Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how US school leaders make sense of external mandates, and the way in which their understanding of state and district accountability policies affects their work. It is posited that school leaders' responses to external accountability are likely to reflect a complex interaction between their…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the tensions between external accountability obligations, educator's professional values, and student needs. Strategic, cognitive, and moral dimensions of this tension are captured with the central category of integrity. Design/methodology/approach: This is a mixed methods study that compares five…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to direct attention to the intersection of external and internal accountability systems within urban schools, and the role of school leadership, especially that of the principal, in managing this intersection. In particular, the paper explores how school leaders are able to strengthen and sustain the school's…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present qualitative evidence on the processes and forces that shape school administrator career paths. Design/methodology/approach: An embedded case study approach is used to understand more than 100 administrator career transitions within the Delaware education system. Semi-structured interview data were…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Self Assessment of Leadership of Teaching and Learning (SALTAL) inventory, in conditions of repeated administration. Design/methodology/approach: In 2006 and 2007, nearly all of New Zealand's newly-appointed school principals participated in an 18 month induction…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature on the many dimensions of the principal's positionality by using a unique research approach to link the experiences of the policy implementing principal to embodiment. Design/methodology/approach: The researchers employed a form of critical policy analysis that utilized…

Purpose: In light of limited sustainability of past collaborative-learning-centered initiatives over time, the purpose of this paper is to explore the determinants considered by both teachers and principals to influence the sustainability of a collective-learning-from-success (CLS) initiative in 12 urban elementary schools.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the current school-based management (SBM) policy reform in Indonesia, with an emphasis on the impacts of shifting authority and responsibility to school level, as well as challenges confronted by the school council members, followed by remedial measures to minimize the problems.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between academic optimism (AO) and elementary reading achievement (RA). Design/methodology/approach: Using correlation and hierarchical linear regression, the authors examined school-level effects of AO on fifth grade reading achievement in 29 elementary schools in Alabama.…

Purpose: This study aims to be one in a series examining the leadership best practices of school principals as they lead in an accountability- and standards-driven school environment. The lack of research and necessity to find successful practices to improve student achievement highlight the need for this study. Design/methodology/approach: An…

Purpose: This paper seeks to explore how managing by objectives (MBO) has been adopted in Swedish schools and to reflect on some of the consequences in a longitudinal study. Results relate to whether introduction has increased student performance and whether it works as a tool for the principals to create more effective schools.…

Purpose: This study aims to gain better understanding of the perceptions comprehensive school principals and chief education officers have about the implementation of school reform and the means they use to facilitate the development of such. Design/methodology/approach: This research project was carried out using a systemic design research…

Purpose: An increase in the number of disruptive and violent events on college and university campuses instigated this review of the methods used to interrupt the trend, with the goal of identifying a preliminary model for systematic management of such threats. The intent is to instigate research, review and discussion in order to decrease the…

Purpose: This paper aims to present a research-based model of leadership for learning. It argues that the field has made substantial progress over the past 40 years in identifying ways in which leadership contributes to learning and school improvement. Four specific dimensions of leading for learning are presented: values and beliefs, leadership…

Purpose: This article aims to reinterpret principal preparatory programs to also include the collective learning-from-success process (success-based learning), thus providing a complementary instructional framework on how to prepare principals for today's public school reality. Design/methodology/approach: The discussion reviews the core…