This article presents findings from a 2-year qualitative study that examined teacher and administrator involvement with implementation of school reform initiatives in a public secondary school. Findings suggest that implementation had both positive and negative consequences. Although reforms advanced the school's ongoing discussion about…

Recent research on "Brown v. Board of Education" has emphasized continuing disparities in the education of White and African American students. This research has used the failure of desegregation to account for persisting gaps in White and Black school funding, teacher qualifications, and student achievement. But the current focus on the…

Building principals are confronted with a host of challenges, particularly when serving children who live outside of the stereotypical mainstream. This article, drawn from a larger ethnographic study, examines the leadership behavior of one building principal who was the administrator for a program serving deaf and nondeaf children. Although…

Schools today are increasingly market driven, and public schools are competing for students with numerous other educational options. Homeschool education continues to grow rapidly as one such option. Minnesota, considered a leader in school choice, has experienced rapid growth in the incidence of home-educated children. Such growth raises…

This study of school climate underscores the importance of the quality of interpersonal relationships in a school to student achievement. This study improves on previous studies in three ways: First, it makes use of a parsimonious school climate framework that is easier to interpret than previous measures; second, it replaces a subscale that…

Despite the importance of job satisfaction, little research exists about this factor as it relates to teachers working in a school reform environment. This study addressed teacher characteristics, job dimensions, and work-related psychological states that predict public school teacher job satisfaction in a school reform state. Teachers (N = 578)…

In this study, we used survey research methods to examine (1) factors that motivated educators in the state of Iowa who held administrative licensure (125 females, 164 males) to actively pursue secondary principalship positions and (2) aspects that dissuaded them from applying. Respondents rated 10 factors that potentially motivated them to pursue…

This article explores a reciprocal relationship between leadership capacity and collective efficacy in a pre-K-8 school in the Southern United States that continually advances as a professional learning community. Survey data from this mixed methodology study showed significant positive correlations among subgroup scales measuring leadership…

Challenges confronting schools worldwide are greater than ever, and, likewise, many teachers possess capabilities, talents, and formal credentials more sophisticated than ever. However, the responsibility and authority accorded to teachers have not grown significantly, nor has the image of teaching as a profession advanced significantly. The…

This article offers information about a district's school improvement efforts to reculture as a professional learning community, which we believe exemplifies the school and district levels of Fullan's (2004b, 2005) tri-level model. We use Fullan's eight elements of sustainability to organize the data gathered in interviews with school and district…

This article reports key findings from a 2-1/2-year mixed methodological study of professional learning communities, the first of its kind in England. In particular, the concept of effectiveness is explored as it relates to professional learning communities. We describe three ways in which effectiveness can be construed, arguing that any…

This is a mystery story. It is about a district that apparently did the right things but seemed not to get commensurate results across all classrooms and schools. In this article, we look closely at the details and discover an important lesson about districtwide reform. The district is York Region District School Board, which is a large…

In the current accountability environment, many school districts have mandated test preparation courses, canned programs, and otherwise limited teacher risk-taking in all but very high-performing schools. This article further suggests that extant literature on risk-taking as part of educational change is no longer sufficient for understanding…

Research addressing attraction and selection of employees within the public school setting seems to indicate that the higher a school's student achievement the more likely a potential job candidate is to assess a position at that school favorably. However, the validity of this finding has failed to be assessed with "real teachers" accepting actual…

Current recommendations for achieving high-quality professional development for teachers include the creation of a professional learning community. Key to the success of this approach, however, is the role of the peer mentor or coach. This study examined the experiences and perceptions of 31 professional development coaches in order to highlight…