The purpose of this paper is to explore how accreditation processes aided a school principal in making reform happen. Using routinized action theory (Feldman, 2000), we examined how the routines in school accreditation were used to transform what had been a demoralized, low performing middle school. This theoretical lens is important as it…

Across the country, districts are committing to observing, assessing, and giving feedback to teachers multiple times a year. Currently, school systems are dedicating an enormous amount of effort to accumulating data on teachers, but the field still has a lot to learn about how best to use data to support the improvement of teaching. This brief,…

"Creating a Successful Leadership Style" gives practical applications supported by real experiences. It presents the actual situations a principal or assistant principal faces on a day-to-day basis and provides strategies to address them. These strategies derive from a leadership style that is people oriented and designed to elicit positive…

Distinguishing between problems that have solutions and dilemmas that need to be managed, the authors identify three overarching questions from the School ABC case that center around data and perceptions. Because the ability to talk openly and honestly about difficult issues is critical to the health of a school, the authors consider the obstacles…

In a study designed to explore principals' problem-solving strategies, 11 highly effective elementary school principals were compared with 11 moderately effective principals from the same three districts. The principals' effectiveness was determined by central office administrators and by application of the "Principal Profile," a measure…