Responding to Francis M. Duffy's article in the same "Journal of Curriculum and Supervision" issue, this article argues that insurance agents are in the business of selling policies and bringing in revenue, not promoting personal care for clients. Education attempts to cultivate equality, collegiality, and cooperation, not personal and…

Staff developers need to recognize management practices that interfere with the establishment of conditions necessary for professional growth, then seek alternative to those practices. The article describes 13 management myths and presents alternative actions that encourage viewing the school as a community of leaders. (SM)

Approximately 435,000 personal computers (roughly 10% of all computers in K-12 education) are used for administrative work. Administrators find that four applications are proliferating: organizing information with database software; communicating with electronic mail and bulletin boards; enhancing presentations with graphics or multimedia…

Studies and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of site-based management of schools. Surveys 365 Nevada principals to ascertain the extent to which site-based management currently is being employed in their districts. Discusses related literature and summarizes the implications of the survey's results. (HB)

Asked to identify one book that profoundly influenced their thinking, eight well-read superintendents recommended titles stressing learning and leadership themes. The list includes James Comer's "Waiting for a Miracle," Paulo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed," John Dewey's "Experience and Education," Antoine de…

Principals can effectively manage their workday by prioritizing paperwork, creating tickler and flyer files, postponing missed phone calls, stashing supplies, structuring agendas, scheduling meetings, recording phone numbers on calendars, avoiding procrastination, delegating responsibility, deputizing delegates, making a faculty suggestion board,…

In a Texas study, six successful women superintendents identified vision, passion and commitment, promotion of leadership in others, integrity, knowledge, and stamina as important leadership qualities. Family support, varied work experiences, mentors, formal education, turning points, and failure played important roles in their leadership…

The Danforth Foundation and the National Policy Board for Educational Administration brought together 90 educators to examine characteristics of reform-minded schools and their implications for preparing school leaders. This article examines these issues from five participants' viewpoints. School leaders must be able to promote shared visions,…

Personal contact is the key to one principal's success. Effective administrators make their school community a family, expand on their administrative style for dealing with people, develop a community theme, return phone calls from colleagues and parents, save bad news for Monday, and have fun. (MLH)

A controversy in Durham, NC, has joined two principals in a shared responsibility: turning around the district's two lowest-performing high schools. Henry Pankey identifies a list of goals for Hillside High School, among them a 95 percent attendance rate, and 75 percent of students at grade level. Larry McDonald, who was appointed to succeed…

This study used a qualitative approach to analyze ideal images of educational leadership among administrators in Mexico City and South Texas. Looking at educational leadership from a cross-cultural perspective revealed issues that are hidden when working in just one culture. Though both groups indicated that participation, clear communication,…

The CIO (Chief Information Officer) is a relatively new concept in higher education. There have been directors of college and university computer centers for over half a century, but the first CIOs did not appear until the late 1970s. The need for the position in academia really began with the need to manage and coordinate computing and…

Recently ranked among the 101 most influential minorities in sports by Sports Illustrated magazine, Damon Evans is the first Black athletic director in the history of the Southeastern Conference and one of the youngest athletic directors in the country. He oversees a $65 million budget and a program that includes 21 intercollegiate sports teams,…

All educators are very concerned about the tremendous need for new principals. Different strategies are in place to fill vacancies in the principalship. Principals can be developed from the existing ranks of educators, hired from outside the field, or through a combination of both. To meet their immediate needs, however, most school districts want…

In his State of the Union, the President made it clear that the most important contest this country faces today is not between Democrats and Republicans, but with competitors around the world for the jobs and industries of our time. To win that contest and secure prosperity for all Americans, the nation must out-innovate, out-educate, and…