limited, particularly in rural settings. In this article, we report the preliminary findings of a cross-district mentoring program for nine midcareer rural school principals. The collaboratively developed human resource…

In 2006, Governor Edward Rendell announced a three-year, $200 million Classrooms for the Future program to provide technology and technology support to schools across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, beginning in the 2006-2007 school year. The purpose of this research study is to examine the change process of the diffusion of technology within…

The need for specific information about principals as change facilitators prompted a long-range research program. A first step in this effort investigates the interventions principals make in relation to the implementation of an innovation in their schools. Subjects were 10 principals of elementary schools where an identifiable innovation…

Schools are expected not only to conserve society's values and standards, but to be dynamic organizations with built-in mechanisms for incorporating rapid, far-reaching change. Although change is unlikely unless at least one highly motivated individual assumes the role of initial change agent, lasting change requires more than the efforts of a…

This study was undertaken by the Ontario (Canada) Public School Men Teachers' Federation to: (1) describe current practices and problems in curriculum implementation in Ontario public elementary schools; (2) provide information about the attitudes of federation members toward practices; and (3) identify barriers that block educators from…

This paper describes principals' behavior as they facilitate the implementation of an innovation in their schools. The paper uses data from research conducted by the Concerns-Based Adoption Model Project at the Austin campus of the University of Texas. The behaviors of nine principals are associated with three "change facilitator styles"…