Forty-four chairpersons of departments judged by academic vice presidents at randomly selected institutions to be engaged in especially effective curriculum planning were interviewed about their roles. The interviews suggested seven leadership roles used in the curriculum development process; they varied by institutional type, department size, and…

Forty years after President Kennedy noted the connection, The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) stated in its publication "Leadership Matters: Building Leadership Capacity" that "Leadership promotes learning." The SREB publication explores three strategies that it has found are used by leaders in schools that are increasing student…

Few mechanisms exist today in K-12 education to prepare school leaders to understand and espouse innovative technologies, even as technological innovation is occurring so rapidly. Although nearly all public school teachers now have access to computers or the Internet somewhere in their schools, only one-third of them feel "well prepared"…

This article addresses the philosophical questions of what it means to be a leader and how you perceive yourself as a leader. The author argues that leadership can be viewed from three perspectives: as the exercise of influence, as an expression of your values, and as a statement of your hopes and dreams. Effective leadership embraces a way of…

Leaders in two-year colleges have been described as a unique body of educational practitioners with leadership elements considered to be distinct and singular because of the special nature of the two-year institutions and their responsibilities. Effective leadership in the academic chair position has been deemed critical to institutional success.…

This article presents the findings from a review of literature on leadership in early childhood (EC). It identifies a paucity of research, despite a high potential for leadership activity in the early childhood field. It concludes that there is a clear need to identify what effective leadership practice is in terms of processes and outcomes within…

This study identified determinants of effective and ineffective supervision in schools. A forty-two items questionnaire was administered on 1150 teachers used in this study. Two research questions were raised and answered using percentages. Two null hypotheses were formulated and tested using spearman rho and z-test statistics at 0.05 level of…

This is the first book to bring into focus the full scope of professional practice in educational leadership. This book probes the limitations of traditional research in fully comprehending the true nature of leadership, and points out how future research must be expanded to deal with understanding the complexity of educational leadership…

This qualitative case study of an exceptional school in the south of England challenges the hypothesis that transformational leaders significantly impact on student outcomes. Interviews with staff and students, together with classroom observation, confirm that the head, appointed in 1995, has played an important role in transforming internal…

In this article, the author, an officer in the United States Air Force (USAF), shares some leadership stories from his father's experience in Vietnam and his own experiences in the military. Both the author's corporate and university careers have benefited from the experience he gained in the military, as well as from the lessons shared in his…

Educational administrative practitioners evaluate theories, implement practices, and refine leadership strategies daily. The exploration of the leadership gap between theory and praxis is a quantum undertaking. Leadership from the educational perspective takes many forms and presents many challenges. This document examines leadership from several…

This past June, the Iowa River overflowed its banks and deluged 20 buildings on the University of Iowa's Iowa City campus. As the floodwaters finally receded, regents and administrators on the Iowa campus began dealing with all the ramifications and lessons of the flooding--including the key roles of testing emergency plans, nonstop communication,…

Background: There has been much educational verbosity over the past decade related to building capacity for effective schools. However, there seems to be a scarcity of clarification about what is meant by school capacity building or how to accomplish and sustain this process. This article describes the preexisting conditions and ongoing processes…

The authors present the argument that evaluation as currently practiced is failing the needs of the social sector, if the goal is to help organizations achieve their mission. Three case studies are presented in which evaluation played a key role in the development of a learning culture within the organization. Each case highlights the positive…

The national presidential election, still in the primary stages, has galvanized the country like none since 1968. Sounding a chord with college students and generating on campuses a level of political passion and excitement the likes of which college presidents haven't seen for four decades, the election of 2008 is being figured in the press as a…