In this article, the author explains her decision to return to the classroom as a teacher after serving 15 years in public school administration. As an administrator, she found her greatest joys in transforming faculty meetings into learning situations, talking with teenagers about their success; facilitating the processes of learning; and sharing…

With the advent of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), graduation rate accountability has become the educational law of the land, a small part of it at least. Some uncertainty continues to persist around key issues like exactly how to calculate graduation rates and how much weight should be placed on graduation versus test scores when attaching…

Many students drop out of school because they feel that they are unteachable and unliked by administrators and teachers. Teachers may not be aware of how they send negative messages to at-risk students. The solution can be found in improving relationships between at-risk students and school staff members. This approach is often overlooked by…

This paper will explore some of the tensions that arise for Ghanaian headteachers in trying to resolve traditional and tribal expectations with "Western" conceptions of leadership roles and competencies. These are particularly acute in rural communities where expectations of school leaders often reflect, and are constrained by, ascribed…

Given the unrelenting pressures of school management, how can principals and superintendents devote the time or resources to do much of anything that deviates from addressing the basic needs of schools? What are the levers that school leaders can use to infuse creativity and innovation into the cultural fabric of their organizations? In this…

Time management is a skill. Like any new skill, it takes time and commitment to develop. A frequent complaint of center directors is not having enough time. Most work extremely long hours and still feel they are not getting enough done. This article presents ideas on how to manage time and work smarter, not harder. These ideas are the following:…

Public schools are unique environments where the rights and responsibilities of one individual or group can easily, if unintentionally, infringe on the rights and responsibilities of other individuals or groups. This can leave public school employees wondering about the nature and scope of their rights. While it is well established that public…

This paper reports on the final phase of a three-part study on the status of instructional supervision within several New York City public schools. In the first parts of the study the researchers found, through extensive use of surveys (questionnaires and interviews), that centralized educational reform had serious consequences for instructional…

Many middle schools do not use one of the most important strategies to improve student achievement and create socially equitable, developmentally responsive middle schools: becoming a professional learning community. This article summarizes the five disciplines which are vital for learning organizations -- systems thinking, personal mastery,…

"Involving Parents in Their Children's Learning" is the story of the pioneering work of the Pen Green Centre for children and families. Showing how early years practitioners can collaborate effectively with parents, the book includes case studies of parents and children who have attended the centre, studies which chart developments in learning for…

Mathematical literacy is more than numeracy; it is an individual's capacity to identify and understand the role that mathematics plays in the world and to make well-founded judgments that use and engage mathematics to meet his or her future needs as a constructive, concerned, and reflective citizen (Programme for International Student Assessment…

The headteacher's role in school improvement and the changing nature of the role suggest the need to investigate how new school leaders learn their jobs, that is, their socialization to the leader role. This study has two purposes: (1) to identify the content and methods used in the professional and organizational socialization experiences of new…

This article reports on the values and moral dilemmas of one Icelandic headteacher. The article draws on doctoral research currently being conducted with educational leaders in Icelandic basic schools. The research explores the values underpinning the work of female and male educational leaders and how values impact upon their actions, in…

The purpose of this article is to make the case for a broader perspective on school leadership and school-environment interrelationships and to develop the concept of systemic leadership for schools and the related notion of systemic authorization. The article explores the background to the concept and relevant aspects of the conceptualization,…

This research study was designed to determine leadership and instructional behaviors of administrators and teachers who are participants in the Alabama AP Initiative, as well as evaluate the perceptions of the AAPI with regard to student performance. The importance of this research was three-fold. First, this study provided principals, as well as…