The proceedings of this roundtable discuss the current status of Florida women in educational leadership and ways to expand their opportunities for advancement. The report begins with an introduction and opening remarks by Florida's Assistant Commissioner of Education, Laurey T. Stryker and Florida Commissioner of Education, Betty Castor. A…

Social constructions of sexism many times become evident in a public school system when the superintendent is a woman. This paper offers a view of sexism from the perspective of women superintendents. The text discusses the distinction between sex and gender and how the role of the superintendent itself is a socially constructed position. A study…

This qualitative study of community college women administrators explored patterns of women's leadership. The study group consisted of 30 women holding senior-level administrative positions at community colleges in the Midwest: 24 of the study group were white, 6 were African Americans. The study involved a review of the literature and in-depth…

This book examines change, leadership, and resilience, including levels of change, what constitutes effective leadership, and characteristics of organizational resilience. It describes ways to build organizational resilience and describes 12 harsh realities that people and organizations bring to reform, such as the reality that most people act…

Findings of a study that examined principals' leadership behaviors in implementing a systemic program for school reform and improvement are presented in this paper. The program, Reaching Success through Involvement (RSI), is an implementation strategy that involves comprehensive assessment and student leader participation. A survey was…

This paper describes family interaction patterns during a 6-day wilderness backpacking course. Participants were a group of 9 adolescents boys in treatment at the Julia Dyckman Andrus Memorial (New York), a private, residential treatment center which serves 65 emotionally disturbed boys and girls ranging from 4 to 18 years of age. Participants…

The study described in this paper was conducted to examine mentoring from the mentor teachers' perspective and describe what it means to be a teacher leader in a profession long characterized as egalitarian. Three paths are followed in an effort to understand the mentor's perspective: (1) the current vacuum in instructional leadership; (2) the…

This case study illustrates one of the challenges faced by a new principal, that of reconciling one's emerging skills and understanding to an idiosyncratic school culture. This paper describes how a new principal at a troubled Chicago elementary school handled resistance to change and animosity from a group of "old guard" teachers in her efforts…

A study was conducted to determine whether gender affects the acceptance of a community college president, and the perception of his/her effectiveness as a leader. Open-ended interviews were conducted with approximately 11 individuals, including trustees, faculty, administrative and clerical staff, and the president, at 10 California community…

Lincoln Accelerated School has participated in Missouri's Accelerated Schools Project since 1990. Grounded on a school-based management model, it seeks to modify the educational experiences of at-risk elementary students by enriching the curricular offerings and instructional strategies provided them. The school underwent a major stressor when the…

Verbal and nonverbal communication as an expression of political influence and power plays a major part in constructing and transmitting an androcentric bias in educational administration. This paper describes findings of a study that examined the form, meaning, and function of three female principals' verbal and nonverbal communication behaviors,…

The use of a schema analysis, or hierarchical classification system, to identify problem-solving approaches among principals with different levels of experience is examined in this paper. Forty-one students in Ontario--10 undergraduate teacher preparation students, 8 teachers with principal qualifications, and 23 principals grouped according to 3…

A collaborative effort between a high school principal and researcher to identify a successful principal's school improvement agenda and practices is described in this report of one of four case studies. Methodology involved indepth interviews with the principal and surveys of 10 teachers to compare their perceptions of teacher/principal…

Leadership roles performed by teachers after implementation of a school-based management (SBM) plan in Florida are described in this report. Telephone interviews with principals of each of the 33 participating schools were conducted to identify the leaders of the participating school bodies, or "cadres." Findings indicate that 75 percent…

The consistency of principals' self-perceptions of their leadership styles with those of their teachers is determined in this study. Other focuses include differences between elementary and secondary teachers' perceptions of their principals' leadership styles and gender differences in such perceptions. The Leader Effectiveness and Adaptability…