Discusses the child care center director evaluation process when conducted by a board of directors to enhance the director's effectiveness. Considers frequency of evaluation and assessment criteria for center and leadership and managerial objectives. Describes the evaluation process, including reorientation meetings, information gathering,…

Instructional leadership is a thoughtful journey that builds and sustains learning cultures. School leaders must confront negative norms and values head-on and recognize and celebrate a learning environment. Offers ideas for shaping and reinforcing a positive learning culture and lists brief case studies. (MLF)

Describes how and why enemies are created in pursuit of school security. Shows how administrators, with the judicial system's assistance, have applied that process to certain types of students to justify school officials' increasingly intrusive searches for a wide range of infractions. Suggests alternative approaches. (25 references) (MLH)

Describes how a journalism adviser at Lugoff-Elgin High School (South Carolina) dealt with issues surrounding a controversial series of articles about the murder of a student that had occurred three years before. Notes that the adviser convinced the victim's mother to intervene with the school principal to let the series be published. (RS)

If administrators fail to seek faculty support for block scheduling, teachers may feel undervalued, angry, and adversarial. When principals allow teacher committees to take leadership roles, teachers can assume ownership of the new model. Adminstrators must establish teacher confidence in transitions, maintain effective communication, monitor…

In this article, the author relates an incident at the elementary school in Maryland where she was teaching 3rd grade at the time. After the author finally managed to get her students to read--and enjoy it--the principal insisted they watch TV instead. Odd as the accusation was, it was made even odder by the fact that her students were reading…

The management style of a school leader deeply influences the ethos of a school. To explicate the workings of power in such leaders, an analysis of education management styles is presented here. The paper works from the premise that effective and productive management styles are empowering. The text acknowledges how difficult it is to frame a…

An exploratory study described the ways in which a university supervisor constructed meaning about the program goals, assessment system, and her role as a supervisor relative to a newly reconceptualized elementary student teaching program and literacy methods class. The supervisor worked in a teacher education program in a large urban university…

This research study was designed to develop a profile of community college presidents' self-perceived leadership styles and to examine possible relationships between their perceived leadership styles and a number of variables that help describe organizational variations among different community colleges. The Leadership Effectiveness Adaptability…

The first in a two-part series, this article addresses issues related to emotional and organizational preparation for selling a child-care business. Suggestions are provided on how to prepare a financing package, to set a value and respond to various offers, to be emotionally prepared and address the concerns of staff and parents, and to…

Proposes that English faculty and department heads often have a negative view of members of the administration. Describes how department heads can establish personal and departmental integrity and maintain it. Suggest that this is the best way to succeed in relations with administrative deans. (HB)

The Kentucky Education Reform Act overhauled the K-12 system of public education in the state. Finances, curriculum, and governance were radically changed. This article looks at the leaders putting the reforms in place, providing an inside look at what reform entails. (MLF)

Elucidates how the oft-cited observation that assessment drives instruction plays out for particular individuals within particular schools. Finds that the relationship between assessment and instruction is complex. Suggests that issues of assessment and instruction are embedded within broader power structures within schools; both are influenced…

Among the current crop of business leadership manuals, the six reviewed are applicable for school leaders as well. Themes of effective employee management and motivation, personal responsibility, and having the ability to initiate and implement constructive change are among the common threads running through the books. Information on ordering the…

Examines the myths and realities of technology use in day-care centers, countering the notion that the mostly female child care profession is intimidated by technology. Discusses a survey of center directors, which found that nearly all centers used computers in administration, and the majority used computers in the classroom, fax machines, and…