School districts across America have responded to the accountability movement by increasing professional development activities, including the utilization of onsite coaching strategies for educators. But who is mentoring the mentors? This descriptive study in one Western state found that 56% of instructional coaches reported they did not have a…

Renovation and construction of Texas public schools is occurring at a rapid pace and at high prices. Business continues to blossom in the area of school construction. Several factors influence the need to renovate or construct schools, but the impact curriculum mandates have on school construction is seldom explored. This study investigated the…

Evolving purposes for the United States educational system have driven legislative policy over the past 40 years, beginning with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, reauthorized as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act in 2002. However, researchers have demonstrated US policy intents are often unrealized in educational practice,…

This study outlines the perceptions of school leaders regarding the New Senior Secondary Curriculum in Hong Kong. It illustrates the diversity of perceptions and responses of school leaders in terms of the purposes of the reforms, challenges to be faced, and strategies for implementing the reform. The findings suggest that school leaders'…

This article draws contrasts between useful, research-based recommendations for the further development and assessment of teacher- and leader-preparation programs and those studies aiming at total "reform" that are frequently distinguished by their questionable methods, faulty assumptions, and complete disregard for the established research in…

Empirical research on the use of 360-degree feedback in elementary and secondary educational settings is quite limited. This study sought to understand teachers' perceptions of the quality of feedback they received from the traditional administrative evaluative feedback to feedback they received from a multi-source feedback process. Results from…

"Central High School," a rural school composed largely of students of color from low income homes, experienced a quick, remarkable turnaround of student academic success, measured by State and Federal accountability standards. This turnaround began with an external restructuring grant initiative that required a state-approved external consultant.…

In the fifty years since Congress assumed the provision of financial assistance to schools in which students had "federal connection," such as American Indian students living on reservations or in public housing, this federal assistance came to be regarded as a replacement for state funding, not as supplemental funding. This study contends that…

Federal court cases are examined in an effort to view recent First Amendment rights infringements which have occurred in Mississippi. Case law reinforces students' rights to wear same-sex outfits to school functions as well as to bring same-sex dates. Connection to a recent civil rights investigation by the NAACP into a north Mississippi middle…

School principals sift through a milieu of data, perceptions, and circumstances to determine which teachers are worthy of contract renewal. This paper provides a review of the research on the role that teacher dispositions play in principals' decision-making regarding contract renewals, as well as a theoretical perspective on the implications for…

The purpose of this qualitative, narrative study was to investigate the role of the superintendent in leading the district to be more culturally proficient, resulting in the narrowing of the achievement gap in culturally diverse small districts. Eight superintendents of small school districts were purposefully selected based on their district size…

This article looks at various forms school improvement can take, e.g., single-loop, double-loop, and deutero learning, and posits that mechanistic views of, and approaches to, school improvement are not likely to produce optimal results. It then explores the potential benefits of more organic views and approaches, focusing on the development of…

This study proposes participatory action research as a signature pedagogy for principal preparation programs. Signature pedagogies bring professional knowledge and core values together in distinctive teaching and learning arrangements. A rationale and learning results are presented that describe key components of action research intended to help…

The issue of school leadership instability and how it affects schools and student achievement has been studied. The question of how to predict turnover of the principal remains an unknown. The purpose of this research was to search for possible relationships between certain contextual variables and principal turnover and to test the independent…

This article explores the full-time clinical faculty position in selected educational leadership programs. Due to a gap in the literature, the need exists to engage in research studies to gain a greater understanding of this position. Questions guiding this study included: What is the experiential background of individuals who assume full-time…