Story explains how a new superintendent's observation that children do the hokey-pokey differently shapes the district's agenda for achieving educational accountability and equality in a school district with a diverse population. (PKP)

Describes how the Liverpool School District, a suburban school district in New York, created its own online courses for distribution statewide. (PKP)

Isn't it ironic that the one organization with the power to set the direction for schools, the board of education, is the one organization whose members are often randomly selected, rarely evaluated and almost never held accountable to measurable standards of excellence? The author's premise is simple: Better boards of education mean better…

Marcy Dutton, a lawyer and associate director of the Illinois Association of School Administrators, believes that Superintendents are prone to practice law and sometimes practice it badly. Because school leaders, and superintendents in particular, are take-charge people, they want to function as armchair lawyers. In other words, they have just…

John Pedicone figured early on in his superintendency that leadership cannot breathe in a vacuum. So he has taken plenty of steps, both symbolic and pragmatic, to ensure there are no empty spaces in his world. The symbolism is readily apparent from Pedicone's decor in the central-office headquarters of the Flowing Wells School District in Tucson,…

School leaders remember the good old days when resources were adequate, school boards were stable, superintendents stayed a while, and forces outside the school district trusted those inside the school district to do the best job possible educating students. It used to be such smooth sailing! Whether this version of history is fact, illusion or…

When confronted with the problems of urban school districts, such as an ever-increasing achievement gap, the underfunding of school districts, increased shortages of qualified teachers, greater emphasis on accountability, and the loss of public confidence, African American superintendents have considerable difficulty leading their school…

A school board's ability to govern and the superintendent's ability to lead is undermined when an individual board member assumes the role of the Lone Ranger. While the Lone Ranger can be identified in several different ways, a few common styles of behavior are typically present. Those behavior styles are discusses in this article.

The further one goes up the career ladder in education, the more one is exposed to open criticism. Every week brings new stories of superintendents under attack. Usually the crisis involves failed proposals or terminated contracts. The average tenure for superintendents nationwide runs less than five years. Sometimes the stories of confrontation…

An effective and stable school district requires a superintendent and board who work well together. Such collaboration builds positive momentum and public confidence. It also minimizes the turnover that can slow district progress, encourage "flavor of the year" reform agendas and impede academic achievement. Too seldom school governance…

This article deals with a staff developer's concerns about Bill Stewart's staff retreat, and how these concerns create opportunity and obligation. The author presents views from a superintendent and two staff developers on the staff retreat. Aside from these, the author talks about a superintendent named Darlene Preston, and her course of action.…

In this article, the author presents Braxton Hinsdale, a director of staff development for a medium-sized school district. Hinsdale has been increasingly dissatisfied with the quality of school-based professional development in his district. His frustration emerges from what he perceives as school principals' lack of will to use results-driven,…

In this study, the researchers examined current challenges faced by 46 public school superintendents in South Texas. Challenges faced by these superintendents which were investigated in this study were: political obstacles/governance; high stakes testing; curriculum and instruction; funding; student socioeconomic status; student demographics;…

This article emphasizes the paramount importance of the human resources function in the school system--specifically, in the implementation of an effective school public relations program and in the quality of leadership given by the administrators and the professional and classified staffs. The article submits that school administrators at every…

We report on how fifty superintendents (chief executive officers of public school systems, each invited by a researcher to participate) from seven states in the US talked in eight focus groups of their perspectives on their influence as leaders, their efforts to communicate with stakeholders, and how they learn from these stakeholders. We maintain…