Building and sustaining a school and district culture that has a technology "growth mindset" and the implementation of processes that support a technology-specific culture in which, "the role of the leader is to ensure that the organization develops relationships that help produce desirable results," would ensure that teachers and principals…

Virtual schools are as different from each other as traditional schools are different when one moves from community to community or state to state. A virtual school typically offers a learning experience via the Internet, may or may not be supported by government funds, and may or may not be accredited. They have been in existence for quite some…

Principals in urban settings serve elementary schools often densely populated with highly mobile, ethnically diverse, and economically disadvantaged students. Due to the changing landscape of increasing accountability issues required by the "No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)" (2001), principals must adjust the mission of the school community to meet…

The purpose of this article is to illustrate how a valid and reliable state accountability system could be developed that identifies effective schools and school districts in a comprehensive, understandable, and practical way. The author presents an overview of the strategy used in the analysis, discusses the use of education production functions…

In 1997, two faculty members at Kansas State University began the process of creating something special and distinctive that never existed before. They clearly understood that they were embarking on a journey that would be exciting, yet not totally within their control. They were passionate about the value of developing a leadership studies…

Pressure from external stakeholders increasingly requires higher education institutions to provide concrete evidence of student learning. As such, assessment of student learning has become a significant part of the process of determining institutional quality. This article describes an example of one of university's response to the call for…

In recent decades, leadership scholars have bemoaned the lack of true leaders and leadership education at all levels and issued the fabled "cry for leadership." Although institutions of higher learning have been engaged in guiding the leaders of society since their inception, they offered no formalized programs or courses until relatively…

The political arena, where historically women in the United States have been under-represented, provides an important laboratory for examining leadership and gender via the candidacy of now Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton, who in 2008 was the first woman to run competitively for the Democratic presidential nomination. This study sought to…

With the success of graduates directly influencing the college's reputation and ranking, leadership propensity should be an important selection criterion in higher education institution's undergraduate admissions processes, but is it? For most colleges and universities, selection is done through a paper application containing only a sliver of the…

This study reports on the process and outcomes of schoolwide action research by nine schools in their first year as Network members. The participants were a blend of urban, suburban, small town, and rural schools in Central Texas. Focal points of the case studies and cross-case comparison included: (1) how the schools organized for action…

Having a sufficient number of qualified individuals to fill vacant positions is essential for community colleges in both New Mexico and the nation. Qualified individuals must be well-prepared both academically and "practically" to take a leadership role in a major institution of higher education, the community college. The purpose of this study…

Urban school building administrators are aware of sociocultural dynamics that affect today's urban schools, but they seem to lack the will to make the necessary changes that could buttress programmatic stability and integrity. For some, the debate focuses on the issue of equity in the pursuit of educational excellence for all children. For others,…

With increased debates over various aspects of special education, it has become apparent that multicultural leadership is needed to prepare school administrators and teachers to design effective special education programs. In this article, the authors discuss several aspects of administering successful programs for multicultural students. To be…