This fourth edition of this book is organized around the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium model standards developed specifically for school leaders. The six standards focus on the key issues that inform effective leadership. Attention is given to issues of learning and teaching, and the creation of powerful learning environments.…

Intended for the beginning principal and the principal's mentor, this book explores the duties in the principal's first year on the job from the viewpoint of both the principal and the mentor. It emphasizes organization during the first-year principalship; tasks to be accomplished each month; leading versus managing and how both can benefit the…

The position of school principal has become complex and pressure packed. The job always has required skills and leadership, but now principals must be strong instructional leaders as well. This research roundup examines the changing role of the school principal and discusses how principals can operate effectively as both managers and instructional…

This report defines six strategies that state and district leaders can employ to secure an ample supply of highly qualified school principals. The six strategies were drawn from research and direct experience in helping schools, universities, and state agencies rethink and redesign educational leadership programs. The six strategies are as…

This book, for the practicing school principal, is intended to bridge the gap from the traditional notion of the principal's role to innovative conceptions that respond to changing conditions and demands. It describes the traditional understandings of the role and then proposes innovative conceptions that focus on change and instructional…

Although some districts and areas have experienced difficulty finding good principals, there are far more candidates certified to be principals than there are principal vacancies to fill. This report describes a study based on a written indepth survey of human-resource directors supplemented by formal survey questions to school superintendents and…

This report describes a study of the effects of environmental complexity on managers of semipublic organizations, in particular, school principals. Although some previous empirical studies do estimate relationships between principals' management activities and individual elements of schools' immediate organizational contexts, researchers have yet…

While the shortage of qualified administrators is not as serious as the shortage of qualified teachers, some schools continue to fail to attract qualified leaders. Referred to as "hard-to-staff" schools, they are often characterized by high-poverty students, low test scores, high staff turnover, and under qualified teachers. This ERIC…

This document is a practical guide for designing principal-development programs. The target audience includes individuals involved in the design and implementation of principal-preparation and development programs, particularly at the school-district level. Chapter 1, "The Call for New School Leaders and Leadership Development," expresses the need…

This booklet is designed to explore some of the major areas of concern for a principal, especially for new principals and for assistant principals who aspire to the principalship. Emphasis is on the practical application of alternative courses of action. The booklet is organized according to the following categories: the nature of the job,…

This report describes a study of the factors that contributed to decisions by women to abandon their careers as school leaders. The purpose of the study was to extend analysis of socialization factors, particularly when they persuade school leaders to reconsider their careers in education. The study followed 25 women who completed the masters of…

This book is intended to enable educators to more fully implement the concept of leadership capacity in schools and districts. It begins by outlining the five major prerequisites for high leadership capacity: (1) skillful participation in the work of leadership; (2) inquiry-based use of data to inform decisions and practices; (3) broad involvement…

This paper describes a model program for training pre-service elementary and secondary school principals in educationally sound and legally defensible inclusion programs extending to students with emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD). The program has three major objectives: (1) to train pre-service school administrators (principals and…

While considerable attention is paid to training and development for teachers, not enough is paid to the training of educational leaders, this paper contends. The aim of this paper is to provide an analytical groundwork and comprehensive direction for reform of educational leadership training to help policymakers design specific solutions to…

American public schools enroll some 9.5 million students at the middle-school level and approximately 6 million students with disabilities at the K-12 levels. This research digest briefly presents highlights from two reports of studies that examined what is known about principals who lead middle-school and disabled student populations and what…