Purpose: This study examines the outcomes of one regional intermediate school district's effort to promote literacy coach role implementation in its 20 constituent districts. The findings from this study provide information about the kinds of district-level contexts that influenced literacy coach role implementation and how those contexts were…

Purpose: The present study focuses on developing a conceptual framework that explores the relationships between teachers' intent to leave and a spectrum of ethics perceptions. The authors argue that these relationships are mediated by organizational commitment (affective and normative). Research Design: Organizational ethics was measured by…

Purpose: Marginalizing dynamics can emerge in school communities that are experiencing rapid demographic change, even when led by equity-oriented principals. The purpose of this article is to consider how educators can serve as transformative leaders through their performing cultural work that addresses inequity, crosses sociocultural boundaries,…

This article explores the cultivation of collegial trust as a central feature of the capacity-building work of 11 high school principals, nominated for their expertise with capacity building. This qualitative study examined interview data and school documents collected over 18 months. Principals regarded trust as critical and were motivated to…

Purpose: Schools necessarily employ elements of a bureaucratic structure to organize the complex task of educating large and diverse groups of students--elements such as a hierarchy of authority, a division of labor, policies, rules, and regulations. Although such a structure is useful, there is a danger that school leaders will overemphasize…

Purpose: By examining data from interviews with students in the Upward Bound (UB) Program (a federally sponsored program that provides academic support to students at risk preparing for college entrance), this study seeks to strengthen understanding of the stages of trust in educational organizations that serve urban youth and in so doing provoke…

Purpose: The No Child Left Behind Act laudably brings social justice and equity issues to the forefront; however, the act's threat- and sanction-driven methods are not only increasing stress levels but potentially causing a rigid response, especially in the growing population of schools labeled "program improvement" (PI). Specifically,…

Purpose: Research shows that trust is significantly related to academic achievement. This study expands knowledge of this connection in two ways. First, because a stratified, random sample of elementary schools from an entire state was used, the results have considerable generalizability. Second, this study tested the relationship between trust…

Purpose: The purpose of this interpretive case study is to examine the assumptions underpinning one Upward Bound program to understand how the program attempts to increase educational opportunity for poor urban youth and how this approach plays out in the lived experiences of three young men who participate in the program. Research Design: This…

Background: Massive retirements, increased expectations, and mounting political pressures have resulted in a diminished talent pool for school superintendents. For school boards of the 124 school districts on Long Island, New York, the selection of a superintendent has been further complicated by sky-rocketing taxes and scandals leading to an…

Purpose: The article reports on a study of school leader decision making that examined variation in the validity of teacher evaluation ratings in a school district that has implemented a standards-based teacher evaluation system. Research Methods: Applying mixed methods, the study used teacher evaluation ratings and value-added student achievement…

Purpose: The authors' focus was on understanding antecedents of parent trust toward schools. Two questions guided the inquiry: Is there a systematic difference in parent-school trust across schools? If so, what organizational conditions predict between-school variability in parent-school trust? Research Methods/Approach: Using multilevel modeling,…

Purpose: This study investigated the relationship between principal leadership and variation in teachers' participation in a new literacy coaching program: Content-Focused Coaching[R] (CFC). Research design: Twenty-nine schools were randomly assigned to participate in the CFC program or to serve as a comparison. Interviews were conducted with…

Purpose: The study is a two-stage inquiry into the influence of high school principals and department chairpersons on the nature of science and mathematics teachers' community of practice participation. Of particular interest is the extent to which formal leaders influence the formation of productive communities of practice and the extent to which…

Purpose: This article describes how trust emerged as an issue in one school district and the processes by which central office administrators enhanced trust with its school site leaders. Method: This exploratory participant observer case study uses multiple sources of data including surveys, interviews, observations, and documents collected during…