Despite the key role that principals play in leading schoolwide change, districts' efforts to support principals are often limited, particularly in rural settings. In this article, we report the preliminary findings of a cross-district mentoring program for nine midcareer rural school principals. The collaboratively developed human resource…

Sweden has recently seen three major political attempts to empower parents through national regulations--the transferal of authority from the state to district school boards, the heavy promotion of independent schools, and the introduction of local school boards at municipality schools. This article provides an overview of these developments by…

This article provides insight into the nature and scope of home-school cooperation in Finland. Situating the study is a brief overview of the Finnish education system and a discussion of the Programme for International Student Assessment reports that place Finnish student outcomes at the top of rankings among industrialized nations for the past…

The debate about social media in schools--about should we or should we not--is already over. Social media is here to stay. The only relevant question now is how long it will take school leaders to adopt new ways and adapt the new technologies to support teaching, learning, and communication among the adults in schools. For schools to pretend that…

The promulgation of the South African Schools Act in 1996 was a critical moment in the process of making a compromise between a centralized and a decentralized system. The act describes the establishment, membership, and responsibilities of school governing bodies as the vehicle for parental engagement and decision making. The article touches on…

In this article I discuss the demographic shifts that have occurred in the United States, which have disrupted the traditional school environment. I contend that the changes have been so drastic that students who were once called traditional are now seldom seen in the school environment; whereas students once viewed nontraditional are becoming the…

Because educators continue to face challenges when seeking to educate all children, there is a growing recognition that schools must work with communities to maximize their collective educational potential (Murphy, Beck, Crawford, Hodges, & McGauphy, 2001). Although community schools are still in the emergent stages of development, their emphasis…

This study explored the perspectives of 350 California superintendents from various-sized school districts in relation to their ability to support student learning while addressing the numerous and complex personnel, social, and economic challenges faced by schools. Specifically, this study investigated the attitudes and opinions of district…

Michigan's intermediate school districts were created by constitutional convention in 1962. Between their inception and 2000, few units of government were less visible and less understood. This article chronicles the emergence of one intermediate school district as an aggressive force for change in education and a locus of activity for community…

This article presents an analysis of data collected during an evaluation of a Carnegie initiative, Schools for a New Society, implemented in a large urban district in the South. Findings suggest that the initiative's four strategic assumptions have been addressed at least partially: First, school and community representatives have jointly…

This article is drawn from a qualitative study of the role that school building leaders play in building parent and community involvement in their schools. The article focuses on four of the principals involved in the study who--with their students, staff, parents, and community members--developed inclusive, meaningful, and transformative…

An unprecedented increase in students' personal technology use presents a new area for study within the educational leadership and administration field. Cellular phones, video posting websites, and online social networking destinations empower students to create and distribute school-related images and stories. Student-developed media content can…

This research investigates the openness that teachers and principals have to change--specifically, the openness of the faculty to community pressure for change. Three dimensions of change are examined (teacher, principal, and community), as well as four aspects of organizational climate (institutional vulnerability, collegial leadership,…

This study investigated the effects of formalized and centralized school structures on 2 emergent concepts in the study of school reform, trust, and collaboration. Trust and collaboration were examined from the perspective of parents, as opposed to internal school agents such as teachers or students. Three hierarchical multiple regressions…

Parent involvement literature rarely considers students' perspectives. Based on individual interviews with 14 diverse Grade 10-12 students from a rural secondary school in northern Alberta, Canada, this qualitative case study documents students' perspectives on the appropriate role for parents in school improvement targeting academic achievement.…