School principals are often faced with difficult decisions that challenge both their moral beliefs and ethical behaviors. Personal relationships and political associations can create an even greater challenge and level of frustration for building level administrators when attempting to carry out duties as moral agents and acting in "loco…

In Victoria, Australia, school outdoor-education programmes are unusually wide-spread and well established. Is any form of outdoor education essential? I use this question to develop a critical reading of outdoor-education discourse in Victoria. I contend that this discourse has been dominated by universalist and decontextualized understandings of…

Crisis situations--a stranger on school property, a phoned-in threat, an event or altercation that divides students into opposing groups, a student who carries a weapon into a school building--have become almost familiar in today's schools. Such events challenge school leaders and require follow-up in terms of timely, effective communication.…

Directors are in a key position to give centers an overall boost by holding fundraisers. As state and federal support decreases and budgets continue to shrink, there is growing pressure to supplement budgets with monies from other sources. Fundraising can provide a solution and boost the bottom line. While it may seem intimidating and time…

Winter, like all seasons, adds a new sense of mystery and discovery to the world of young children. It is the time when they can study snowflakes, find icicles, or observe the birds that share their yards. This article presents ideas and suggestions on how to plan a playscape. A playscape is a man-made seasonal playground for young children. It…

"Lessons Learned" is a series of publications that are a brief recounting of actual school emergencies and crises. This issue of "Lessons Learned" addresses after-action reports, which are an integral part of the emergency preparedness planning continuum and support effective crisis response. After-action reports have a threefold purpose. They…

This book displays tools and templates for planning, organizing, and monitoring a beginning principal's daily tasks. The templates can also be downloaded from Eye On Education's website and they include: (1) planning calendar; (2) homework policy; (3) letter to community partners; (4) letter of introduction to your staff; and (5) staff meeting…

When school front offices are mentioned in research on schools and their relations with the community, it is often to describe how parents/carers and the public are treated officiously and/or inappropriately. In professional development materials, schools are urged to improve communication, and occasionally directed to consider the practices of…

Structuring an environment to support learning through engagement can enrich the learning experience; can allow for scholarship opportunities; and can support development within the region. Structuring an environment to support learning through engagement can support the university achieving its mission. How? Effectively implementing a program of…

Technology can support the interface between urban and metropolitan universities and the cities and regions of which they are a part. Through partnerships and the Web as a medium for communication and collaboration, technology can support community dialog around institutional goals. Through identifying opportunities and facilitating reflection in…

Organizational issues are of particular importance in the planning of university-school-community partnerships because in their efforts to pool resources for the attainment of mutually agreed-on ends, it is evident that partnership participants commonly operate in diverse living, schooling, and working environments. This qualitative study sought…

Authentic political conversation entails identifying the work, bringing together stakeholders, providing information, framing questions, giving individuals a voice, being transparent, and acting on the values of the group's collective good. Through this process, we identify common core values and respond to the basic human need to be connected--to…

Being an instructional leader is important, but no one can be an instructional leader without a job. Political astuteness is key to survival in the principalship. The salient question, of course, is, How does one become politically astute? This process involves learning how to conscientiously and accurately keep a finger on the pulse of the…

Universities across the nation are expected to contribute to their neighboring communities. Responses to this charge come in many forms: college students volunteering in neighborhood schools, faculty conducting research activities to support local evaluation efforts, and university centers and civic leaders launching major community-development…

This article describes a particular endeavor, the Bridge Builders Academic Mentoring Program (BAMP), a partnership between a school of education in a Catholic university in the Northwest and a community-based rites of passage program for adolescent African American males. The partnership exemplifies tenets of Catholic social teaching, in that it…