Youth leadership life skills are the "development of life skills necessary to perform leadership functions in real life" (Miller, 1976, p.2). A model developed by Kapostasy indicates life skills should be taught through FFA [formerly Future Farmers of America] (Staller, 2001). Thus, it is important to evaluate youth leadership life…

In this application brief I share a case study assignment I used in my "Leadership in Complex Organizations" classes to promote creativity in problem solving. I sorted Ph.D. students into two teams and trained them to use creative writing techniques to "encode" theory into their own cases. A sense of competition emerged. Later,…

The demographic profile of the United States has been rapidly changing; by 2020, minority students will constitute the majority of the public school student population nationwide. This makes cultural competence a necessity for today's school leaders. Educational leadership preparation programs are responsible for preparing culturally competent…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) obligates school districts to identify students with disabilities and provide them with a free and appropriate public education (FAPE), which includes specially designed instruction. Identification, FAPE, least restrictive environment (LRE), and various other issues under the IDEA sometimes…

This qualitative study attempts to document outcomes of two statewide agricultural and rural leadership programs by determining the affects of the program on participants after they graduate. The study explored three levels of outcomes: individual, organizational and community using the EvaluLEAD framework developed by Grove, Kibel and Haas…