This guide was created to help district leaders understand the benefits and drawbacks of the four-day school week, assess their district's readiness to make the switch, and evaluate the results of implementing the new schedule. This guide begins with an overview of common goals and outcomes for the four-day school week. It then provides a set of…

Newark's high schools play an essential role in building the next generation of young minds for college and career readiness. Yet, high achievement may be unattainable if students miss too much school. Reasons for student absence vary. In Newark Public Schools, 48 percent of high school students were "chronically absent" in the 2015-16…

Newark's high schools play an essential role in building the next generation of young minds for college and career readiness. Yet, high achievement may be unattainable if students miss too much school. "Chronic absenteeism" is generally defined as missing 10 percent or more of enrolled days for any reason. Research has shown that when…

Many studies show that school leadership is a key factor in supporting change within schools, but few have specifically considered the impact leadership has on gains in students' reading outcomes. This article focuses on factors that typify leadership in schools where such gains have been identified and explores the nature and quality of…

Two-year colleges are facing major change. The majority will undergo a turnover in college presidencies in the next ten years, at a time when they are being asked to be engines for economic growth, enable more students--and a greater diversity of students--to gain 21st century qualifications, and provide a pathway to higher degrees, all with…

The present study examined how public school administrators negotiate discipline policies that are intended to protect the common good and the educational rights of students with disabilities. We investigated the political nature of these decisions and the strategies used in reaching them through interviews with administrators in 9 public high…

State Education Agencies (SEAs) lead the charge for effective change, impact, and sustainability in the adoption and implementation of programs and practices that promote school completion. Steps taken by state and local education agencies to decrease dropout include (a) collection, analysis, and public reporting of "dropout" rates and related…

Between 1999 and 2003 a number of principals (n = 35) from a range of schools in Western Australia were interviewed to investigate the extent to which the state's "Antiracism policy and guidelines for complaint resolution" (1998) had impacted on the day-to-day management of schools. These principals overwhelmingly reported that racism…

The principal authors of a new book, "Profiling Excellence in America's Schools," state that leadership is the single most important element for effective schools. The generic skills of leaders are flexibility, autonomy, risk taking, innovation, and commitment. Exceptional principals and teachers take their leadership and management roles…

This study reports students' perceptions of their school's curriculum, support services, attendance policies, and social-learning climate. The study analyzed the interview responses of a sample of 236 students, administrators, teachers, and counselors at 6 Florida high schools representing a range of graduation rates. The following general…

This book examines the practices that support and enhance the value of part-time faculty both in and outside the college classroom, offering 43 specific recommendations to help institutions plan and manage their use of part-timers, develop fair employment policies, and invest in part-timers as valued human resources contributing to the quality of…

Guided by interpretive ethnographic methods and by instructional leadership concepts, this comparative study of secondary principals in Japan and America discovers characteristics of excellent principals and examines their values in relation to dominant cultural themes. The investigation applies anthropologist Clifford Goertz's assumptions (1973,…

To broaden the scope of effective schools research by including change processes and a wider unit of study, this project investigated three Georgia school districts demonstrating improvements in student achievement for three consecutive years. Research identified these elements: (1) the sequence and influence of events, factors, and people…