Effective leadership begins with positive relationships and a healthy organizational culture. How well do professors of educational leadership model such leadership ideals within their own universities, departments, and work environments? This article addresses the critical need for professors of educational leadership to look within and determine…

For nearly twenty years the educational community has utilized portfolios as a method of monitoring the growth and development of candidates earning certification as educators and as school leaders. Professors in the field of education have encouraged their students to share these portfolios with public school hiring officials. There is a belief…

A first step to ensuring that emerging school leaders possess the dispositions and skills necessary to be successful in a global community is for educational leaders to take initiative in moving toward a comprehensive Us International Education Policy. This article introduces possible steps to initiate such a policy.

School leaders carry great responsibility when a crisis occurs. Understanding the significance and use of school crisis teams is vitally important and often unknowingly overlooked. This article examines the crucial role of school leaders when a crisis event occurs. Through combining existing research, case vignettes of actual events, and…

With the enactment of No Child Left Behind, districts across the country have been consumed with ensuring that students are proficient in math and reading. However, by the very nature of the law, the definition of "proficient" varies from state to state as well as within states. Since countless resources are being poured into this endeavor and…

This discussion focuses on a research project designed to identify critical leadership behaviors and characteristics of very successful elementary school principals. The project which ultimately became a book published jointly by the National Association of Elementary School Principals and Corwin Press used research methodology inspired by…

This article provides a model for developing and sustaining relationships that can lead to ongoing school academic success. Leaders can successfully engender positive relationships and develop healthy organizational cultures that advance powerful teaching and learning by focusing on the six relationship connectors described in this article. As…

Case study teaching provides a bridge between the world of theory and the world of practice. In addition, case teaching enhances students' analytical and problem-solving skills and gives students the opportunity to engage in shared problem solving. Undisguised cases have certain advantages as teaching tools. First, undisguised cases give case…

The intense experiences that fill a principal's school day often create blind spots in which one cannot see the greater opportunities for discovery. In fact, these daily challenges of the principalship can lead to very reactive measures and sometimes tunnel vision. The purpose of this case is to help future educational administrators recognize the…

This case was developed as part of a school law course in an educational leadership preparation program and focuses on a school's legal right to discipline a student for creating and posting two offensive Web sites: One was generated during instructional time, and the other was completed off-site during noninstructional time. The second Web site…

This case highlights family and educator conflict about special education placement using the case of Jerry, a student with behavior disorders. Aspiring administrators are invited to consider Jerry's needs, the desires of his family, the concerns of local and alternative school faculty, the safety of students and staff, and the provisions of the…

The ability to navigate complex challenges that arise when universities, schools, and communities collaborate with each other is an increasingly important characteristic for effective educational leaders to possess. This case focuses on the planning process that occurred when Mountain University and its neighboring schools and communities…

This case study challenges aspiring school leaders to analyze data and develop school improvement objectives, strategies for sharing data, and strategies for change. Candidates must analyze the data, determine potential issues that should be addressed by the new principal, and develop a list of further data sources needed. Candidates could also…

Superintendents and school boards must work together to improve schools and student academic performance. In an attempt to improve often dismal school system performance, several states passed laws over the past decade changing certification requirements for superintendents, effectively permitting anyone, however trained, to become superintendent…

New-building mold was a bane for many home construction companies and new homeowners during the 1990s. It was not unusual to read or watch the news and see the tragedy played out in one's local community. Untold, however, is the story of the toll new-building mold can take on school systems and their principals, especially as these mold problems…