The Pyramid, Railroad, and High Performance theories of leadership are inappropriate for school settings. At root, school leadership is about connecting people morally to each other and to their work. The work of leadership involves developing shared purposes, beliefs, values, and conceptions associated with teaching and learning,…

Examines the role of a building administrator in helping staff cope with change. Various phobias are described and appropriate treatments considered, including a fear of change, fear of computers, fear of technology, fear of electronic open spaces, fear of vendors and other noneducators, and fear of new learning methods. (four references) (LRW)

Discusses methods that software evaluation organizations use to evaluate instructional software. Topics addressed include who does the evaluating, including the role of students as well as teachers, subject matter experts, media specialists, and school administrators; reliability of evaluations; and possible improvements in the evaluation process.…

Definitions of effective instructional leadership inadequately address supervision and strategic deployment of student support personnel (counselors, psychologists, social workers, and others) as critical resources for school success. Engaging their skills and understanding expands professional discourse, improves teaching and learning, and…

With scant resources but boundless commitment, Charles Johnson, superintendent in a rural Mississippi district, takes pride in stretching school funds. The district has never run a deficit or borrowed to make ends meet. (MLF)

Describes briefly the proposal to change the writing program universitywide at Western Illinois University. Draws conclusions about the rhetorical situation of the writing program administrator in his or her attempts to substantively rename and predicate what educators do and thus to redefine the discipline. (MG)

The research administrator of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation (Pennsylvania) discusses issues in the transformation of the company from a technology-driven to a business-driven organization, a process in which the technical and business segments of the organization work as teams toward successful innovation. (MSE)

To grasp fully the opportunity for growth and development in academic administration, it is important to put higher education in a much larger framework, the global information society. The future will depend heavily on talented, effectively prepared administrators to carry out the operations of colleges and universities as information…

College administrators must find a balance between their administrative roles and the responsibility of assuring academic freedom to faculty. When they do this well, most administrative problems are resolved without excessive difficulty. Appropriate managerial strategies can help mediate professional/administrative conflict. (MSE)

The article demonstrates how information managers at institutions of higher education can develop a checklist for evaluating the usability and effectiveness of institutional data and information. Three primary personnel roles (technicians, analysts, users) and five primary activities (selection, capture and storage, manipulation and analysis,…

Administrative growth in higher education does not equal administrative bloat. A variety of external and internal forces have caused growth to occur. Faculty and administration alike must join through a process of shared governance to identify bloat when it does occur, select a strategy to combat it, and redeploy resources. (MSE)

The Montclair State College (New Jersey) Executive Leadership Program affords interested faculty an opportunity to explore administration while maintaining faculty ties, encourages the administration to provide upper-level mentored administrative experience to faculty, and offers administrators a faculty perspective on policy issues. Participant…

Schools reflect the existing culture but are also a prime instrument for shaping and developing that culture. The administrator's task involves a major concern for value, requiring an initial commitment to the role and its values, then a reflective disengagement from them, and finally a critique and recommitment open to evolutionary or…

The principal is uniquely positioned to help teachers plan for instruction, especially in the areas of student evaluation and grading. One approach is conducting inservice programs to promote an evaluation-based model of teacher planning incorporating both the objectives- and activities-based planning models. Teachers can then match assessment…

A district coordinator of gifted education in a site-based managed school system relates the learning experiences which helped define her role as an administrator and an advocate of gifted education. Her role has involved collaborating, serving as a resource, sharing program ownership, and encouraging program differentiation across the district.…