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…

Metaphors are powerful in describing organizations (Morgan, 1986; 1998) and stories reveal the meaning of experiences (Kouzes & Posner, 1993). As an avid skier and school change leader, the author has drawn on her personal experiences and the literature to develop the idea of improving skiing as a metaphor for improving leadership, particularly…

Leadership is about transformation. It is the opportunity to transform people, places, and possibilities. The purpose of the study reported in this article was to identify means to assess leadership development and performance. Although leadership development and performance can be assessed, school systems often lack consistent methods,…

A 2003 study of faculty and students in two NCATE-accredited New England universities sought to understand the kinds of learning opportunities the respondents perceived helped them build the capacity for ethical practice as defined by the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA), and the role of reflection in developing…

The purpose of this study is to examine principals' perceptions of the teaching ability of first-year traditionally prepared and lateral entry teachers. There is little research that directly assesses what teachers learn in their pedagogical preparation and the relationship of their level of pedagogical knowledge to how they actually teach or to…

Most research on the positive effects of class-size reduction (CSR) has occurred in the elementary level (Word, Johnston, Bain, Fulton, Zaharias, Lintz, Achilles, Folger, & Breda, 1990; Molnar, Smith, Zahorik, Palmer, Halbach, & Ehrle, 1999). Is CSR an important variable in improving education in the middle grades? Can small classes be achieved in…

Lately, preparation programs for PreK-12 school leaders have been at the center of controversy. Infamous among university circles is the 2005 "Educating School Leaders" report, which calls for an overhaul of university-based principal and superintendent preparation programs. The focus of the report is that school leadership programs are in…

Principal preparation programs are designed to create and prepare effective school leaders. These programs pursue many pathways to achieve this goal. This study highlighted the significance of framing this pursuit around the Educational Leadership Council Standards (ELCC; Wilmore, 2002) and Malcolm Knowles' (1970) adult learning theory. In…

Over the decades, those in education have waged a noble struggle in an attempt to achieve the respect and dignity worthy of their profession. Their social value, their worthiness, and the critical nature of their success, it can be argued, are every bit as significant as that of practicing medicine. Research consistently demonstrates the positive…

The topic of professional and corporate ethics is one that is discussed frequently in the general media today. With unindicted and unconvicted ethical violators like Kenneth Lay of Enron and Richard Scrushy of Health South appearing as anathemas to those who study and attempt to incorporate ethical tenets into everyday professional life, debates…

The purpose of this paper is to present an audio-enhanced delivery model for enhancing communication skills in online educational leadership courses. As professors make the transition from face-to-face to online delivery, the issue of the need for educational leaders to practice effective communication skills can present a barrier to online…

Although women comprise about 65% of the educational workforce, they occupy only about 14% of the superintendent positions nationwide. In the past, some theorists accounted for the underrepresentation of women by claiming that women were not assertive enough, didn't want the power, lacked self-confidence, didn't aspire to line positions, were…

There is no doubt that quality administrator preparation is critical because research has documented that successful school leaders have a strong influence on student achievement as they set direction, support and develop effective teachers, and as they implement effective organizational processes. Yet, it seems that every day the media reports…

Standard 4 of the Educational Leadership Constituency Council (ELCC) Standards addresses school diversity issues and specifies requirements that all educational leadership programs need to meet. In response, all educational leadership programs in Georgia referenced ELCC Standards and have worked to foster diversity as a priority in their programs.…

This study, conducted through Arkansas State University and the University of Central Arkansas, examined parents' perceptions in the initial year of a three-year period (2004-2007) to determine whether public schools have made progress in their implementation of the parental involvement programs mandated by Arkansas Act 603 of 2003 (known as the…