As schools and school districts find their funds being cut or eliminated, they are turning to various organizations for assistance to help in the teaching/learning process. One such organization is the university. Quite often these schools or districts not only lack the funds, but also lack the technical and resource capacities to implement the…

While politicians and other pundits may not agree on how to improve schools, there is agreement that many areas require attention from improving student achievement, to ensuring effective instruction. As school districts struggle with these and other complex issues, there is a growing demand for executive level leaders who have knowledge and…

Educational leaders are faced with a moral, ethical and practical need for improving schools. Together leaders and teachers are searching for ideas, strategies and ways in which to turn around failing schools. Education, of course, is all about people who want the best for their students. In this article we discuss what teachers want in leaders…

Schools, and especially principals, are challenged constantly to improve learning outcomes for students. We advance five ideas that should help principals address these challenges: (a) student learning "plus," (b) school accomplishments, (c) organizational context and depth of repertoire, (d) social and political context, and (e) leadership as an…

Increasingly, the viability of university programs to develop in school leaders the knowledge, skills and dispositions needed to bring about reform are being questioned. This article uses case study methodology for looking at how an increasing emphasis on collaborative inquiry in one university's program influenced a school principal several years…

This paper recounts one instructor's importing action research into teaching to improve a Tier II Professional Administrative Services Credential program at a public university in California. The state and local context is described, why and how the action research was conducted, and the lessons that emerged about what advanced students need,…