This case examines how school leaders manage the increased demands of a new state-mandated teacher evaluation process. Subject to negotiations, districts and their local teacher unions can allow for teachers to be credentialed and serve as evaluators within their own schools. The challenge is examined through both the opportunity costs of this new…

This case study is a narrative of four major leadership paradigms: managerial, transactional, transformational, and distributed leaderships. Understanding these leadership styles may help both practicing and prospective school leaders navigate better in the complex, dynamic, murky, and challenging waters of educational leadership. Furthermore,…

High-stakes accountability policies have brought about significant change in schools, but have also triggered instances of cheating and gaming at school and district levels. This undisguised case study involves the El Paso Independent School District, one of its high schools, and a popular principal accused of cheating. This context provides the…

This case was written for school leaders, specifically building-level principals and central office administrators attempting to implement school turnaround reform efforts. Often, leaders who embark on this type of organizational change work in intense environments that produce high levels of pressure to demonstrate improvement in student…

Teacher retention is of critical concern in rural and high-poverty districts. This case study describes one school’s challenges following the district's budget cuts that eliminated funding for schools' mentor programs. The mentor coordinator at this elementary school faces several dilemmas as she attempts to maintain high-quality support for the…

This case represents a multitude of leadership dilemmas created by financial exigencies and the difficult decisions that must be made during times of economic austerity. Under the best of circumstances, deciding between programmatic elimination and/or employee termination is agonizing, onerous, and filled with political and social ramifications.…

This case study is intended for use in an educational leadership class to facilitate conversation on providing effective instructional practices to students on the autism spectrum. In particular, this case study demonstrates how a school district incorporated a research-based model into their system to provide support to teachers of students with…

This case exemplifies the unintended divisive cause and effect dynamic that can occur as a direct result of a seemingly innocuous school board policy modification. A change in school board policy at a local school district in Laredo, Texas, was designed to facilitate the fulfillment of a foreign language requirement for high school students. A…

This case describes initial conflicts experienced by a new superintendent that involve faculty resistance and diminished academic expectations at the high school, compared with the district's other schools. Compounding the situation is the fact that the Board of Education was bitterly divided when reaching their superintendent hiring decision,…

When a new superintendent is hired, Tom Thompson, middle school principal, is squeezed between complying with the demands of the district and cultivating a positive culture in his school. He wrestles with the stress of facing tough leadership choices that take a toll on his physical and mental health. Tom realizes that a career-ending move might…

This case study summarizes the leadership practices of Rosa Davis as she meets with community members and staff to discuss Hope Academy's growth over the past 5 years. Davis began her tenure needing to mend relationships with the local Tribe and community after the district's governing board decided to reconstitute the school. The school's…

This case study uses real events and hypothetical elements associated with the struggle for school finance equity in Texas. It involves a superintendent faced with difficult choices brought about by a convergence of events and issues, namely, by a national and state economic crisis, the demographic realities of his district, a historically…

Drawing on a recent New Jersey Supreme Court decision (2007), this case addresses a school district's responsibility regarding homophobic bullying, school culture, and the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students to be free of discrimination.

This case study focuses on issues of freedom of speech and freedom of religion in public schools. It involves a rural, southern high school where a group of students participated in a Day of Silence. The school allowed the students to participate based on the principal's understanding of the students' First Amendment rights. However, the next day,…

This case, set in the high plateau of the Texas Panhandle, covers the years 1998-2004. The focus is on voting rights. The Amarillo board members, like board members in most Texas districts, were elected at large. Faced with a voting rights lawsuit filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the League of United Latin American…