This case involves a struggle for control among differently situated leaders--district- and building-level administrators, teachers, parents and community members, and university partners--seeking to influence the reform agenda of a high-poverty urban elementary school serving Latina/Latino students. The various stakeholders encounter a variety of…

The study compared the SMTs (School Management Teams) and teachers' perceptions of preferred leadership styles in some selected schools in Botswana. SMTs and teachers completed a questionnaire adopted from the leadership styles questionnaires. The findings of the study pointed to an overwhelming view that the preferred style of leadership is the…

This "Informed Educator" looks at recent research on teacher opinions about their working conditions to address the question "what matters to teachers?" District and school leaders can use this information to strengthen their efforts to recruit and retain high-quality teachers and, in addition, better support teacher efforts to educate students.…

Elements of directed autonomy were visible in public education long before the concept had been defined in the scholarly literature on organizational management. Most notably, states established common curricula and adequacy standards and then held local school boards accountable for compliance. Civic engagement, a liberty-based process through…

The authors argue that it is time to get radical about the Left's vision for education and develop a direction that communities can really own. The Labour Party being out of government for the first time in 13 years gives us a chance to consider what education means to the Left, and allows us to be innovative in how the Party can approach…

Since PreK-12 student achievement is the primary focus of schools, all teachers are called to serve as teachers leaders and improve learning on their campuses. Rather than waiting until they have gained experience, teachers can begin acquiring the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of teacher leaders during their preservice programs. Drawing upon…

Little is known about parental involvement in the prereferral intervention team (PIT) process. To shed light on the role of parental involvement in PIT meetings and referred student outcomes, this study used a stratified sample of 88 PIT student records from 14 elementary schools within one district. The records were randomly selected and reliably…

Principals have a strong role to play in forming school cultures that encourage change. Changing a school's culture requires shared or distributed leadership and instructional leadership. A multiyear study found that three elements are necessary for a school culture that stimulates teachers to improve their instruction: 1) Teachers and…

This study examined young people's decision making on issues that affect their lives: bullying in different contexts (e.g., family, peer groups, school) and their involvement in evaluating the availability and effectiveness of support services (e.g., disability, care). Key aims of this study were to offer young people a platform to evaluate…

This paper considers a different approach for developing ethical organizations. It argues that the practice of servant leadership provides a systematic training approach that should develop a more ethical culture. Servant leadership can serve as a "character ethic" that is teachable to individuals or organizations. The advantages and…

Schools and districts across the country are being subjected to some of the fiercest budget cuts in recent history, even as principals are held increasingly accountable for significantly improving student achievement, particularly in schools labeled "persistently low-achieving." For the 5,000 lowest-performing schools, there is the…

Patient centered medicine is a paradigm of health care that seeks to treat the whole person, rather than only the illness. The physician must understand the patient as a whole by considering the patient's individual needs, social structure, socioeconomic status, and educational background. Medical education includes ways to train students in this…

States have been given flexibility under No Child Left Behind to create need-driven comprehensive school improvement plans with an approved accountability system, however those unable to show increased student learning will be deemed as failing. Schools labeled as failing require a comprehensive framework for improvement. Research has identified a…

The impact of education decentralization on high-quality education has been mixed at best. This can be attributed to a variety of factors including decentralization itself, ineffectual implementation, political-economic friction, and poor design. This paper focuses largely on the issue of design, contending that if governments or donors aim to…

This article features Lesher Middle School, a school of choice, as are all of the schools in the Poudre School District in Ft. Collins, Colorado. In 2004, it was a traditional junior high school with a declining enrollment that housed an application-based International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (IB MYP) that resulted in tracking…