Successful school leadership is an issue currently being debated up and down Caribbean territories. Key issues in the ongoing debate include: students' outcomes and participation in the regional Caribbean Secondary Examinations (CSEC); teacher recruitment and retention; teacher training and continuing professional development (upgrading); and…

"Gateways to the Principalship: State Power to Improve the Quality of School Leaders" proposes state policies for improving principal effectiveness and student achievement. It uses policy examples from eight "lagging" and eight "leading" states as a means of advocating for a wide range of policy actions aimed at influencing principal preparation,…

Ofsted has always courted controversy. With the appointment of a strident new chief inspector its operations are likely to remain, or become increasingly, controversial. This article provides a detailed critique of key documents which describe the new inspection regime that for good or ill will have major consequences in schools. Although in…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001(NCLB) changed the landscape of education nationally. The purpose of this law is to provide a high-quality education to children regardless of their race, socioeconomic status, ability, or background. Effective School Research suggests that successful student learning is linked to the following school…

The purpose of this case study was to understand the experiences of two community college interim presidents, their characteristics, and how they led institutions following an abrupt presidential departure. There were two fundamental questions framing this study: 1. How do two interim community college presidents lead community colleges during a…

Purpose: This paper aims to report the results of a replication study of perceived managerial and leadership effectiveness within a Romanian public sector hospital, and to discuss the extent to which they are similar to and different from findings from equivalent studies carried out in two British NHS Trust hospitals. Design/methodology/approach:…

Research concludes that most assessments of school leaders in use today are not as focused on learning as they should be, nor are they effective in gathering reliable facts about how leaders' behaviors are or are not promoting learning. This Wallace Perspective describes the elements of a possible new direction in leader assessment --what should…

"Linking Leadership to Student Learning" clearly shows how school leadership improves student achievement. The book is based on an ambitious five-year study on educational leadership that was sponsored by The Wallace Foundation. The authors studied 43 districts, across 9 states and 180 elementary, middle, and secondary schools. In this book,…

This dissertation examines the methods and techniques used by school administrators to bring in and keep parents of English Language Learners coming back to be part of the school. Administrators at twelve schools in the Southeastern central San Joaquin Valley in California were interviewed to determine what practices they utilized to make ELL…

Principal retention is a national and international challenge (Clark, Martorell, & Rockoff, 2009; Stoelinga, Hart, & Schalliol, 2008; Partlow & Ridenour, 2008; Browne-Ferrigno, & Johnson-Fusarelli, 2005; Thomson & Blackmore, 2006; Weiss, 2005; Whittal, 2002; Walker & Qian, 2006). Fuller and Young (2010) found similar trends…

This quantitative study focused on the differences in perceptions between Illinois K-12 unit district public school superintendents and board presidents as to those performance competency indicators in the "Illinois Professional Standards for School Leaders" that they perceived as being most critical for superintendent success. Via a…

While the importance of principals has long been recognized by educators and researchers, empirical studies on the effectiveness and distribution of principals have been undermined by the lack of data to study principals, their complex work, and their impact on school outcomes. In fact, "little systematic evidence exists about the…

When Alabama Governor Bob Riley established the Governor's Congress on School Leadership in 2004, few people in the state fully anticipated the resulting transformation in the state's philosophical and conceptual framework for educational leadership. The Governor's Congress on School Leadership resulted in an unmistakable statewide paradigm shift…

There is a commonly held conception that being able to raise a school's test scores as a principal is the hallmark of effective educational leadership. As a professor involved in the preparation of leaders for democratic schools, this author strongly contests this notion, stating that wrenching higher test scores from a group of students and…

In her six-year study of high-performing high-poverty and high-minority schools across the United States, the author tries to clarify the reasons that these schools have succeeded in closing achievement gaps, in hopes that other schools will follow suit. The principals of these schools suggest five crucial elements that drive their success: (1)…