This study examines the perspectives of Wyoming instructional facilitators, concerning three coaching constructs--namely, their instructional leadership roles, teachers' instructional practices, and the support that they receive from principals and teachers. Findings suggest that instructional facilitators were positive about their…

Family-school partnerships are difficult to initiate and sustain in ways that actually promote student learning, especially in high-poverty communities. This quantitative study was designed to better understand how social forces shape parent responsibility in education. Based on social cognitive theory as the conceptual framework, the…

This comparative case (Merriam, 2009) study explored two charter school principals' engagement in instructional leadership. Analysis of three data sources--interviews, observations, and documents--revealed that principals were almost exclusively focused on state accountability and possessed limited knowledge of pedagogical practices. In…

Research has shown that school principals who display transformational leadership are likely to influence organizational commitment and job satisfaction (Koh, 1990), and this in turn is thought to influence student learning outcomes. Based on a sample of experienced educational leaders (n = 88), this study examined if transformational leadership…

Although there is a consensus that authentic leadership should be an essential component in educational leadership, no study to date has ever tried to find whether team-based simulations may promote authentic leadership. The purpose of this study was to identify whether principal trainees can develop authentic leadership through ethical decision…

In this study, the role that racial identity plays among Latina school principals is examined through a case study of a principal in a K-3 elementary school. Based on a Latina/o critical race framework and a phenomenological research approach, the study explores the degree to which having a strong understanding of one's racial identity…

The leadership-for-learning project described in this article is supported by a grant from the Wallace Foundation and implemented through a partnership of faculty in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and faculty at two other universities in the state, the Department of Public…

With strong connection to schoolwide policy and vision and to the realities of the daily life of teachers and students, the department chair is uniquely positioned to play an important role in advancing instructional effectiveness (Printy, 2008; Weller, 2001). This article provides an in-depth look at the efforts of three urban comprehensive high…

This article traces how the work of instructional leadership in the urban high school embodies a response to particular pressures in the school's environment. Based on evidence from multiple-case study research in four urban districts, the article demonstrates how supervisory and nonsupervisory leaders fashioned responses to the district (and…

This article explores the idea of distributed instructional leadership as a way to understand instructional leadership practice in comprehensive high schools. Our argument is that distributed leadership analyses allow researchers to uncover and explain how instructional improvement in high schools occurs through the efforts of multiple individuals…

A growing body of literature has highlighted the affordances of distributive forms of instructional leadership as a means to broaden and deepen instructional leadership capacity within schools. Yet, specifically how the capabilities of such key leaders as high school department chairs can be fostered to realize enhanced instructional capacity…

Pressures on school leaders to reform are pervasive within the United States. Prior studies show that superintendents who provide clear expectations and goals, collaborate, ensure quality professional development, and attend to curriculum alignment develop effective building leaders (Marzano & Waters, 2009; Wahlstrom, Louis, Leithwood, &…

Drawing on findings from a national study of learning-focused leadership in challenging urban settings, this article examines the work of teacher leadership in urban high schools. In this context, a recently emerging cadre of nonsupervisory teacher leaders, working in collaboration with supervisory leaders, exercises a form of "distributed…

Untold numbers of professional educators hold administrative certificates or licenses but do not use them, never taking formal administrative roles in schools. Why do so many of the graduates of our principal-preparation programs forego taking school-leadership positions and simply stick with teaching or assume other, nonadministrative-leadership…

The lack of ethical leadership is a pervading factor in today's society. Although interest in ethical leadership has increased dramatically in Ghana as a result of the June 4 revolution by the military that preached probity, accountability, and integrity, ethics within the context of leadership has not been a subject of much discourse. Being…