Principals tend to prefer working in schools with higher-achieving students from more advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. Principals often use schools with many poor or low-achieving students as stepping stones to what they view as more desirable assignments. District leadership can also exacerbate principal turnover by implementing policies…

Successful schools that provide positive, productive, and vibrant teaching and learning environments do not occur by accident. Instead, the most effective schools are led by principals who are equipped with the skills and possess the attitudes required to be exceptional school leaders. The good news is there is a growing research base that clearly…

The Common Core of Standards project has strong national support, but it will not succeed if it doesn't involve teachers in grassroots development activities. The initiative should involve local consortia of schools in working with the new standards, assessments, and support tools. Local teachers would design teaching units and then share these…

A superintendent's job requires taking care of people--children first, then faculty and staff, the board of education, parents and anyone else who strides through a superintendent's door. At the end of the day, no one really takes care of superintendents but themselves. Their well-being is directly linked to their state of minds, the health of…

Excellent principals are sense makers of schools that help create a sustainable school climate that will enhance students' and teachers' productivity. Hence they are not only the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) but also the instructional leaders and motivators for their teams. In exploring the leadership characteristics of an excellent school…

This article presents an interview with Ray Landers, the 2009 MetLife NASSP Middle Level Principal of the Year. Landers talks about how he and his staff members put programs in place to erase poverty gap at his school. He stresses the need to make sure that principals empower teachers so that collaborative decision making can take place.

Elementary school principals face a balancing act between managerial responsibilities and instructional leadership. With increasing accountability and responsibility, many principals find themselves overwhelmed, lacking the time, resources and support to be instructional leaders. In relation to school size, little has been written regarding the…

Do school boards have a role in student achievement? Recent research suggests that they do. This article identifies 12 board of education leadership practices associated with higher levels of student achievement: creating a vision, using data, setting goals, monitoring progress and taking corrective action, creating awareness and urgency, engaging…

Using Bereiter and Scardamalia's (1993) hidden expert knowledge, we explored what knowledge counts from the perspectives of working small school-district superintendents and the ways in which they gain that knowledge. This qualitative study used focus groups as its primary data collection method. Participants were 37 superintendents of districts…

Science education reform and state testing accountability call upon principals to become instructional leaders in science. Specifically, elementary school principals must take an active role in science instruction to effectively improve science education for all students including English Language Learners. As such, the research questioned posed…

Over the years, the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) has searched for mechanisms to share information that is important and helpful to the CASE membership. During the past year, CASE initiated the use of "Survey Monkey" as a mechanism to obtain information and opinions from the membership. This article shares some of the input…

There is a short supply, yet tacit demand, for creative and effective communication training for educational leaders. A field of literature indicates that a leader's identity is a potent communication tool. A leader's image can frame expectations for followers, symbolically evoking a family of concepts and patterns of meaning (receiving). The…

Leadership is second only to classroom instruction among all school-related factors contributing to student learning (Marzano et al., 2005). Understanding the role of emotional intelligence in instructional leadership behaviors with a focus on establishing expectations for student academic success provides valuable information about practices…

Teachers are systematically sorted across schools. Often, schools serving the lowest-achieving students are staffed by the least-skilled teachers. While teachers' school preferences account for some of the sorting, school practices are also likely to be a key factor. Using value-added methods, the authors examine the relationship between a…

The current study aimed at exploring desirable constructions of educational leadership among Israeli schoolteachers at three different career stages, as well as tracing the origins of these constructions. Based on semi-structured interviews with 10 teachers at early-career stage, 10 at mid-career stage and 10 at late-career stage, the study first…