Quality education is of major public and private interest and, understandably, considerable effort is paid to the quality of schools and improvement of the level of education in society. Many governments recognize the limitations of centralized policy in motivating school improvement and turn to 'network governance' to coordinate school systems.…

Principals play key roles in creating the conditions in which teachers can teach effectively and students can learn. Principals are increasingly being held accountable both for teacher quality and for student learning and development so that young people can become 'successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed…

In 1975, the fourth Annual Conference of the British Educational Administration Society (BEAS, now BELMAS) had as its theme "Autonomy and Accountability in Educational Administration". In their concluding comments, the editors of the published Proceedings wrote: "Our concern has been with accountability and autonomy, not as…

The conceptual categories that underlie the business analysis of intellectual capital are relevant to providing an explanation of school performance. By gathering data on student learning, this research provides empirical evidence for the use of school results as an accurate indicator of the effectiveness of the management of public education.…

This article adopts "irony" as a frame for understanding some of the consequences of the reform movement in the UK. A distinction is drawn between the ironies that are endemic in all organizations and rooted in ambiguities and dilemmas, and the ironies that specifically flow from the disjunction between central policies and the…

Managing chronic excuse-making behaviors of faculty can be difficult and challenging for college administrators. In this article, Schlenker's responsibility triangle is applied in the higher education forum to better understand the underpinnings of responsibility and accountability in faculty jobs. Using this framework, attention is given to…

Evaluating schools has become a contentious issue in many countries. There seems to be a broad and growing consensus that some form of evaluation can on the one hand play a significant role in school improvement efforts, and on the other is also required to provide a reasonable level of public accountability appropriate in democratic societies.…

This overview of some aspects of the environment shaping the direction and nature of research in educational leadership in Australia, the USA and the UK commences by outlining a number of broad societal pressures, moves to the more specific international and national governmental reviews of educational research and some responses to these reviews,…

When co-principalships were initiated in Aotearoa/New Zealand during the 1990s, they encountered a range of issues around this country's new public management requirements for market, managerial and split governance/management accountabilities. This article draws on a case study of one initiative to discuss how elements of these requirements were…