Communicating why and how school leaders are effective in their work will go a long way toward increasing awareness of the profession and highlighting academic successes in our schools. Research shows school leadership and school performance are closely linked. According to a report by the Wallace Foundation, leadership is second only to teaching…

The issues of teacher empowerment and decentralized management have been a part of the educational reform agenda for decades. Recent legislation has required that leadership teams have teacher, support staff, and parent representation, and possibly student representation. Principals receive specific instructions from their Boards of Education as…

The problem of this study involved the identification of differences in leadership practices between master's-level students at Dallas Theological Seminary based on the independent variable of ministry leadership involvement. A total of 1,254 master's-level seminary students enrolled on the main campus of Dallas Seminary during the fall Semester…

This paper examines the impact of one leadership development programme, drawing on a model developed by Leithwood and Levin (2004) for the Department of Education and Skills. The New Visions programme, offered by the National College for School Leadership, is aimed at new headteachers and adopts a process rich approach to leadership development.…

The role of the superintendent has changed dramatically, from community leader to school manager to education leader to scapegoat, and it is anyone's guess where the job is headed. What is clear, however, is that today's educational climate calls for a new way of doing business. With the formal powers of their position stripped away by bargaining…

This book shows how educators can become more versatile managers and more artistic leaders. In part 1, chapter 1 shows why reframing--the use of multiple lenses--is vital to effective leadership and management. It introduces the four basic lenses for organizational analysis--the structural, human resource, political, and symbolic frames--and show…

An analysis of the problems facing leaders in higher education or other organizational settings as well as insights on effective leadership is presented. The 23 chapters are organized in four parts. Part 1, "The Unconscious Conspiracy and How to Confound It," suggests the presence of such a conspiracy involving the entrenched bureaucracy and…

Results of a descriptive quantitative study to identify personal beliefs and goals shared by effective school principals are presented in this report. Data were collected through an experience sampling study of principals, and through teacher and student attitudinal surveys. The experience sampling stage involved 81 Illinois elementary or…

The University of Tennessee's management training and development efforts are described. The program is designed to improve the performance of academic and nonacademic department heads (middle managers) and includes an 8-day workshop called the Institute for Leadership Effectiveness. In addition to the attention given to the formation of networks,…

A study examined the relationships between leadership conversation and its impact upon organizational members' levels of organizational identification and behavior. It was hypothesized (1) that effective leader conversation would be associated with higher levels of role, means, goal and overall organizational identification, and (2) that…

This volume provides a comprehensive synthesis of competencies that research has associated with the administration of effective schools. Following an introduction, section 1, "Re-thinking the Organizational Structure of Schools," presents current thinking on the organizational structure in which school administrators function.…

This article describes the Boston Teacher Leadership Certificate program created to expand teachers' capacity for teacher leadership roles. The professional learning was designed to strengthen teachers' leadership skills while also paying attention to whether and under what conditions they were more successful in their roles. To monitor the…

Situational leadership theory suggests that to reach maximum leadership effectiveness, the leader must adapt his/her behavior to different situations. For athletic coaches, this means that the amount of direction provided for students should increase or decrease according to the students' maturity levels. Applications of the theory are discussed.…

Accountability has changed nearly everything in education and has prompted the following questions: What do successful leaders need to know and be able to do? How do we prepare and develop effective school leaders? State legislation has established an urgency for improved student achievement in educational systems where too many students are not…

For many "hard-to-staff" schools, the negative consequences of teacher shortages are compounded by characteristics that make these schools less attractive to teachers. Most often located in troubled inner cities or isolated rural areas, these schools are frequently plagued by high poverty in the community, higher teacher turnover rates,…