Is it better to aim at a high ideal, with only moderate success in attainment, or is it better to be satisfied with a lower goal, one involving less effort and little responsibility? This is the question which pupils in upper grades and high school face every year. There are always some members of every class who seek the best things. They desire…

The challenge today is how to make e-mail and other forms of electronic communication effective in motivating volunteer action. Is it possible to make e-mails feel personal and welcoming? E-mail, instant messaging, texting, and social media are tools that allow individuals to communicate quickly and inexpensively, but they are lifeless without the…

This webtext explores the cynical/kynical humor of soldier videos, suggesting that amateur videos paradoxically both undercut authority and honor effective leaders, both make light of and also publicly reveal deployment hardships, both distance the performers from military groupthink and celebrate unit camaraderie.

This paper describes a global professional development program called 21st Century Learning Design (21CLD), which helps teachers design academic lessons that integrate opportunities for students to develop 21st Century competencies in a variety of dimensions such as collaboration, knowledge construction, and the powerful use of ICT for learning.…

Four elementary school instructors offer insights into their classrooms, their unique professional roles, and their leadership approaches as they reflect on their journey to advance teacher and student mathematics learning. They note a "teacher leader" serves as an example to other educators and strives to impact student learning;…

This study compares outdoor adventure-based leader development programs with a traditional non-outdoor program to test predictions about differential effects on leader development outcomes. Participants were drawn from the population of U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen involved in experiential leader development programs as a component of their…

This guidebook provides an introduction to Instructional Improvement Systems (IIS) for State education agency (SEA) managers and program leads. Functional components of a theoretical IIS model are discussed and used as a reference point for the introduction a seven-step planning and implementation cycle designed to guide SEAs in the development of…

A number of schools in South Africa appear to be struggling with the changes that the government is introducing to improve the quality of education and lay a strong foundation for the country's societal transformation. Leadership has been found to be one of the factors that are associated with how schools cope with change and its complexities.…

This article examines and evaluates the development, design, and impact of one strategy for renewing mission and identity in Catholic business education. The Mission-Driven Catholic Business Education (MCBE) Seminar is used by the Opus College of Business at the University of St. Thomas to create and sustain a mission-driven culture. (Contains 1…

Within the US Department of Education's new flexibility initiative, there are three key principles, each with areas of focus. The third of these is that State Education Agencies (SEAs) must develop and implement systems of determining and supporting effective instruction and leadership within schools. This brief looks at websites, documents, and…

Each summer, ASBO International conducts an Eagle Institute leadership session in the Washington, D.C., area that provides a group of about 25 participants, including Eagle Award recipients, an opportunity to network with and learn from exemplary leaders inside and outside the field of school business management. Each year, the focus of the…

When it comes to leadership, women are now taking on long overdue roles. This article presents 25 dynamic women in the world of higher education and beyond. They lead some of the most demanding and consequential organizations and programs on the planet. No longer sitting on the decision-making sidelines, they have shattered the glass ceiling and,…

One of the biggest obstacles to overcome in creating and sustaining an administrative professional learning community (PLC) is time. Administrators are constantly deluged by the tyranny of the urgent. It is a Herculean task to carve out time for PLCs, but it is imperative to do so. In this article, the authors describe how an administrative PLC…

The 2012 MetLife Foundation-NASSP Breakthrough Schools are outstanding examples of how determined and focused leaders create and sustain school improvement. The schools are places of strategic decision making where dedicated adults demonstrate their conviction that every student can and will achieve. Each of the schools demonstrates the efficacy…

Professionals in higher education face many challenges. Chief among them are increasing leadership and organizational effectiveness. A variety of approaches can be used to build competencies to increase leadership that results in organizational effectiveness. For the purposes of this article, leadership is "the capacity to influence others by…