California's budget crisis has diminished educational resources for the state's current cohort of public school students. Because school districts have less revenue, class sizes are larger and struggling students receive less assistance. Under these circumstances, it seems beside the point to suggest that California should begin planning for the…

What are the major priorities for preparing educational leaders for their work in school communities? Clues to this question are nestled within higher education curricula. Prevalent 21st-century priorities that governing standards specify, such as innovation, assessment, distributed leadership, and technology, must be vigorously shaped into social…

This article shares reflections in the rearview mirror of a departing board chair. The author has served seven years as board chair of Redwood Day School (California). As he departs, he figures out a few things that might be worth sharing. The author shares his responses to some Frequently Unasked Questions.

This paper discusses the challenge of making large-scale improvements in literacy in schools across an entire education system. Despite growing interest and rhetoric, there are very few examples of sustained, large-scale change efforts around school-age literacy. The paper reviews 2 instances of such efforts, in England and Ontario. After…

Facilities stewardship means high-level and pervasive commitment to optimize capital investments, in order to achieve a high-functioning and attractive campus. It includes a major commitment to capital asset preservation and quality. Stewardship is about the long view of an institution's past and future. It ultimately forms the backdrop for…

If learning is a journey between worlds, school governing bodies have a crucial role to play in mediating them. By establishing a public space for the voice of different communities to be expressed and deliberated governing bodies enable schools to understand and engage the cultural sources that motivate young people to learn. This article draws…

Principals are powerful: They are the primary catalysts for creating a lasting foundation for learning, driving school and student performance, and shaping the long-term impact of school improvement efforts. Yet few principals would characterize themselves as powerful. Rather, they're self-effacing, adaptable, pragmatic, and quick to share credit…

In this article we develop the arguments of Glatter on the importance of adopting a more "organisation-oriented" approach to educational leadership development. Through a critical review of current publications and national courses in the field, we argue that educational leadership is still very skills focussed at the expense of more sophisticated…

This study surveyed pre-service administrative internship students (N = 61) at an urban Midwestern state university to explore factors that influence duties assigned to school counselors at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Results indicated variation in duties assigned by pre-service administrators based on school building level.…

Most students who enter higher education through a community college fail to earn a postsecondary credential. One reason for this that has not received enough attention is that many students do not enter a college-level program of study. Many new students arrive at community colleges without clear goals for college and careers. Community colleges…

This paper addresses the nature of governors in the governance of further education colleges in an English context. It explores the complex relationship between governors (people/agency), government (policy/structure) and governance (practice), in a college environment. While recent research has focused on the governance of schooling and higher…

Globally, research has become a key driver for the achievement of status and the procurement of funding for higher education institutions. Although there is mounting pressure on institutions to become research active, many institutions are rooted in a strong tradition of teaching. These institutions find it challenging to develop research capacity…

The Malaysian Government has introduced various initiatives to facilitate the greater adoption and diffusion of ICT to improve capacities in the education system. Due to the extensive investment, schools are expected to utilize and integrate ICTs in administrative tasks, teaching and learning and general running of schools. This study was set out…

Accountability, "the extent to which one must answer to higher authority for one's actions" (Shafritz & Russell, 2000, p. 343), is a critical part of corporate and democratic life. In public institutions, sound accountability processes assure those in executive, governance, audit and "elected official" roles that public…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify common practices of school-of-the-arts administrators and to determine if these commonalities differ from the practices of effective school leaders in general. A sample of administrators (n = 92) completed a 3-part Likert survey based on the 21 attributes identified in the balanced leadership…