The purpose of this study was to collect and analyze school level data related to the allocation of resources, and to determine how those resources are used to increase student achievement in the Hampton School District. The study was based on an analysis of one school district located in Los Angeles County in Southern California. All of the…

Principals play a critical role in how a school performs and what type of culture it will have. However, most principal evaluation relies heavily on practices and beliefs grounded in 20th century educational paradigms or adheres to outdated behavioral checklists. This mixed methods study explores the current realities of principal evaluation in…

Previous research on stress in the workplace has demonstrated that it can have not only a current, but lasting effect on a worker's health. The superintendency is a stressful job due to all of the competing demands of running a school system, no matter the size. This exploratory study reexamined qualitative interview transcripts from Robinson's…

A tenured respected principal learns that supervisory relationships with staff are only one side of the leadership coin. The other side turns up when a new assistant superintendent is assigned as his supervisor. Problems are imminent when the supervisor seems ready to usurp the principal's traditional decision-making authority. The principal, as…

School administrators are responsible for ensuring state and federal special education laws and regulations are being implemented properly. This study examined the amount of training a Virginia school principal receives while attending principal preparation programs as well as professional development offered by their school division on how to…

The continuous poor performance of South Africa's learners is detrimental to its developing economy. The need for education change prompted two universities to initiate a system-wide change strategy in a poorly performing school district. The leverage for change was leadership development, involving school principals and district officials. The…

As a professor of educational leadership, and a former superintendent of schools, the author understands and appreciates the value and benefit of a positive working relationship between a board of education and its superintendent of schools. Within this context it is important to note that for much of the 20th Century, education was incorrectly…

Leaders complain that people agree with them too much and do not assert their true opinions and ideas. But then when they do so, leaders get upset and view their subordinates' assertive behavior as disrespectful. Many leaders, unfortunately, desire courage but reinforce subservience. A superintendent's most important job is to inspire courageous…

Purpose: This article explores the possibilities for reciprocal dialogue between educational decision makers and Students of Color. Such dialogue--defined as interactions in which participants build on each other's words--may provide the means to develop creative ways to address manifestations of systemic racism in education. The article uses…

The major focus of this paper is a gender-based analysis of school superintendent decision-making and problem-solving as well as an investigation of contemporary leadership dilemmas. The findings are based on responses from 258 superintendents of K-12 school districts in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania collected over a…

The purpose of the research was to inform professional practice pertaining to the preparation of female administrators as future school superintendents. Twenty female superintendents in Texas were interviewed using a qualitative research approach. Strategies, career experiences and perception of barriers were identified using open-ended questions.…

Empirical studies indicate family concerns as a primary reasons why promising principals and central office administrators do not aspire to the superintendency (O'Connell, Brown, Guptil, Stosberg, & O'Connell, 2001; Volp & Rogers, 2004). Hesitancy to apply for superintendent positions is further complicated by the fact that the…

This study explored the role of professional learning communities for district leadership implementing large-scale technology initiatives such as 1:1 implementations (one computing device for every student). The existing literature regarding technology leadership is limited, as is literature on how districts use existing collaborative structures…

The purpose was to investigate common experiences of superintendents as they responded to realignment of leadership responsibilities during an organizational change initiated by mayoral control. To discover the shared essence of changes in leadership responsibilities experienced by superintendents, individuals "told their stories" to…

The purpose of this study was to identify the extent that specific research based skill sets and areas of knowledge emerged as highly important, moderately important, and less important from the perspective of school board leadership as it pertains to 21st century superintendents. The study further disaggregated the data by specific school…