Though trustees may communicate informally via telephone or e-mail, the board's formal meetings are the primary setting in which issues of great consequence are discussed and decided. That's why it is vital for those responsible for planning board meetings to be certain each meeting accomplishes the business at hand. Beyond common sense, planning…

Literacy is the foundation for success in all secondary school courses. Many middle and high school administrators are looking for an effective way to help all their students become better readers, writers, communicators, and learners of standards-based content curriculum. This book shows administrators how to combine sound leadership processes…

In 1999, the American Council on Education (ACE) published "To Touch the Future: Transforming the Way Teachers Are Taught," which laid a framework for college leaders engaged in reforming how their institutions educated future teachers. It examined the inadequate quality of K-12 schooling, fundamental responsibility of colleges to…

In the spring of 2004, the Arkansas Association of School Administrators and the Arkansas Association of Middle Level Education surveyed all public school middle school principals in the State of Arkansas as to the degree of implementation of middle school programming. This document reports the results of the survey. Conclusions are drawn from…

A study evaluated the third year (2000-2001) of the Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI), which is designed to achieve 100% literacy by targeting reading performance of beginning reading and first-grade students, to expand the reading power for second- through twelfth-grade students and to intervene for struggling readers at all grade levels. Reading…

Policymakers have called for reinventing the principal's role because the long list of duties assigned to principals discourages potential applicants from applying for position vacancies. The focus of this study was to examine teachers' attraction to the principalship. Its purpose was to generate practical information that will inform efforts of…

Successful change results when two conflicting realities--organizational initiation of change and implementation of change at the individual level--are linked. The Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL 1995) has proposed a set of six "sacred" administrative strategies that foster the link: (1) Create a context conducive to change; (2)…

This report presents strategies and guidelines to manage and administer homestays and village stays for U.S. students, based on a survey of academic directors and homestay coordinators, with a focus on such activities in Latin America and the Caribbean. It reviews the literature on the role and cost of homestay and village stay programs in…

This paper examines the evolution of the boundary-spanning role of the school superintendent and its impact on their ability to function effectively as educational leaders. This role, which is a relatively new development in the definition of superintendency, includes acting as a filtering agent controlling the flow of information in and out of…

To outsiders, the role of school superintendent has always been a little mystifying. This digest examines how superintendents are responding to their changing environment, what leadership strategies they are using, and whether the superintendency is in a state of crisis. Although fears exist of a dwindling pool of applicants, studies have shown…

Demand for school reform continues to be characterized by a cry to adopt new leadership behaviors and change the preparation of school leaders. Once hired, new school leaders are confronted by the weight of tradition and history in their new jobs. This paper reports on an investigation of the impact of these socialization practices on new…

A study attempted to identify vision development and leadership characteristics of elementary school administrators in Ankara, Turkey. School administrators were asked to supply information about the following: (1) five characteristics that they like and dislike in their schools; (2) the internal and external obstacles affecting the operation of…

This paper examines whether the delegating of whole-school decision making reaches to, involves, and empowers the middle-management level. It looks for evidence of alternative models of management for decision making and identifies commonalities between the perceptions and the practices of headteachers and middle managers. The research for the…

This collection of essays addresses the particular qualities of character education in Catholic schools. The focus of the essays is on developing Christian character in students and the envisionment of the Catholic school graduate as a Christ-like person. Specific suggestions are made for early childhood, middle school, and secondary school…

This paper examines the experiences of four headteachers in England and how they made sense of the changing nature of the headship from 1993-98. It views their experiences across three leadership "frames"--the managerial, the transformative, and the critical--to describe the way that leadership is both conceived and manifest. It focuses…