In 2004, The U.S. Department of Education stated, "Great schools have great leaders" (p.1). Research supported their declaration as our nation actively pursued educational reform. School systems across the country searched for good school principals to lead, believing they were the "cornerstones of good schools" (DiPaola &…

Educational leaders have faced the challenges of trying to align schoolwide reforms priorities with accountability demands under the No Child Left Behind law. This article examines the barriers that complicate meaningful alignment among federal, state and local levels. This article also offers the following recommendations: Schools and districts…

Policies adopted by legislators impact the future of public and higher education. Unfortunately, educators and legislators are often in disagreement about what constitutes best practices. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of issues and challenges associated with governmental mandates and suggest an action agenda for educators…

In this article we reviewed the available literature concerning teacher turnover. The seriousness of this issue was addressed as cause for concern is clearly present. Issues we examined in this conceptual analysis were the federal government's role in public education, the No Child Left Behind Act, teacher turnover, teacher retention, teacher…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is the federal government's most recent effort to influence curriculum in America's classrooms. Its requirements for high-stakes testing and Adequate Yearly Progress have put pressure on teachers and administrators to improve student achievement. Principals whose administrative training was grounded in a…

Because of the No Child Left Behind school reform policies, public schools are gravely scrutinized. This analysis focuses on how to redesign the urban classroom in order to impact student achievement with the intent of being an impetus for better overall school performance ratings. All public school leaders are expected to adhere to the same…

Given the overt political nature of this topic, an additional theoretical postulate, the Triadic Theory of Power was also presented as another framework to conceptualize the external and internal forces which shape the formation of contemporary education policy. Predicated upon the scholarship of Nobel laureate James Q. Wilson, Andrew McFarland…

Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, underperforming schools have had to adopt research-based models for school reform, without a practical understanding of what that means. This article brings more clarity for educational leaders as they come to decide on how to fit a reform model to their school-specific contexts.

Since the implementation of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2002, the impact upon America's schools has been signicant in many areas. In a positive sense, NCLB has caused schools and school districts to examine the performance and academic achievement of subgroups, often for the first time. This examination has certainly highlighted…