Scholars of education policy have consistently found that the capacity, beliefs, and values of local actors affect the relative success or failure of policy implementation. This article examines stakeholders' perceptions of education policy in South Carolina to consider the relationship between interpretations of education policy and…

Educational leadership practice is embedded and shaped in its own context. However, contemporary policy makers are keen to use research findings from multiple educational systems to produce overall, generic models of best leadership practice. Therefore, research needs to encompass analyses of the political, societal, cultural, and institutional…

The purpose of this article is to build a conceptual framework that informs current understanding of how professional learning communities (PLCs) function in conjunction with organizational learning. The combination of sociocultural learning theories and organizational learning theories presents a more complete picture of PLC processes that has…

Using logistic regression, this study sought to understand the relationship between district characteristics, district finances, levy characteristics, and campaign expenditures with new operating levy outcomes. We found that employee benefits as a percentage of the district's budget were negatively associated with levy outcomes, while salaries…

This study investigates the economic impact of a "turnaround" school on real property values in its surrounding community as related to the argument introduced by Tiebout in 1956 correlating local public goods, in this case school success, to housing-location decision making. Using single-family home sales found on the Multiple Listing System and…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between superintendent leadership and the operational processes of school improvement. School district superintendents (N = 226) from six southeastern states were surveyed concerning their leadership authenticity and school improvement practices. Descriptive statistics, analyzes of…

This article documents perceptions of superintendents and principals when working under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2004-06. It uses data collected through the Voices 3 Project to consider three factors associated with instructional leadership as applied under NCLB, defining the school's mission, managing the instructional program, and…

This article draws on goal-setting theory to investigate the goals set by experienced principals during their performance evaluations. While most goals were about teaching and learning, they tended to be vaguely expressed and only partially achieved. Five predictors (commitment, challenge, learning, effort, and support) explained a significant…

Performance-based compensation systems have been under discussion for years and are now a required component of any state plan for Race to the Top funds. This article describes a system of performance-based compensation that has been in place at a K-12 school for the past four years. The system was developed by a team of teachers, union members,…

This article examines how Southern Arizona principals conceptualize and enact successful leadership in border schools with shifting demographics and high percentages of colonized populations. Beyond global neoliberal and neoconservative pressures for accountability and standardized curricula, Arizona principals must also navigate immigration and…

This article presents the results of a statewide survey that examined the perceptions and needs of elementary school principals in North Carolina who have prekindergarten classrooms on their campus. The survey examined principals' knowledge about early childhood education and their attitudes towards prekindergarten. Results suggest that few…

Research suggests that school leaders play an important role in cultivating and developing collaborative data practices by teachers. Although diagnosis and intervention are critical facets of leaders' work to support collaborative data practice development, this work remains poorly understood. Missing from data-use literature is more explicit and…

The purpose of this study is to determine the validity of common assumptions about the rate at which school decline manifests. From a population of 981 elementary schools in the state of Virginia, the author uses three operational definitions of school decline to identify samples of declining schools: Absolute (n = 217), Relational (n = 510), and…

This study examined the perceptions of a cross section of new and experienced assistant principals regarding the realities of their jobs. Findings indicated that their challenges pertain to workload and task management, conflicts with adults and students, and curriculum and instruction issues. Novice and experienced assistant principals' responses…

Notable differences in leadership practices in charter and public schools have been documented, as have differences in teacher attributes between these schooling sectors. Given that teachers are not distributed to charter and public schools at random but rather select (and are selected by) these institutions, we ask: To what extent do differences…