Describes a turnaround principal's efforts to hire new teachers, revamp the educational program, and increase parent involvement in an Oklahoma City elementary school that had been closed because of substandard achievement test performance. Donna H. Lueker's sidebar describes Project Phoenix, the program that vastly improved city schools the year…

Although over 75 percent of U.S. superintendents have had experience as principals or assistant principals before landing the top job, the principalship is not necessarily a prerequisite. Teaching and leadership experience, effective career planning and marketing, and access to mentors are all important. Sidebars highlight women administrators'…

Women aspiring to the superintendency are advised to advance their own careers by working as volunteers with talented leaders, getting involved in professional meetings and associations, looking for opportunities in other school districts, and joining a network of women administrators. (MLF)

A matriarch who puts strong stock in good manners and even better behavior, Linda Bates Transou is a no-nonsense Denver principal committed to dismantling her high school's two-tier, segregated system. Transou wants all students to have the opportunity to attend college. Since 1986, the number of minority students in accelerated courses has…

Profiles Ann Blakeney Clark, dynamic North Carolina middle school principal who knows her 750 students by name, insists on individualized education plans, carefully matches students with appropriate teachers. Clark's walk-around management style allows her to catch students and teachers in act of doing things right. Having instituted team teaching…

Interviews with married women superintendents and some of their husbands indicate the importance of developing a relationship of mutual support. (MLF)

Scarcely two weeks after Joan Kowal became superintendent of Volusia County (Florida) County Schools, the state legislature sliced $6 million off a $220 million operating budget, effective immediately. Kowal responded by convening a broad-based stakeholder's conference and asking participants to decide where cuts could be made. Other decisions…

At Frederick Douglass Academy, middle school of choice in central Harlem, principal Lorraine Monroe is creating public school that exudes private school values--hard work, discipline, college preparation. Drawing 75% of its student body from central Harlem, school will evolve into a secondary school and graduate its first class in 1997. The…

Melissa Caudle, principal of a New Orleans high school for behaviorally disordered students, has written a book on crisis-alert systems and confiscated loads of weapons. Her career has been devoted to helping neglected, abused, delinquent, and gang-prone adolescents. The school's program, which stresses personal accountability, conflict…

Santa Fe School Superintendent Yvonne Gonzales, the "Texas Tornado," was hired to fix a 40% student-dropout rate and a white/Hispanic gap in achievement test scores. Gonzales is an avid integrationist; relies on humor, appeasement, and persuasion tactics; and has alienated some school employees by increasing central office…

About two years into her first urban superintendency, Gerry House knows she cannot solve every problem on-on-one but has created a responsive system to handle parents' complaints. The Memphis school superintendent hopes to boost minority achievement, ensure that all children learn at high levels, bolster community confidence in the schooling…

Two years into her first superintendency, Detroit Superintendent Deborah McGriff has advanced an ambitious and controversial urban school reform package. The public school choice plan has been expanded, and 21 schools have adopted school-based-management plans despite union opposition. This fall, the district will abolish the general education…