Principal Alison Harris is blunt in describing what she confronted on her arrival to Ranson IB Middle School in 2011. "I was placed in what many people would call an impossible situation," she says. During her initial visit to the school in 2009-10, she watched as students changed classes--while teachers pressed against the lockers to…

Providing commentary on this "Journal of School Leadership's" special issue, "Constructing a Bridge Between Law and Social Justice: An Ethical Journey," has been not only a daunting task because of the complex nature of this topic but also a humbling experience because of the superior quality of these articles. At the same time, it is most…

Most professionals have the arduous task of managing their own dual loyalty: in one contextual relationship, they are members of a profession while simultaneously they are employed as members of a locally established organisation. This sense of a dual loyalty has to be taken into account when professional bureaucracies develop ethics programmes.…

In England, governing bodies continue to be responsible for the conduct of publicly funded schools. This article compares the governing of publicly funded primary schools (for 5-11 year olds) and secondary schools (for 11-18 year olds). The research analysed policy documents and the governing of 16 primary and 14 secondary schools. The main…

All higher education institutions are struggling with a rapidly changing market and financial landscape. Here is a management-centered analysis of what happened when a college president, recognizing the need to make a radical adaptation to those changes, tried moving a campus community to a new organizational model, without collegial consensus,…

The Supreme Court has granted review for the 2012 term in the case "Fisher v. University of Texas." Abigail Fisher, a rejected white applicant to the University of Texas, has challenged the use of racial and ethnic admission preferences, which the Court had allowed in its 2003 decision involving the University of Michigan law school,…

Many methods claim to be Evidence-Based Practices. Yet success comes not from a particular practice, but principles that underlie all effective helping. This article uses the principle of consilience to tap knowledge from science, values, and practical experience.

This paper explores one practitioner's learning development work with PhD students in a changing university context in which managerialism and financial stringency have combined. It questions how learning development practitioners can maintain their professional goals while negotiating issues arising from managerialism, financial stringency,…

Most public universities in the United States are formed into systems, containing more than one university or campus. There are clear rationales for these systems, including overall planning and coordination, budgeting efficiency, and effectiveness of dealings with the state government. The distribution of internal governance functions between the…

The North Central Comprehensive Center team at McREL International conducted an analysis of current literature regarding student and teacher absenteeism to better conceptualize the problem and highlight successful steps that can be taken to address it. Drawing upon theoretically conceptualized and practically applied strategies for resolving…

While conversations around the inclusion of individuals with disabilities often focus on the educational rights and needs of children with disabilities during their school years, there is a growing recognition that the period of transition from secondary school to adult roles is a critical time in the lives of individuals with disabilities. For…

This article draws on data collected from a series of semi-structured interviews with headteachers and other stakeholders on the use of the Pupil Premium in Ofsted-rated outstanding schools. It has a focus on the significance of fundamental principles in determining how effective use is made of additional resources. In particular, the importance…

This paper presents some key findings of a quantitative study which assessed a group of Chinese educational leaders' value orientations. A survey instrument "The Institutional Values Inventory" was used to investigate their perspectives on the values espoused by their institutions in terms of traditional Confucian ethics and values of…

No one who's worked in higher education will ever confuse the experience with working in the corporate sector. Colleges and universities are simply not geared for the business of manufacturing or marketing products. The focus--as it should be--is on teaching and research. Given the wealth of talent among IT staff and faculty, however, higher ed…

The question of the relation between liberal education and political liberty, perennially important, is driven for this forum by the Obama administration's endorsement of "A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy's Future," according to which the chief ends of postsecondary civic education ought to include the promotion of sweeping…