This article reports on the action research (AR) approach adopted by one New Zealand (NZ) primary school to review and improve its appraisal system. Historically the staff had demonstrated considerable negativity towards appraisal. The classic reconnaissance, implementation and evaluation phases of AR were adopted by the case study school as a…

Universities confront many challenges in their efforts to manage staff activity with the aid of workload assessment and allocation systems. This article sets out fresh perspectives from an exploratory study designed to uncover patterns of subjective views about various aspects of workloads. Using Q methodology, academic staff in a single…

Since the wave of school reform decentralization, schools now maintain a more dynamic and diverse relationship with their environment than they did in the past. School principals' relationships with the local educational authority (LEA) are a prominent example of this change in Israel. LEAs try to gain more pedagogic influence over schools while…

Athletic administrators and decision makers within interscholastic athletics are expected to embrace a code of ethics that serves as a set of rules to guide their professional behavior. Included within this code are areas of controversy that present gender-related ethical dilemmas for administrators. Three specific ethical dilemmas involve (1)…

Emotional intelligence (EI) has been an emerging topic for educational, psychological and management researchers and consultants in recent years. Despite the emerging consensus of its definition and evidence reported in business organizations, relatively little empirical evidence have been reported in the education literature. We conducted two…

This study was conducted to determine how instructional supervision was carried out in schools. The study begins with a brief outline of the decentralization of the inspection system in Botswana. It proceeds to present a brief global historical background of instructional supervision before findings on instructional supervision are discussed.…

Historically, higher educational institutions (HEIs) have been independent institutions, backed by an ideology that led staff to expect and enjoy high levels of independence and autonomy, relatively free from any sense of management, commercial responsibility and accountability. However, in recent times, the education sector has been subject to…

This article examines the decisions made by one principal in her first year as a school turnaround specialist in a low-performing urban elementary school. Researchers focused on decisions related to the principal's three high-priority concerns: (1) elimination of an ineffective instructional program; (2) creation of a culture of teacher…

Prior to 1997, managing school attendance was the sole responsibility of the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). Since devolution, responsibility for school attendance has resided with each of the four UK-wide administrations. These are the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) in England; the Scottish Executive Education…

The concept of culture as applied to schools is difficult to define and even harder to operationalize in research terms. This article focuses on sixth formers' perceptions on school culture and seeks to develop a model that will enable researchers to move away from the semantics of organizational culture and to explore more easily the concept of…

This document contains remarks delivered by the Secretary of Education who spoke at the 2009 Governors Education Symposium. Secretary Duncan spoke about uses of Recovery Act funding to drive reform in four core areas of education: (1) Robust data systems that track student achievement and teacher effectiveness; (2) Teacher and principal quality;…

States have taken a "standards-based" approach to education during the past two decades; however, as reported in the Hunt Institute-sponsored study by the National Research Council, that approach has fallen short of its lofty and admirable goals. A comprehensive and integrated system of standards, assessments, curriculum, instructional materials,…

An intentional, active and self-regulated approach to professional growth results in improved instruction and higher levels of student achievement over time. School systems that aspire to a continuous learning ethic socialize educators to act on the assumption that all students and all educators are capable of learning and reaching high standards.…

This article describes the transformational learning of our educational leadership faculty team as we developed assessments for an equity-centered pedagogy. This piece is taken from a larger study of new leaders' action research projects. The Equity Plan is designed to disrupt inequitable schooling practices by engaging students of educational…

Nationwide the effects of the current economic situation are trickling down to impact our schools. School transportation options are narrowing, the housing market is impacting property taxes, and efforts in technology are at a stand still (Bobkoff, 2009; Hopkinson, 2009; Mummolo, 2008). Simultaneously there is a need for schools to meet society's…