This article analyses the continuities and changes in principal development in mainland China over the past two decades by assessing the role of the state in shaping principal development over this period. The article outlines and analyses the 14 key policies that have shaped the practice of principal development. The main changes identified…

This personal account from a special educational needs co-ordinator illustrates the negative impact that resourced provision has had on one school. The provision caters for children with communication and interaction difficulties and is housed in a mainstream primary school. For this school, while the provision has had a beneficial impact on the…

To improve the quality of instruction and the achievement of all students, effective school leaders develop capacity, advocate, and create support systems for professional learning. Creating a team of teachers to share leadership, responsibility, and accountability for achieving collective goals is essential. This was the task of a first-time…

Every state has different laws that govern its charter schools, which makes a consistent definition of charter schools a little more difficult. However, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools website (www.publiccharters.org) notes that definitions of charter schools in most states generally share these characteristics: (1) They are…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of Arkansas and Louisiana district conversion and open-enrollment charter school principals' background characteristics, leadership skills, and school success. A quantitative methodology was used to test the research questions prescribed in the study. Data was collected using a survey. The…

Organizational health refers to an organization's ability to achieve its goals based on an environment that seeks to improve organizational performance and support student and employee well-being. Organizational health is conceptualized in terms of three levels, namely, the technical, managerial, and institutional which combine to create a healthy…

"Getting It Done" describes in clear and helpful detail what leaders of successful high-poverty and high-minority schools have done to promote and sustain student achievement. It follows two celebrated books by Karin Chenoweth: "It's Being Done," which established that the work of educating all children is possible, and "How It's Being Done,"…

Following Snow's (1973) description of an "inductive" process of theory formation, this article addresses the organization of the knowledge base on school effectiveness. A multilevel presentation stimulated the conceptualization of educational effectiveness as an integration of system-level, school-level, and classroom-level…

Introduction: Studies of school effect usually evolve around two major issues; understanding of the factors within schools that explain variation in students achievement levels, and how differences among schools account for the variation in their students' achievement levels. Given the limited studies of school effect research in South Africa,…

In this commentary 26-year Ontario district teacher, Jeff Stickney, begins by surveying balanced approaches to large- and small-scale education reforms: contrasting linear alignment with more complex ecological models, drawing on recent work by Andy Hargreaves (2008; Hargreaves & Shirley, 2012). Next, through a brief case study of School…

The objective of this paper is to present value-added calculation methods that were applied to determine whether online schools performed at the same or different levels relative to standardized testing. This study includes information on how we approached our value added model development and the results for 32 online public high schools in…

This article discusses the characteristics of rural versus nonrural principals in the High Plains states. It is based on data from the Schools and Staffing Survey, examining the differences in preparation and experience and the extent to which characteristics of the rural principalship (perceptions of autonomy, workload, etc.) predicted retention.…

Academic schools are a prominent feature of the educational landscape in England. Introduced in 2002, they are funded directly from central government and have become a major policy driver to reform the school system and increase educational attainment. Academies count for 60 percent of secondary schools and 13 percent of primaries. This report…

Motivated by the passage of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, all states operate accountability systems that measure and report school and student performance annually. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of interim assessments on the achievement gap. The authors examine the impact of interim assessments throughout the…

Over the last eight years, the University of Virginia Partnership for Leaders in Education (UVA/PLE) has partnered with over 50 districts and state education agencies across the country to embark on high-level change at the state, district, and school levels through the use of leader competencies. This guide calls upon practice-based experience,…