National interest in using school climate as an accountability measure makes it important to understand how school leaders view and make use of school climate data. The purpose of this study was to investigate how school and district administrators use climate data in Virginia, where a statewide school climate survey is annually administered.…

Educational leaders are increasingly expected to use school climate data to improve outcomes and promote equity for all learners, including in California where school climate is included in state accountability policy. In this study, beliefs towards school climate assessment were explored in a sample (n=298) of California superintendents using a…

In this article, we draw on the literature on trust to examine how elementary school principals make sense of superintendent trustworthiness. We examine trust in the context of the principal-superintendent relationship because it is the "social glue" needed for effective professional relationships where student learning and success is at…

Background: Servant leadership is a leadership approach based on universal values and involves an ethical, practical, and meaningful way to live and lead. Servant leadership has been adopted around the world as a follower-centered transformational leadership paradigm focusing on identifying and meeting the needs of others. Purpose: The purpose of…

Due to the growth of school choice across the United States as well as declining enrollment in some districts, schools are experiencing increasing competition for students. As a result, principals and school district leaders in high-choice districts are now expected to develop strategies such as branding, marketing, and community outreach to…

Purpose: "Abbeville v. South Carolina" was a nearly three-decade long school funding lawsuit initiated by the education leaders of South Carolina's most rural and impoverished school districts that primarily educated students of color. Recently, the State Supreme Court dismissed the entire case. Guided by a multiperspective framework of…

The purpose of this ethnographic case study is to provide a rich picture of the ways in which the multidistrict superintendent (MDS) engages in contextually responsive and place-conscious leadership across multiple community school districts. Secondarily, the research explores the meaning ascribed to these leadership practices in the form of…

Research into equity leadership has been a growing focus within educational leadership. Few studies explore the role of the superintendent in equity work. Drawing from interview data and observation of monthly regional leadership meetings, this article examines how 12 superintendents describe their equity leadership practices. Focusing on the ways…

Current research on computer technology integration in K-12 school classrooms indicates that student learning outcomes remain flat despite heavy investment. Examining school leadership conceptions about technology integration might reveal a way to reverse this trend. This study adapts a survey instrument from Brush and Bannon and applies it to…

In this article, I put forth a framework for thinking about how contexts matter. This framework highlights organizational, occupational, personal, and social contexts that influence leadership, which I illustrated with three cases of superintendents working on issues of systemic, equity-focused improvements. Data are drawn from a seven-year study…

This descriptive study explored the influence of a 6-month well-being intervention on the leadership-life balance of school administrators. After completing the program, 12 administrators participated in a semistructured interview focused on their administrative duties, experience in the program, and changes in health-related knowledge/skills and…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the connections between principal succession and professional learning through the analysis of the current practices in leader development, support, and retention in two Georgia state school districts. The findings of the cross-case analysis were summarized in five major themes: First, a key…

The purpose of this study is to examine the Twitter communication between school districts, superintendents, and the public. Content analysis of the tweets posted by the 100 largest U.S. school districts and those district superintendents was performed to investigate how the districts and the superintendents communicated with the public on…

This study investigated the relationship between the leader's gender, leadership position. Twitter use, and influence on information diffusion in the communication network on Twitter. We collected the 30,200 latest tweets of 151 active Twitter users who held educational leadership positions. Results of social network analysis and multiple…

An exploratory investigation was conducted into the motivations and leadership traits of five rural school superintendents who over time evidenced a commitment to social justice. This effort meets a call in the research literature by Furman (2012), who noted that "to date, the literature offers few specifics about the actual practice of…