Documents the growing tension between primary heads' administrative and professional roles and between top-down and collegial management styles, based on qualitative data from a national sample of 50 Welsh and English schools. Highlights the 1988 Education Reform Act's emphasis on monitoring and quality assurance and headteachers' developing…

Describes the Leadership Academy and Urban Network for Chicago (LAUNCH), a joint venture between the Chicago Public Schools, the local principal's association, and Northwestern University which pairs aspiring principals with practicing principals, offering them a chance to experience principal responsibilities. LAUNCH graduates who became…

Discusses the role of the principal as staff developer, clarifying some things that principals must do to fulfill their responsibilities as staff development leaders. This includes: emphasizing a context of collaboration in their schools, promoting results-driven learning, and modeling a commitment to their own ongoing professional development in…

Examines the theoretical and pragmatic objections to first-year composition courses raised by recent abolitionists who are composition insiders. Assesses four frequently proposed alternative models of first-year composition. Discusses evaluating these alternatives from the perspective of a writing program administrator's dual roles of curriculum…

Relates several experiences of a high school journalism adviser, including his best and worst moments in his professional life. Discusses covering controversial issues in student publications, censorship, administrator interference, and some of the professional organizations available to journalism advisers. (RS)

Explores how district curriculum leaders select literacy programs and materials for their district and what factors influenced their decisions. Explains the methodology used and examines the findings which emerged upon analysis of the data gathered. Concludes most districts assembled a curriculum committee comprised of teachers and administrators…

Examines the responsibilities of the foreign language department chair. Discusses complications that arise in tenure and other personnel decisions and raises questions about how to apply criteria for advancement that vary from one dean to the next, among other issues. (Author/VWL)

A survey of secondary-school professional-development coordinators within one British local education authority was conducted to ascertain whether their professional-development priorities reflected their changing role. Results indicate a growing acceptance of middle-management responsibility for departmental performance measured by SAT results…

Considers the role of campus leaders in the benchmarking process and in using benchmarking practices to promote institutional change. (EV)

Post-September 11th, considers how administrative leaders can define the institutional role in helping shape community response to the crisis at hand, especially the role of facilitator of public discussion of government policy. Asserts that conducted well and neutrally, the university's proactive assumption of such a role vastly furthers its…

Argues that efforts to implement and integrate improvement efforts face a paradox. Although many improvement initiatives can provide some of the inspiration, resources, and expertise that can help build schools' capacity to change, implementing those initiatives can bring new demands, requirements, and costs that school do not always have the…

Describes three major roles principals can play to support and retain new teachers: Instructional leader, culture builder, and mentor coordinator. (PKP)

Explains techniques for reducing stress: diaphragmatic breathing, relaxation, progressive muscle relaxation, and meditation. Two sidebars define the fight-or-flight response and the camp administration's role in helping to lower stress through staff training and reduction of camp-wide stressors. (SAS)

Author Mike Schmoker argues that data should play a crucial role before staff development begins by helping to select the most results-oriented initiatives. Staff development proposals should be based on data that indicate the initiatives have led to higher achievement. This interview discusses barriers to using data and notes the role of…

Discusses character education in public schools, focusing on Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland. States that MCPS has established a policy that requires all schools to implement a character education program, and reviews the implementation of this program--dubbed Building Esteem in Students Today--at one of MCPS's schools,…