This article addresses issues of educational leadership in postcolonial and post-conflict environments. The focus relates to large-scale testing protocols, diversity in schools, asset-based community development, and communications technology. The article highlights the importance of context to the tenets of social justice, equitable human…

During the last several decades, educational reform in Sweden has been at once contentious, fast paced, and uneven as control of Parliament and educational policy shifted between left- and right-wing political factions. These political power shifts within Parliament created tension between national and local municipal governments and provoked…

Denmark has entered global competition by expanding collaboration with European countries, which is profoundly impacting the public sector and school governance. Relations between the state and institutions are transforming from traditional democratic, public-sector models of governance into new forms characterized as corporate and market-driven…

This issue of "Leadership and Policy in Schools" outlines research into successful principal leadership from the perspective of four countries--New Zealand, Israel, Cyprus, and the USA (San Antonio). The research followed the methods and protocols established by the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP), which was…

Elements of directed autonomy were visible in public education long before the concept had been defined in the scholarly literature on organizational management. Most notably, states established common curricula and adequacy standards and then held local school boards accountable for compliance. Civic engagement, a liberty-based process through…

For many years, the responsibility of educating Latino students has been delegated to Latino educators, bilingual teachers, or bilingual directors. Educators have not acknowledged it as a responsibility of each adult hired by the public school system. Although bilingual education has grown into an incredible educational movement, the same…

This article considers change over education's history as being a series of successive waves from when education was delivered locally to individuals to the present when we "think globally and act locally." It argues that to achieve universal student success we need to have another wave of both thinking and acting locally and globally. This shift…

The current policy context established by "No Child Left Behind (NCLB)" calls for schools and teachers to develop and execute plans of action they believe will effectively address achievement gaps. This article uses conceptual and research literature to explore the construct of teachers' collective sense of efficacy and its potential influence on…

Effective school leadership is key to students' academic success. But the development of effective school leadership has been seriously hampered by the lack of technically sound tools to assess and monitor leaders' performance. This article presents the research base and conceptual framework for a leadership assessment instrument under…

This paper uses Nunavut's compulsory schooling policy as a case study to discuss the role that cultural difference plays in policy development and implementation. The central argument of the paper is that the implementation and sustainability of the compulsory schooling policy would be fraught with enormous problems, given its colonialist,…

Educational reform initiated by policymakers to improve public schools often fails to achieve desired results for diverse reasons. This article describes how Kentucky aligned externally mandated school reform with internally determined school renewal through implementation of its Standards and Indicators for School Improvement. Results of biennial…

In this article, the authors make a case for greater attention by researchers to the process of school decline. This article opens with a discussion of the challenges involved in studying school decline. Challenge number one turns out to be pretty basic--gaining agreement on what is meant by the term "school decline." Other challenges include…

This article sketches out a framework for inclusive leadership. As one of the constellation of approaches to leadership and social justice, inclusive leadership is concerned first and foremost with inclusion, both in its processes and the ends for which it strives. It provides another lens to help those concerned with social justice recognize…

Over the last quarter century, the American high school, like the larger educational industry in which it is embedded, has been subjected to a good deal of critical analysis. Using a longer lens provided by historical research on the development and growth of the American high school as well as an especially robust theory of organizational change…

This article provides perspectives about influences on the principalship following a state's 1998 adoption--without modification--of the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium "Standards for School Leaders". Using literature about reconceptualizing school leadership as the framework, the paper summarizes changes in state-regulated…