There is a growing public awareness of the national drop-out crisis, but it does not, in the author's view, tell the whole story. It does not call attention to the fact that the most glaring need for new teachers and principals is in high-poverty areas where teaching conditions are the most challenging and where official public support has often…

In September 1999, Donald J. and Catherine Willower established the Willower Family Lecture Series as a way to add to the intellectual climate of the University at Buffalo-State University of New York (UB), while enhancing the reputation of its Graduate School of Education (GSE). This lecture series resides in UB's Department of Educational…

Federal educational legislation in the United States has focused increased attention on the racial achievement gap between minority and majority students. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation has forced high-stakes accountability in public schools, with the assumption that these policies will create performance pressures on schools to…

This article considers the issues of teacher leadership in subject-based online communities across ten geographically dispersed schools with respect to authority, volunteerism, and sustainability. The conclusions drawn are that such leadership must be shared if the community is to be sustained and that, while the use of ICT facilitates the…

Leadership is a hot-button issue these days. Reformers depend on it. The public believes that it is what schools need more of. And private sector CEOs think they know exactly what it is and are anxious to share that knowledge with the "poor unwashed masses" of educational leaders. It is not surprising, then, that so many people are trying to make…

Explores three philosophies--liberal democracy, social democracy, and participatory democracy--and discusses how they play out in the policy arena in different countries. Because globalization involves the rapid diffusion of educational ideas and policies, there is an increasing mix of new and old ideas in every country. Draws implications for…

Discusses need for school principals to strike a balance between continuity and change, dependence and independence, individualism and community, and homogeneity and heterogeneity. Provides key findings from Australian Leadership and Organizational Learning and Student Outcomes research project. Finds, for example, that transformational leadership…

Draws on a range of country contexts to shed light on the ways in which the practice of leadership is shaped by national aspirations. Examines whether there is a set of ideas, arrangements, and activities that appear to sustain new forms of leadership that support democracy, or whether democratic leadership of schools is a chimera. (Contains 29…

Proposes new lexicon of terms for positively and negatively effective follower types and roles in educational organizations. (Contains 64 references.) (PKP)

Argues that recent efforts by national accrediting agencies, especially the Educational Leadership Constituent Council, to upgrade preparation standards for administrators embodies the teleology of standardization whose principal objective is to remove the university and college as the primary site for the preparation of educational leaders--an…

Examines relationship and differences between accountability and the current quest for education standards. Argues that attempt to reduce complex questions of accountability to monitored compliance with unambiguous standards is conceptually misleading and pragmatically unproductive. Traces focus on leadership standards to Fredrick Taylor's…

Reviews a few trends characterizing the preparation of school leaders since the mid-20th century. Discusses three current challenges facing educational leaders and those who prepare them: evaluation of preparation programs, standards-based reforms, and recruitment/pipeline issues. Argues that school leaders need to be creative and proactive in…

Examines current national conversation on educational leadership preparation and practice and the implications of these conversations for educational leadership preparation; focuses specifically on the rhetoric and research concerning two major issues contributing to current leadership crises: the shortage of qualified administrators and…

Examines state superintendent licensing requirements and problems and issues related to university-based superintendent preparation programs. Discusses five major concerns that need to be addressed in superintendent preparation programs: synchronizing preparation with superintendents' career, reconnecting academic and professional preparation,…