African-American women face substantial career barriers when seeking ascension to educational leadership. Numerous factors contribute to career advancement barriers, such as systemic, institutional challenges, organizational factors, personality, and individual contributors. Various systemic and managerial aspects, directly and indirectly, were…

Teacher evaluation systems are essential in tracking the quality and effectiveness of teachers and education systems. This dissertation examines the teacher evaluation system in Saudi Arabia through multiple perspectives, including research-based frameworks for teacher evaluation, norms and best practices from OECD countries, and established Saudi…

Social and technological changes demand constant updating, this implies that schools must be prepared to face these changes. As a result, they need to have the capacity to innovate as part of their organizational culture. Although it is true, that not all schools are examples of innovative organizations, it is possible to identify some that have a…

In this article, authors offer a CRT [Critical Race Theory]-driven analysis of in-depth interview data from two African American principals charged with turning around poverty-impacted, largely African-American populated schools. Both served as social justice-oriented leaders who countered traditional administrative approaches and disrupted…

Policy makers at the federal level have embraced an educator effectiveness agenda, which in turn has driven many states across the country to rapidly develop and implement new and more complex teacher evaluation systems. It is increasingly clear that the success of these nascent teacher evaluation systems partly depends on the will, skill, and…

Principals can profoundly influence student achievement by leading school change, but they cannot turn schools around by themselves. District leaders need to create working conditions that support and encourage change for improved achievement, rather than hindering principals' abilities to lead change. This report includes principals' perceptions…

This brief focuses on a vital aspect of efficacy known as "collective teacher efficacy" (CTE). CTE refers to the perceptions of teachers that the efforts of the faculty as a whole will have a positive effect on students. Principals and district leaders should turn their attention to improving CTE because it has an impressive list of positive…

The leadership task for a new age of schools is to stimulate continuous innovation, rather than to manage for compliance using outdated standards of work. This paper presents a typology of work cultures--the varying work conditions of schools and the challenges they present to principals in developing high-performance work cultures. Data were…

This paper describes two conceptual models for addressing long-range development needs of principals. The first, a job competency model for managing productive schools, presents a comprehensive view of the central job tasks of the principal for stretching the school's capacity to influence achievement norms. Changing the school's work norms…

This report summarizes results of a survey of special educators regarding first, their working conditions related to central office support and, second, the impact of administrative support on their job satisfaction, commitment, and intent to leave. Major findings regarding teacher attitudes toward central office administrators include a perceived…