The emergence of a number 2 post (chief academic officer) focused on instructional leadership brings a new dynamic to the central office-particularly those headed by nontraditional superintendents. Used in universities, the CAO title lends cache. Women can get stuck in CAO positions; a few districts are eliminating them. (MLH)

Summarizes a study probing the relationship among leadership, effective planning, and resource management in four British secondary schools, highlighting environmental and school culture influences. Headteachers work along a continuum balanced between systems organization and an integrative culture. Schools with rational planning approaches are…

Describes the authors' experience co-chairing a writing department. Identifies seven key areas where the sharing of writing program administrator duties has resulted in personal, departmental, or institutional benefits. Discusses workload and professional identity, the politics of writing programs, co-directing as post-bureaucratic practice, and…

Examines the role spirituality plays in the leadership of Catholic education administrators. Asserts that the first great service of administrators is to lead, and that the second is the direction of that leadership toward mission. Leadership thus requires a particular spirituality: a reflective way to guide decisions and to evaluate their…

Compared 124 California principals' perceptions with 99 superintendents' perceptions on 22 reasons for principal terminations and on 9 organizational outcomes related to ineffective leadership. Superintendents attribute principals' failure to internal personal insufficiencies; principals most often named external factors--political interference…

In view of the increasingly global nature of the societies in which we live, it is important that we understand the ways in which national culture can impact the role of educational leaders. The exploratory study reported in this article was designed to contribute to our understanding of the relationship between culture and leadership behavior by…

After all of the theories, strategies, discussions, and classes are completed, new principals often still feel isolated and think they have to reinvent the wheel to learn the basic lessons of leadership--how to improve school climate, how to provide leadership for change, how to communicate effectively, and how to manage time. However, they do not…

In the interview process, every aspiring principal naively speaks of assuming the role of instructional leader. The candidate has read the right books, taken the right courses, and attended every possible workshop to prepare for the day when he or she would become captain of his or her own ship. However, it does not take long for principals to…

Although many factors combine to make a successful school, most people agree that quality teachers and school principals are among the most important requirements for success, especially when success is defined by the ability of the school to raise the achievement of its students. The central question for this study is how the quality of the…

The chapter examines the characteristics of effective academic administrators and the pathways to and from an academic administrative position from the faculty member's perspective.

This book is designed to help administrators broaden their skills to create new and exciting learning organizations. Chapter 1 describes six visionary leaders who shared three attributes--the ability to communicate clearly, the capacity of caring for others, and a commitment to persistence. Chapter 2 presents an overview of futurism as a field of…

Schools are professional work groups requiring the application of professional knowledge to constantly shifting educational challenges as adults work to help students learn. This paper describes a theory of professional visualization through which principals can make their professional practice consistent with their knowledge, values, and…

This paper presents findings of a case-study analysis of the first year of a superintendent, with a focus on the relationship between school-district context and individual characteristics. The case study was conducted as part of a larger, national study comprised of 13 case studies of the superintendency across the United States. The case study…

Six northeastern states and The Regional Laboratory for Educational Improvement of the Northeast and Islands convened 42 exemplary principals, superintendents, educational administration faculty, representatives from business and industry, and legislators to discuss the professional development of school- and district-level administrators within…

The community college professoriate is characterized by a large reliance on part-time faculty, faculty unionization, a drive for educational technology, and the tendency to become part of a practitioner's culture and undervalue intellectual exchange. College administrators and governing boards, for their part, may see themselves as making…