The success of implementing Common Core State Standards (CCSS) depends not only on the extent to which educators deeply understand the new standards but also on the expectations, values, and resources that support their readiness for making necessary instructional change. Educators' understanding of and beliefs about CCSS may largely drive their…

Educational Collaborative Networks (ECNs) aim to achieve educational goals at the community level and base their actions on collaborative partnering between schools and community organizations. These approaches are an emergent and innovative leadership and policy strategy being used increasingly across the globe, given the interconnected and…

In this article, Kara Finnigan and Alan Daly argue that studying churn among central office leaders and school principals can improve retention of high-quality leaders who can better support teachers. Constant churn often means that initiatives barely have the opportunity to get off the ground before a new central office administrator or principal…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) potentially shifts the way US schools approach teaching and learning. Research suggests that it is important to understand how educators view the CCSS and how they believe the CCSS may impact their practice. We developed and tested an instrument to investigate educator beliefs about the implementation of…

This study explored a formal structure, the cohort model that a decentralized district put in place over a decade ago. Schools were clustered into cohorts to facilitate professional development for leadership teams for all 44 schools within the district. Drawing upon Senge's components of organizational learning, we used a single case study design…

This exploratory study foregrounds the important, but often understudied social side of pre-service teacher development and its relation to teaching performance in one university-based teacher preparation program in the US. We examine the extent to which pre-service elementary teachers' social relationships and perceptions of peer trust and…

Recent work suggests the importance of collaboration among district-office and school leaders. Most studies examine prosocial relationships, but negative social ties, which may be more consequential, are rarely examined. We collected survey data from 78 educational leaders on perceptions of culture and negative relationships and used…

A number of scholars are exploring the district context in which schools are embedded. These studies suggest the importance of the district office as a support or constraint to the work of schools and offer strategies for building relations between district and site leaders. While this is an important task, what is frequently overlooked is that…

Researchers, educators, and policymakers suggest the use of professional learning communities as one important approach to the improvement of teaching and learning. However, relatively little research examines the interplay of professional interactions (structural social capital) around instructional practices and key elements of professional…

Recent studies have suggested that educational leaders enacting a balance of technical and adaptive leadership have an effect on increasing student achievement. Technical leadership focuses on problem-solving or first-order changes within existing structures and paradigms. Adaptive leadership involves deep or second-order changes that alter…

Purpose: This article describes how trust emerged as an issue in one school district and the processes by which central office administrators enhanced trust with its school site leaders. Method: This exploratory participant observer case study uses multiple sources of data including surveys, interviews, observations, and documents collected during…

Purpose: The No Child Left Behind Act laudably brings social justice and equity issues to the forefront; however, the act's threat- and sanction-driven methods are not only increasing stress levels but potentially causing a rigid response, especially in the growing population of schools labeled "program improvement" (PI). Specifically,…

Trust has been found to be an important component of school effectiveness, yet remains understudied especially in terms of school-central office relations. Using mixed methods in a case-study design, this research illustrates how the lack of trust, which often remains undiscussed in school reform, was surfaced and then began to be addressed by a…