Most schools and districts have created an artificial distinction between working and learning. They operate in a way that suggests teachers work (teach) 180 or so days a year and learn (attend programs) on four or five days each year set aside for professional development. The author states that school leaders must end this distinction between…

The study describes an initiative to increase retention at a 2-year college in the Northeast United States. The process involved a collaborative, intrusive advising approach to intervene with students at-risk for academic failure or experiencing difficulty with the transition to the college. Components of the mixed-method design included…

The headteacher's role in school improvement and the changing nature of the role suggest the need to investigate how new school leaders learn their jobs, that is, their socialization to the leader role. This study has two purposes: (1) to identify the content and methods used in the professional and organizational socialization experiences of new…

Purpose: This article explores distributed leadership as it relates to two teacher teams in one public secondary school. Both situational and social aspects of distributed leadership are foci of investigation. Methods: The qualitative study used constant comparative analysis and discourse analysis to explore leadership as a distributed phenomenon.…

This report describes Ohio's school restructuring efforts under the No Child Left Behind Act, including findings from interviews with state officials and case studies of nine schools in four school districts: Cincinnati Public Schools, Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Mansfield City Schools, and Mount Vernon City Schools. Key findings from…

In 2007, the state of Mississippi conducted a web-based survey of all school-based licensed educators in which they were asked to share their perceptions of the state of teacher working conditions in Mississippi. This report of the Mississippi Teacher Working Conditions Survey, Project CLEAR Voice (Cultivate Learning Environments to Accelerate…

We focus on the importance of emotional intelligence (EI) in conceptualizing collegial leadership in education. Research findings, both nationally and internationally, strongly suggest that a technocratic (managerial) approach to leadership is in conflict with the visionary, people-centred approach of modern organisations, including educational…

The guide is designed to help states and localities create or strengthen their own youth councils. It is a synthesis of theory and practice that provides a general framework for thinking about youth councils, explaining the principles for youth action and the importance of youth engagement. It also incorporates advice and lessons from people in…

This case study describes processes in an urban high school, which contribute to excellence in urban pedagogy, and investigates teachers' and educational leaders' perceptions of the factors influencing their commitment to school success. Six themes related to excellence in urban pedagogy were identified. Data in the form of semi-structured…

Many recent school-reform efforts have called for increasing decision-making power at the local school level. This report examines state differences in the amount of control that public school teachers believe they have over establishing curriculum; selecting textbooks and other instructional materials; and selecting topics, content, and skills to…

This report contains findings of an evaluation of the first phase of Tayside Region's (Scotland) Devolved School Management (DSM) scheme. The evaluation sought to evaluate the first phase of implementation and to suggest ways in which the scheme and accompanying training might be improved. Sixty schools chose to participate in the first phase,…

The Schools for the 21st Century (C21) Consortium was created in 1988 to produce change within 30 schools in a zone of the Seattle School District. Changes in four areas--staff development, networking among the schools, school-community linkages, and school restructuring--were implemented under "School Focused Leadership," a move toward…

This paper presents findings of a case study that explored the micropolitical strategies used by a principal to influence teachers in a school-based decision making context. The selected suburban school was located in the south-central area of Texas and had utilized school-based management for five months. The principal was recommended as…

This report discusses the application of the International Organization for Standards's ISO9000 quality assurance standard and Total Quality Management (TQM) to higher education in light of the "new collegialism." It defines the basic elements of ISO9000 and TQM, reviews the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches, and notes efforts…

From September 4 to 6, 1996, the Committee on the Future of Arizona Community Colleges conducted a charrette, or structured decision-making process designed to develop consensus, to provide recommendations for improving Arizona's community colleges. In developing the charrette, the Committee issued a request for ideas in March 1996 and selected 79…