Although school based discourses often frame immigrant students as in need of intervention, leaders can challenge this exclusionary logic, encouraging educators to help students develop linguistic and academic skills while affirming students' rich transnational experiences. This article provides ethnographic images from schools that are…

This analysis explores the essential criteria necessary to define standards-based grading (SBG) and to judge its effectiveness. Findings reveal that although many schools today are initiating SBG reforms, there's little consensus on what "standards-based grading" actually means. As a result, SBG implementation is widely inconsistent due…

It is of great importance to maximize access to general education for all students with disabilities. This article focuses on how leaders create inclusive schools for all students--inclusive school reform. Inclusive school reform can result in all students with disabilities being placed into general education settings (including students with…

Developing ePortfolios as part of preservice coursework and student teaching has become part of many teacher education programs nationwide. This article explores how developing an integrative knowledge ePortfolio (IKE, Peet et al., 2011) as part of one preservice teacher's education and during her early years in the classroom supported the role of…

Following the collapse of the USSR in 1989, educators in socialist countries such as Latvia not only had to establish democratic governance structures, they also faced huge uncertainty as they turned toward a postmodern Europe. Faculties of education and public schools were expected to relearn to reteach. They had to decentralize leadership,…

Around the world there are many schools where native speakers of other languages study English as a foreign language (EFL). In this article, I introduce a school-based reflective management model (SBRM) for such EFL schools. The model centers on creating a learning community where all changes involve reflective learning and growth for students,…

Unlike other professions, such as medicine and law, newly qualified teachers (NQTs) are required to assume full professional responsibilities from the 1st day they enter a classroom. A lack of support for beginning teachers has been linked with widespread attrition from the profession in the United Kingdom and the United States. This article…

Teachers and administrators in school systems across the United States and Canada have been inundated during the last several decades with silver bullets and quick fixes in an effort to improve education. The reforms have had limited success and little long-term effect on schools and school systems. This article proposes that organizational…

During the last 4 decades, numerous reform efforts have been proposed to improve schools. Two reforms, decentralization and teacher collaboration, seemed to coalesce by the 1990s to pave the way toward a new understanding of leading and learning in schools. In retrospect, the decentralization movement and the literature on teacher collaboration…

This article focuses on a school leader's professional awareness in promoting students' intercultural competence. The context is how societal challenges and changes--in this case the rapid increase in immigration to Iceland--provide opportunities for school development. Icelandic principals and teachers, like those in many other countries, face…

This article presents advice for teachers about using sociocognitive conflicts to promote academic learning. In doing so, the conditions under which sociocognitive conflicts are constructive or disruptive are examined and the relevant research is reviewed on social development, cooperative learning, and social influence. Two types of conflict…

Classroom management presents a serious challenge in most schools, but especially in schools on a Navajo Reservation that have been traditionally academically low-performing schools. There appears to be a mismatch between the attitudes, skills, and behaviors Navajo children bring with them to school and the expectations schools have for their…