It is widely acknowledged that context matters, that it affects leadership practices. A large body of descriptive studies documents common elements in the work of school superintendents. What is less well known is how superintendents' leadership may be expressed very differently given the varying contexts in which they work. The purpose of this…

Education reforms have affected schools and the educators who work in them. Using state-wide survey data from 1993 and 2003, this study examines how the work of school superintendents has been affected over a ten-year period by these reform initiatives, especially increased demands for accountability. The general message from our data is that…

Examined reasons given by 301 K-12 educators for participating in a large-scale professional development conference and studied their beliefs about the usefulness of the conference. Teachers were drawn by the promise of substantive learning, but well conceived linkages for transfer of knowledge to the classroom were lacking. (SLD)