Purpose: The purpose of this article is to uncover what scholars know and do not know about instructional leadership, paying particular attention to what they have learned about how this work is done and where knowledge falls short. The author takes a first step at integrating three distinct literatures: (a) the traditional instructional…

Purpose: This From the Field article describes an emerging model of boundary spanning leadership in homeless education. Drawing from the pilot program that is being implemented in conjunction with the Homeless Children's Education Fund in Pittsburgh, the article identifies areas of promise and potential limits to university faculty involvement…

Purpose: Attention is drawn in this article to the presence and dysfunctional nature of a disconnection between professional preparation programs for administrators and for teachers. Findings: A case is made for achieving greater alignment between the work going on in these areas, particularly in light of the growing efforts to hold schools…

Background: The term "distributed leadership" is now widely used among scholars and practitioners in the field of educational leadership. Major actors in the nonprofit sector promote and financially support the development of distributed leadership. Unfortunately, there is confusion and ambiguity about what "distributed leadership" means, and…

Purpose: The authors review a volume that emerged from a 2-year participatory effort to look at new research directions in educational administration. The review is presented as a conversation between two researchers--an old-timer (Karen Seashore Louis) and a relative newcomer (Meredith Honig)--to probe for differences and convergence in…

Purpose: This article presents the conceptual framework, methodological design, and key research findings from a Spencer Foundation-funded project of long-term educational change over time. Research Design: Based on more than 200 interviews, supplementary observations, and extensive archival data, it examines perceptions and experiences of…

Purpose: This article focuses on the sustainability of reform through the lens of teachers' nostalgia--the major form of memory among a demographically dominant cohort of experienced older teachers. Unwanted change evokes senses of nostalgia for these lost missions that take two forms: social and political. As teachers age, their responses to…

Background: Throughout the Western world, the fallout from the standards/standardization agenda has resulted in potential leaders questioning educational leadership as a career path. Moreover, the aging of the baby boom generation has created a shortage of qualified principals in many educational jurisdictions. Policy makers have responded to…

Background: This article is an historical sociospatial analysis of change during the past three decades within and between three high schools in a deindustrialized city in the northeastern United States. Sociospatial relations are the everyday spatial practices, perceptions, and representations that constitute social worlds. Interrelated with the…

Background: Implicitly, innovative schools have historically contained some (but not usually all) of the properties of learning organizations and professional learning communities but have a weak record of sustaining success over time. Can innovative schools that self-consciously establish themselves as learning organizations and professional…

Schools in America are facing rapidly changing demographics, and because of those changing demographics, this article makes the following propositions. First, the increasing demographic changes in urban schools demand new leadership approaches. Second, because many of the urban educational demands are shaped by ongoing social and cultural issues…

Despite the small numbers of Black female superintendents and the overwhelming obstacles of the position, Black women who serve as public school superintendents continue to meet the challenges of educational leadership and are flourishing in their jobs. As noted in previous research on Black women in the superintendency and Black female leaders in…

The study reported in this article examined the relationship between members of a restructuring network and the members' formal district systems. Using the lens of new institutional theory, the article explores the unintended consequences of changing individual schools outside the context of the district to which each network member belonged. The…

The purpose of this article is to explore the foundations of the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium's (ISLLC's) Standards for School Leaders. First, the eight strategies used to develop the Standards are discussed. Second, responses are provided to six broad issues raised by colleagues who have provided critical reviews of the…

This article presents research on the school choice processes and practices in a large urban district on the West Coast. It shares the stories of three mothers' experiences with public school choice and tells how, through the process of choosing schools for their children, they became participants in the inequities and inequalities of the…