This paper examines the effects of principal leadership and peer teacher influence on teachers' instructional practice and student learning. Using teacher survey and student achievement data from a mid-sized urban southeastern school district in the United States in 2006-2007, the study employs multilevel structural equation modeling to examine…

Research has consistently shown that principal leadership matters for successful schools. Evaluating principals on the behaviors shown to improve student learning should be an important leverage point for raising leadership quality. Yet principals are often evaluated with the use of instruments with no theoretical background and little, if any,…

Purpose: This study examines learning, and both cognitive and behavioral change among a sample of randomly assigned urban principals, half of whom participated in a sustained, district-based professional development program (DPD). Research Methods: Latent class analyses of daily log data, qualitative typology development, and case studies of…

Purpose: This study examines the feasibility and utility of a daily log for measuring principal leadership practice. Setting and Sample: The study was conducted in an urban district with approximately 50 principals. Approach: The log was assessed against two criteria: (a) Is it feasible to induce strong cooperation and high response rates among…

Purpose: The current literature's call for a more ecological approach to violence theory, research, and practice stimulated the current study. This model postulates that teachers' willingness to engage in behaviors intended to tackle violence in school as part of their in-role duties (role breadth) will affect school violence. Specifically, the…

Purpose: A factor largely overlooked amid the press for greater security in schools is the extent to which law enforcement participates in search and seizure and the implications such actions carry for student civil liberties. As case law suggests, police engaged in school searches may be held to the probable cause standard or the more flexible…

Purpose: This article aims to validate the Leadership Daily Practice (LDP) log, an instrument for conducting research on leadership in schools. Research Design: Using a combination of data sources--namely, a daily practice log, observations, and open-ended cognitive interviews--the authors evaluate the validity of the LDP log. Participants: Formal…

Purpose: This article presents a case for addressing evidence-based practice (EBP) in educational administration. Content is arranged around four objectives: (a) summarizing the status of educational administration as a profession, (b) defining evidence and the model, (c) explaining EBP's social and professional merit, and (d) identifying barriers…

Purpose: This article provides an analysis of articles winning the William J. Davis Award in "Educational Administration Quarterly" ("EAQ") from its start in 1980 through 2007. Findings: Information is presented on data relating to two guiding questions: (a) What themes or trends have emerged over time in Davis Award-winning articles? (b) What…

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: Teachers trusting other groups of actors in their school enhances a school's functioning. Research relating teacher trust to school context has proven scarce, however. This study explores the extent to which teachers from a same school share a level of trust. Organizational value culture, size, and group composition are associated with…

Purpose: This study attempts to link four groups of contextual factors to vice principals' desire for principalship using regression analysis. Relevant items representing context are grouped under professional, school, demographic, and motivational factors. The findings aim to provide greater understanding of the desire, or lack thereof, of vice…

Purpose: Most studies on the impact of school culture focus only on teachers' average perceptions and neglect the possibility that a meaningful increment to the prediction of school effectiveness might be provided by the variance in teachers' culture perceptions. The objectives of this article are to (a) better understand how teachers' collective…

Purpose: The current study seeks to understand which journals have been recently cited by scholars publishing in the field of educational leadership (i.e., specifically publishing in "Educational Administration Quarterly" ["EAQ"] and "Journal of School Leadership" ["JSL"]). Method: The researchers recorded the name and number of occurrences of…

Purpose: The initial purpose of this mixed methods study was to assess the instrument fidelity and construct-related validity of a 33-item instrument called the Schoolwide Cultural Competence Observation Checklist (SCCOC) by eliciting school leaders' views. The SCCOC was designed as one tool for use in conducting school culture audits, which…