This study examines principals' understanding and implementation of social justice (SJ) in the Arab education system in Israel. Qualitative research employed observations and fourteen semi-structured interviews with school principals to clarify their perceptions of SJ at school, activities to promote SJ, and leadership characteristics advancing…

The "Brown" v. Board of Education ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court brought hopes of long-denied freedom to Black communities and their inhabitants. However, implementation of Brown ushered in more misery than a mandate for equality. The "Brown" v. Board of Education ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court brought hopes of long-denied…

This case study explores Costa Rica's National Executive Decree No. 31.900, requiring all public schools in the country participate in the National Program of Science and Technology Fairs (Programa Nacional de Ferias de Ciencia y Tecnología [PRONAFECYT]). The purpose of the decree is to promote innovation and to prepare students with the skills to…

Professional Learning Communities are an important means toward the goal of improving schools so that students can learn at high levels. Professional Learning Communities, when well-implemented, have a laser-focus on learning, work collaboratively, and hold themselves accountable for results. In this article, the central concept of…

This article tries to "put a face" on the complex and abstract process of program change in relation to key principles from the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED). We examine the principles of the "scholarship of practice," "laboratory of practice," and "signature pedagogy" within a…

The study traced the assimilation of new administrative software in an Arab school, assisted by collaboration between the school and an Arab academic teacher-training college in Israel. The research used a mixed-method paradigm. A questionnaire consisting of 81 items was administered to 55 of the school's teachers in two stages to elicit their…

Findings from a qualitative study of two Title I middle schools that were in their second year of implementing an externally developed Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) model are presented. Policy attributes theory was used as a framework for examining implementation. The theory argues fidelity of implementation of a CSR is strongest when it is…

Although evaluation serves many purposes in education, there is virtually unanimous agreement that evaluation is a critical component of all school improvement processes. Hamilton et al. (2003) asserted that "assessment and evaluation should be built into reform programs from the outset" (p. 26). Kimball, Lander, and Thorn (2010)…

This work highlights a heuristic model for professional learning while examining the implementation of a reform initiative. The researchers used longitudinal data collected from surveys to develop and fit a model of professional learning where patterns of interaction among teachers changed the discussion about English learner instruction. Data…

This article is a retrospective description of the decisions, strategies, and context of program changes made at the USC Rossier School of Education, related specifically to the education doctorate. The primary purpose is to highlight the change process from the perspective of the academic dean. Drawing on work in systems change and strategic…

School districts across America have responded to the accountability movement by increasing professional development activities, including the utilization of onsite coaching strategies for educators. But who is mentoring the mentors? This descriptive study in one Western state found that 56% of instructional coaches reported they did not have a…

This article presents findings from multiple years of evaluation of STEM-focused school-university partnerships. In addition to developing the three empirically grounded models of structural partnership configurations for project effectiveness, the CSEP team used these models to examine partnership projects for their characteristic collaborative…

This article describes the process of replacing a modest Master's level school leader preparation program with an innovative Ed.D. program at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). The new doctoral program is intensive, highly selective, intellectually rigorous, and field-based. The authors provide side-by-side comparisons of the difference…

Evolving purposes for the United States educational system have driven legislative policy over the past 40 years, beginning with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, reauthorized as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act in 2002. However, researchers have demonstrated US policy intents are often unrealized in educational practice,…

When school personnel are confronted with initiatives that require changes in scholastic curricula, processes, programs, or structures, there is often a naturally occurring defensiveness against, instead of an open embrace of, new educational innovations (Hall & Hord, 2006). This article examines a whole-school reform initiative, specifically…