Researchers randomly selected Pennsylvania public middle level schools to identify significant relationships between principals' instructional leadership behaviors and student achievement, with school socioeconomic status (SES) as a secondary variable of interest. For each participant school, four teachers and the principal were asked to complete…

The effect of block scheduling on high school student achievement in mathematics and reading was investigated in this study through the use of an ex post-facto, longitudinal research design. Specifically, student scores from 9th and 11th-grade standardized tests were matched and sorted by junior high and high school attended. Outcome measures…

What is known about recruiting and retaining teachers for hard-to-staff-schools runs counter to many of the assumptions undergirding the teacher quality provisions of No Child Left Behind. Evidence regarding incentives, recruitment pathways, new teacher induction programs, and alternative routes shed considerable light on what needs to be done to…

In recent years there has been a growing interest in support, guidance, and orientation programs--collectively known as induction--for beginning elementary and secondary teachers during the transition into their first teaching jobs. This study examines whether such supports have a positive effect on the retention of beginning teachers. The study…

This article features schools and school districts with successful induction programs, all easily replicable. Increasingly, research confirms that teacher and teaching quality are the most powerful predictors of student success. In short, principals ensure higher student achievement by assuring better teaching. To do this, effective…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is structured to encourage partnerships between K-12 schools and a wide variety of community tutoring and educational service organizations. Tutoring is a form of education with a long history and can be an important component in improving student achievement. There is a considerable body of literature on…

This article examines and compares teachers in a national sample of middle level schools to those in a selected group of highly successful middle level schools. The context within which they work, their preparation, their level of implementation of middle level best practices, and their involvement as teacher leaders are discussed. Results show…

How can administrators balance the demands placed on them as supervisors to enact both managerial and professional values? To answer that question, this article explores the ways in which practicing school administrators uphold both managerial and professional values in their roles as instructional supervisors. The experiences of the…

After 21 years of national standards and state mandates, assessing teaching by portfolio has reached a stage of wide adoption in preservice programs. However, the use of teacher portfolios to recruit, select, retain, and provide professional development seems less widespread. This pilot study shows how full implementation of teacher portfolios…

A voluntary peer-coaching program is described along with the accompanying cultural change that occurred at a suburban high school. Veteran teachers participating in this research reported that peer coaching gave them meaningful feedback, motivation to direct their learning, increased levels of trust and morale among themselves, and justification…

Supervision is supposed to improve classroom teaching by enhancing teacher thinking, rejection, and understanding of teaching. Evaluation systems are supposed to increase effective teaching behaviors and enhance teacher professionalism. Through the lens of symbolic interaction, we learn that "supposed to" does not matter. In a context of increased…

Research literature highlights the principal as central to teacher evaluation. However, principal reports do not provide adequate information to document teacher quality. Good teacher evaluation adds multiple data sources such as client surveys, peer reviews of materials, and pupil achievement data, which vary by teacher and setting. Principals…

In the standards-based education reforms of today, an important question is how much it will cost for all--or almost all--students to reach state-determined proficiency levels? School finance adequacy seeks to determine that cost. Four models have been developed to estimate the costs of adequacy. Two of them--the professional judgment and the…

Education improves an individual's and a community's standard of living. In a time when education funding is insufficient for schools to meet high quality standards, principals are in a unique position to influence their community to fully support state and local school budgets. By using data to show education's positive influence on human capital…

Traditionally, local school districts have shouldered the burden of funding school infrastructure in the name of local control, relying upon local property tax revenues and the willingness of local voters to approve bond issues. Given vast disparities in school districts' property wealth, gross inequities in school facilities will remain without…