Few studies of school leadership succession document the processes of continuity and change, especially within situations where there has been a strong tradition of tenure of principal, within a "quality" school. This article examines how a new principal with a commitment towards notions of Learning Community Schools, "quality" teaching and…

"The Learning Principal" is an eight-page newsletter published eight times a year. It focuses on the important and unique work of school principals. This issue includes: (1) Framework "for" Improvement: Effective School Leadership Translates into Increased Student Learning (Valerie von Frank); (2) Q & A: Instructional…

Leaders are made, not born. Like so many other of life's complex issues, the question of nature vs. nurture in leadership is one that is analyzed, researched, and debated by educators, philosophers, social scientist, and even leaders themselves. Leadership has been dissected as to personality, character, and behavior. Researchers have developed…

Vaill (1996) argued, The learning challenges of effective leadership have not been sufficiently studied. We have not incorporated ideas about learning as a way of being into our thinking about how leading is learning. Behind those notions is a more basic one...leadership itself is primarily learning. (p. 148) To better understand how learning…

This paper reports on a qualitative study exploring how distributed patterns of leadership manifest themselves in project teams within a Higher Education institution. The emphasis is on both the "what" and the "how" of distributed leadership, thus providing an account of the nature of distributed leadership in higher education and the factors…

This study draws from 4 years of qualitative case study data to describe how programmatic and district factors interacted to affect reform sustainability in two school districts--one urban and the other suburban. These districts have been implementing a reform developed by the National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS) for over a decade. NNPS…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine Collins' good-to-great Level Five leadership attributes, as demonstrated by the leadership behaviors of superintendents of high-performing California public single-school districts. Methodology: The researcher used a case study design to conduct this study. Personal interviews were conducted in…

This research examined the leadership practices of rural superintendents who have led their districts to significant improvement in student academic achievement. The overall research goal was to examine how Waters' and Marzano's six correlates of effective superintendent leadership practice have been applied by school leaders who have successfully…

This basic interpretive qualitative research study explored the personal and professional backgrounds, training experiences, perspectives, and perceptions held by adult volunteers serving as crew advisors in the Venturing program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Venturing is the BSA's adventure oriented youth development program for coeds age…

Superintendent leadership can influence student achievement and with the alarming gap between the academic achievement of traditionally marginalized students and their peers, superintendents have an ethical duty to lead their districts in closing these achievement gaps. Spillane, Halverson, and Diamond (2001) suggested that to have a more complete…

The actions of two assailants who shot and killed 10 people and wounded three others, including a student, in the region around Washington, D.C., in October 2002, provides the backdrop for a qualitative study of the emergency response by school district leaders in Montgomery County, Maryland. The study explores and describes the experiences of the…

This quantitative study examined the relationship between the perceived leadership styles of school principals and teacher job satisfaction at selected elementary schools. The Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) provided data that identified the perceived leadership styles of the school principals; the Minnesota Satisfaction…

A baccalaureate education was once limited to an elite population of high school graduates in pursuit of guaranteed career success. Today, more than 70% of high school graduates opt to attend college to earn a baccalaureate degree, due to economic, global, and technological changes. While this percent has significantly risen, employers are…

No longer is there a small red schoolhouse that serves as the learning institution for a small number of children and a few teachers. Schools of today have blossomed into high-stakes testing, inequitably funded, poverty-challenged, microcosms of students many with language and ability barriers (Bellamy, Fulmer and Muth, 2003). Today's…

This research examined how two decidedly different groups of community college presidents from across the United States viewed the competencies, characteristics, and professional skills identified by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) (2005) as important for effective community college leadership. The two groups participating in…