Purpose: The concept of managers assuming developmental roles such as coaches and learning facilitators has received considerable attention in recent years. Yet, despite the growing body of expert opinion that suggests that coaching is an essential core activity of everyday management and leadership, the literature base remains largely…

This paper reports aspects of an international study of leadership of teaching in 19 departments with outstanding teaching records in 11 research-intensive universities. Leadership was found to take different forms in different discipline areas, in different organisational cultures, and in response to major problems affecting the department. While…

Despite the current interest in many countries in assessing the principal's performance, stemming from the greater attention to educational reform and accountability, the empirical study of principal's appraisal has been slow to develop. This article was designed to fill partially this gap. Data was collected by semi-structured interviews of eight…

Implementing the Pyramid Model with fidelity and achieving positive outcomes for children and their families requires that administrators understand their roles in the implementation process. Every administrative decision impacts program quality and sustainability. This Policy Brief underscores the importance of facilitative administrative…

Although the number of high-needs schools that are failing to achieve "Adequate Yearly Progress" (AYP) steadily increases, some are successfully increasing student achievement, staff productivity and collegiality. The purpose of this study was to use a three-round Delphi process to obtain the expert opinions of 10 administrators who…

Each school year, the School Climate Survey is administered to gather information on the perceptions that students, their parents, and school staffs hold concerning their schools and their performance. In 2008-2009, the survey was distributed to approximately 90,200 parents, 54,200 elementary, secondary, and adult students, and 25,000 staff. This…

Leadership expectations for school principals have dramatically changed since the 1983 report to Congress, "A Nation at Risk", inspired a renewed focus on the persistent educational underachievement of minority students in the United States. Today, school leaders must get out from behind the desk and actively empower an increasingly…

The study examines the organizational strategies of Japanese principals in school management. One hundred principals of primary schools in Hiroshima Prefecture were surveyed in 2007. The samples comprised of the differences between the two groups aged 51-55 and 56-60 in terms of how competency level should be exerted in school. The study was…

The implementation of high-quality evidence-based practices cannot occur without facilitative administration, systems-level partnerships, and decision-support data systems. The authors believe that understanding "what works" in program "implementation" is just as important as understanding "what works" in a program "model." Recently, researchers…

School systems face many decisions in developing and maintaining learning environments that create success for all students. From district operations to the classroom, district leaders implement solutions and take action based on the information they have at hand. While there is no shortage of data, turning that data into useful information is as…

The role of the assistant principal, complete with duties and responsibilities, has not yet been successfully defined. Although assistant principals are often limited to responsibilities such as discipline or bus duty, their role should encompass much more. Assistant principals want to be more than disciplinarians; they want to be included in the…

This report summarizes a study investigating the relationship between the extent of elementary school principals' participation in the budgeting process and their job satisfaction. The study also explored the difference between principals' actual and desired role in budgeting. Two studies were conducted, one in 1978 and one in 1988, and were…

By the nature of their positions in schools, administrators are either influence agents or targets. Based on personal interviews with 140 Oregon administrators and a survey of 319 administrators around the state, this article highlights administrators' comments about their administrative influence and about constraints on their influence.…

This report describes a process developed by the Center for Assessment of Administrative Performance (CAAP) in Washington State which uses microcomputers to generate feedback reports for participants in an assessment process which provides participants with feedback on skills and abilities related to the successful performance of school building…

To help new principals succeed, school districts are capitalizing on senior administrators' expertise by adding mentor programs to the practical training programs for beginning principals. This digest examines the nature of mentorships and discusses how they can prepare principals for the next stage of their careers. Although mentoring has existed…