Purpose: We examine the extent to which assistant principals' time spent in different leadership roles (instructional leadership, student affairs, and school management) is associated with their perceptions of the evaluation system. We focus on this outcome because individuals are more likely to engage with evaluation feedback if they have…

Purpose: Little is known about how teachers view the leadership of assistant principals in comparison to that of principals, especially in relationship to teachers' work outcomes. We examine whether a gap exists between teachers' perceptions of fairness from principals and assistant principals, and whether this gap is associated with teachers'…

Purpose: Teacher shortages disrupt multiple aspects of school functioning. Negative effects of shortages are linked to poor outcomes for students, teachers, and organizational climate and culture. However, less attention has been paid to the impact of shortages on principals' leadership activities. Research Methods/Approach: This study uses…

Purpose: School leaders become arbiters of educational opportunity by shaping how policies are implemented within their buildings. Yet the role that school leaders play in enacting policies designed to expand equity for historically marginalized groups of students such as English learners (ELs) has received little attention in the research…

Purpose: Despite occasional claims for the coexistence of transformational leadership and instructional leadership in schools, the literature is dominated by views supporting an "either/or" orientation. This is especially true in the wake of recent findings that instructional leadership has a greater impact on student learning. This…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is (a) to analyze how Latinx school administrators draw on their Community Cultural Wealth to inform their leadership for educational equity and (b) to examine how they navigate varying equity initiatives and beliefs in rapidly diversifying districts. Research Method: This study employs Latina/o Critical Race…

Purpose: With the rise of the Latinx student population in the United States and the urgency to meet the needs of this diverse community, there has been an increased concern and interest in preparing more Latinx educators and school leaders. This study contributes to this knowledge base by centering the voices and experiences of four Latina school…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to examine the utility of framing formative feedback to improve school leadership with a focus on task-based evaluation of distributed leadership rather than on role-based evaluation of an individual leader. Research Methods/Approach: Using data from research on the development of the Comprehensive…

Purpose: This article proposes the utility of using activity theory as an analytical lens to examine the theoretical construct of distributed leadership, specifically to illuminate tensions encountered by leaders and how they resolved these tensions. Research Method: The study adopted the naturalistic inquiry approach of a case study of an…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of personal and program characteristics on the placement of graduates of principal preparation programs in assistant principal, principal, and school leadership positions. Research Design: This study relies on Texas principal production data from 1993 through 2007 matched to employment…

Background: Nascent empirical research demonstrates the sizable impacts of principals on student achievement. More research is needed on the pathways to the principalship and how principals' characteristics and training experiences influence their performance. Purpose: (1) To describe the characteristics of first-time principals and the schools…

Purpose: The study investigates the ways in which principals engage with, and attend to, the data-driven accountability measures of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and local mandates. Theoretical framework: The study is framed with the notion of "assemblage", a term often associated with actor-network theory (ANT)--a theory that focuses…

Purpose: This article examines how and why four leadership functions are enacted in an elementary school, with a focus on hierarchical and "heterarchical" configurations of leadership. Research Design: The data were collected using an exploratory 2-year case study approach, and the data set comprises one-on-one interviews and relevant school…

Purpose: This study attempts to link four groups of contextual factors to vice principals' desire for principalship using regression analysis. Relevant items representing context are grouped under professional, school, demographic, and motivational factors. The findings aim to provide greater understanding of the desire, or lack thereof, of vice…

Offers a conceptual framework regarding the technical and moral socialization of school administrators; identifies processes and conditions associated with their moral socialization; and concludes with a brief discussion of the implications of these conditions for the study and development of recruitment, selection, and preparation practices in…