In 1997, the Illinois legislature passed House Bill 542 (Public Act 90-548) which changed teacher tenure requirements to a four-year, multi-tiered system that called for the accumulation of professional development credit for all teachers. The primary purpose of this study was to examine district responses to the 1997 legislation. To what degree,…

The purpose of this study was to assess a statewide cadre of public school principals in terms of their attraction to the job of district superintendent. Two assumptions underlying the investigation were that (1) participant self-reported capability to become a superintendent impacts participant attraction to the job, and (2) participant…

Schools employ educational technology to comply with pressures for greater accountability and efficiency in conducting operations. Specifically, schools use "management information systems" designed to automate data collection of student attendance, grades, test scores, and so on. These management information systems (MIS) employed widespread use…

The perceived problem of low mathematics achievement is a concern to education leaders at all levels of PK-16 education. Results from various research raise concerns about mathematics learning of U.S. middle school students. Education leaders search for interventions to address issues related to improving mathematics achievement. This article…

The literature on educational marketing to date has been concerned with the ways by which schools market and promote themselves in the community, their strategies to maintain and enhance their image, and the factors affecting parents and children and the processes they undergo when choosing their junior high and high school. Yet, there remains a…

Concern about teacher shortages has been widespread in the last decade. Numerous reports have focused attention on the issue in the United States where the shortage is particularly acute in specific teaching specialties and in urban and rural schools. Attempts to alleviate the shortage have taken place at multiple levels. School districts with…

Over the past few years, as part of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) reform on the one hand, and the increased demands for school accountability on the other, more and more schools have launched a school website aimed at enhancing educational activities, supporting student-teacher communication, contributing to school marketing…

If leadership education programs are improving, then why do some American graduates fail in leading schools and districts even as others succeed? As one way to answer this question, this study explores the preparation, careers, and success or failure of two superintendents prepared in top tier university leadership preparation doctoral programs.…

The increasing use of school advisory councils for budgetary decision making is an obvious trend in new patterns of school governance. As decision makers, council members are lobbied by groups and individuals desiring funding for their particular interests. Problems that need attention are judiciously considered as competing interests vie for…

Across the United States the state education agency (SEA) is a "sleeping giant" with untapped potential to build instructional capacity in the nation's 110,000 public schools. The SEA is positioned to build the system-wide synergy requisite to achieve the unprecedented school-level student outcomes mandated by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.…

Using data collected in a research study initiated in fall of 2004, this article discusses how mid-level academic leaders are identified in land grant universities, what position they held when they were identified, whether they were internal or external candidates for their position, and how they were selected as potential leaders. As a largely…

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of Ramp Up to Advanced Literacy, an unbundled Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) model, on the reading achievement of ninth grade students in a large urban school district in Kentucky. Using a pre- and posttest impact evaluation design, data from participating and non-participating…

This article presents a case study of successful curricular and instructional innovation in Thailand. The innovation involved a curricular program, Integrated Pest Management (IPM). This student-centered curriculum models many of the features highlighted in Thailand's educational reform such as the student-centered learning approach, curriculum…

A major trend in current pedagogic thinking and in its corresponding implementing practices is based on the fundamental concepts of "integration" and "competence." This evolution is the logical outcome of several pedagogic trends that have influenced the teaching practices of the twentieth century. In this article, the authors present a case study…

Whenever scholars write about reforms in curriculum or teaching they often shine the spotlight on schools and schoolteachers. Education in formal settings is an important vehicle for responding to globalization, but educational reform in China has more to do with learning-out-of-school than listening to (often tyrannical and didactic)…