A collaborative school-based intervention aimed at modifying relationships among administrators and teachers was implemented in three middle and junior high schools. Across the intervention schools, teachers were active collaborators in identifying problems and then articulating and implementing customized interventions to redress those problems.…

Institutional researchers can extend their dexterity in assessing the decision-making process at a university by developing a more robust array of organizational frames. The application of four organizational frames (structural frame, human resource frame, political frame, and symbolic frame) "deepens one's appreciation and understanding of…

Many authors (Kezar, 2005; Duke, 2002; Keeling, Underhile, and Wall, 2007; Matier, Sidle, and Hurst, 1994) propose a new model of higher education organizations or a style of decision making whose central component is collaboration. This key characteristic helps make full use of all of the institution's resources to increase the likelihood that it…

This article presents an interview with Ray Landers, the 2009 MetLife NASSP Middle Level Principal of the Year. Landers talks about how he and his staff members put programs in place to erase poverty gap at his school. He stresses the need to make sure that principals empower teachers so that collaborative decision making can take place.

This Wallace "Perspective" summarizes a decade of foundation research and work in school leadership to identify what it is that effective school principals do. It concludes that they carry out five key actions particularly well, including shaping a vision of academic success for all students and cultivating leadership in others. The…

This study examines and compares the recruitment and retention of minority and White elementary and secondary teachers and attempts to empirically ground the debate over minority teacher shortages. The data we analyze are from the National Center for Education Statistics' nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey and its longitudinal…

Partnerships between local education agencies (LEAs) and institutions of higher education (IHEs) allow individual organizations to leverage their assets as well as expand and enhance their own knowledge bases. Two of the more prominent types of LEA-IHE partnerships in special education are Alternative Route to Certification programs and…

This study examined teachers' attitudes and beliefs in one over-performing urban/suburban high school of the state-mandated curriculum framework under conditions that I label a continuously uncertain reform effort or a top-down mandated curriculum involving constant mixed-messages as to its content, accountability demands, and future existence.…

This brief describes distributive leadership, shares an example of a California district using this practice to implement reform, surfaces potential challenges, and offers questions to consider. Successful reform can go beyond a single classroom or school, and outlast an individual. Successful, ongoing reform initiatives exist and they are…

Using Bereiter and Scardamalia's (1993) hidden expert knowledge, we explored what knowledge counts from the perspectives of working small school-district superintendents and the ways in which they gain that knowledge. This qualitative study used focus groups as its primary data collection method. Participants were 37 superintendents of districts…

The purpose of this study is to determine teachers' views regarding democracy education and the Project for School Councils which have been used in schools in Turkey. In the study, the researchers developed a perception scale for the project (PSPDA), which was administered to the teachers. Based on the results of this research, female teachers and…

This study was designed primarily to investigate the impact of school-based curriculum development teams on teacher development within the tradition of school-based curriculum development. The results are expected to provide valuable insights for teachers, school management and policy making. Teacher interviews in a primary school in Hong Kong…

Bridget Somekh's contributions to the debate on the theory and practice of action research and associated methodologies have often been gained through leadership of innovative action and research with computers in education. A review of her work provides evidence of the journey that starts with an appreciation of the wonders of technology before…

Green design, green construction and green operations for new buildings are rapidly becoming the norm for school districts throughout the country. Today, increased availability of green products and technology coupled with cost savings that are realized through an integrated design process mean that schools like Arabia Mountain High School can be…

Participatory design (PD), or the collaboration between software engineers and end users throughout the design process, may help improve CALL design practices. In this case study, four ESL learners, a software designer, and a language teacher created and evaluated a series of paper prototypes concerning help options in computer-based second…