A matriarch who puts strong stock in good manners and even better behavior, Linda Bates Transou is a no-nonsense Denver principal committed to dismantling her high school's two-tier, segregated system. Transou wants all students to have the opportunity to attend college. Since 1986, the number of minority students in accelerated courses has…

After being shadowed by her new superintendent for one hectic workday, a veteran elementary school principal learned she had high blood pressure and needed to flex her management style. She was advised to delegate more responsibilities, write about her practice, schedule only half her workday, and provide balance in her life. (MLH)

The most fundamental distinction between public education and the private sector is the way organizational performance is measured. Business success is measured in terms of profit. By contrast, measuring individual public schools' performance is more complex, and budgetary discretion is limited. Critics demanding corporate-style school improvement…

A recent study, based on a national sample, examined the relationship between use of time management techniques to control time wasters and stress levels experienced by high school principals. Singular and composite correlations (using regression analysis) indicated a negligible relationship between the use of time management techniques and…

There is more to achieving civility in the workplace than following imposed rules and regulations outlined in an institution's policy manual. Oftentimes, circumstances and situations arise that are not addressed in any policy manual, but which nonetheless compromise respect, trust and decency in the office. In this article, a manager of…

Whether to adopt national standards and tests has long been a subject of lively debate in the United States. With 47 states now participating in the Common Core State Standards Initiative, and a commitment from Education Secretary Arne Duncan to allocate hundreds of millions in stimulus funds to the development of common tests, the country is…

American higher education is striving to create the appropriate academic environment in order to prepare students to be interculturally competent for the realities of the twenty first century, and curriculum internationalization is part of this process. The purpose of this study was to investigate the process by which the curriculum is becoming…

Expectations of trustees have undergone a dramatic change in the wake of the Enron debacle, the new strictures of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and several new state policies, laws, and executive actions. Additionally, well-publicized examples of inadequate trustee oversight have affected the public's and policymakers' perceptions of higher education.…

Two years into an aggressive expansion plan, Aspire Public Schools was on track in terms of school openings, but behind on its goals to add a layer of management. The schools were performing well, but the nonprofit's leaders were stretched paper thin and concerned about the organization's ability to perform in the face of more growth. Determined…

The University of Sydney is a large, research-intensive, campus-based Australian University. Since 2004 a strategic initiative of project-based eLearning support has been creating teams of non-academic and academic staff, who have worked together to develop online resources to meet identified needs. The University's aims in continuing to provide…

Principals in today's schools face a wide range of requests and demands from a variety of sources that are often conflicting. There are government mandates, rules and regulations such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). There are state rules and regulations for program review, curriculum…

George Mason University has four campuses in Northern Virginia and 30,000 students, of whom 40 percent are graduate students. One of its campuses is just one mile from the Pentagon. On September 11, 2001, when terrorists struck the World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon, no one knew the extent of the damage, how many people had been killed or…

California's school finance system is long overdue for reform. The authors propose a new system that is more rational, more equitable, and, they believe, politically feasible. At its core, their proposal aims to link district revenue to student needs and regional costs while ensuring that all districts are held harmless at current funding levels.…

Emerging technologies and unstable financial issues are placing increasing demands on college administrators to provide visionary leadership. While numerous management frameworks have emerged in the past two decades, from Total Quality Management to transformational leadership, leaders should consider the concept of leadership wisdom in guiding…

This paper discusses the use of simulations in the professional development of school leaders. It compares two National Association of Secondary School Principal (NASSP) programs: the "Springfield Development Program" and the "21st Century School Administrator Skills Program" (SAS) and identifies the characteristics of SAS that…