Three years ago, the authors accepted positions as high school principals in Buffalo City (NY) Schools after serving as elementary school principals in the district for many years. In their new positions, they were to lead schools that were designated by the New York State Department of Education as "persistently lowest achieving,"…

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a highly individual neurological disorder that affects the brain's ability to process and interpret varying types of information. Despite intellectual potential on par with neurotypical peers, students with ASD struggle to learn in segregated classrooms that intensify autistic symptoms. The author suggests that…

Gervais High School--with a senior class of 80 and a total enrollment of 337--may be small in size compared to its neighbors, but it has demonstrated over the last four years the ability to think big in pursuit of excellence. A decade ago, Gervais had a well-earned reputation in Oregon's Willamette Valley as a drug-ridden, gang-infested school…

The public school administrator is responsible for protecting student expression while maintaining the integrity of the school disciplinary practices. When dealing with violent writing by students, school administrators should be aware of governing legal principles as well as sound educational practices. A review of legal and educational…

Principals want teachers to do more than profess high expectations for their students. Principals want teachers to have the knowledge and skills to realize their expectations for students by using strategies that increase students' attention to their achievement and responsibilities for learning. Current expectancy literature states that teachers…

There are dozens of books and hundreds of resources that address the issue of character development in students: how to raise them to be good people, how to teach them to be good citizens, how to help them to make good decisions. Little is written, however, about the character development of principals and school leaders, whose behavior is a model…

Engagement has become the hallmark of personalized learning. When students are engaged in learning, they actively apply what they know and search for ways to know more. Two years ago, researchers from the Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory, a program of the Education Alliance at Brown University, began a study to identify events…

When the author became the principal of Citrus Middle School in 1998, it was the lowest performing school in the district. Students from Citrus were viewed as largely under-prepared, often read below grade level, had high drop-out rates, and were responsible for a significant amount of the gang activity on the school campus. She was also told that…

In October 2002, Sebastian River High School in Florida developed a literacy system that includes all faculty and staff members. The literacy system identifies roles, responsibilities, and actions for everyone, including daily literacy-related nonnegotiables for all teachers. Now, students who have a history of failure are posting gains of one…

Proof of academic performance often serves as the litmus test for maintaining instructional practices and programs. Just as the national focus on academic improvement has gained momentum, so too has another movement calling for character education. Educators find themselves caught in the middle, questioning whether character education is just…