Background: Servant leadership is a leadership approach based on universal values and involves an ethical, practical, and meaningful way to live and lead. Servant leadership has been adopted around the world as a follower-centered transformational leadership paradigm focusing on identifying and meeting the needs of others. Purpose: The purpose of…

The Every Child Succeeds Act of 2015 signaled a shift toward the recognition of the importance of school leadership, reflecting a growing body of literature that demonstrates principals are second only to classroom instruction in supporting student success. This influence is the greatest when principals focus on teaching and learning, or…

Research suggests effective professional learning communities (PLCs) enhance teacher collaboration and student achievement. Within-school variation in PLC processes, however, is underexplored. This study highlights differences in teacher behavior and teams' perceptions of principal leadership in well-functioning teams versus less well-functioning…

This study investigates whether and how principals implementing Instructional Leadership Teams (ILTs) were able to share decision-making authority with team members and how team members perceived this authority. Having interviewed and observed ILT members in four, in-district charter schools in a large northeastern city I find that principals had…

The purpose of this study was to determine what stressors face practicing school principals, with an interest in determining whether they perceived that teacher leaders could relieve some of their stress. This descriptive study used quantitative and qualitative measures that revealed differences in the stressors identified by principals.…

The purpose of this article is to describe lessons learned from studying the leadership in eight award-winning secondary schools and districts that were recognized for successfully leveraging technology as part of their efforts for school improvement. Data were collected through observations, interviews, and document analysis in schools and…

This article examines teacher leader role development and definition by looking at one emergent model of distributed leadership: the hybrid teacher leader (HTL). HTLs are teachers whose official schedule includes both teaching K-12 students and leading teachers in some capacity. Participants included six HTLs across four school districts over 2…

Examines differences and similarities in role conception between principals participating in a state-sponsored restructuring program (the Centennial School Program) and nonparticipating principals. Findings from a statewide survey of administrators show that CSP principals generally report practices and attitudes congruent with program elements.…

Explores the assumption that teachers want to participate in schoolwide decision making by constructing a typology of teachers. Characterizes four types of teachers: empowered, disenfranchised, involved (those that do not want to participate, but do), and disengaged. Analysis of teachers' differences and similarities on demographic and attitudinal…

Democratic schooling extends beyond governance structures into all areas of educational practice. What are appropriate practices for democratic schools? This question was addressed by a qualitative study of principals in schools striving to become more democratic. These principals expanded decision-making involvement and discourse, stressed…

The growing importance of shared decision making and decentralization is causing a reevaluation of skills required for the principalship. This study examined teacher and principal perceptions of skills required for principal effectiveness, using Katz's widely used taxonomy that classifies managerial skills as technical, human, and conceptual. Both…

True faculty empowerment involves decision participation, authority over issues concerning professional life, and opportunities to acquire knowledge necessary to warrant such activity. This paper describes selected experiences of four schools implementing a shared governance model, identifying factors facilitating meaningful involvement and…

Using telephone survey data from National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers representatives and information from official union publications and research reports, this article summarizes AFT and NEA perspectives on shared governance and administrator education programs in light of school restructuring efforts. The central…

Provides a sequentially integrated approach to educational policy development. By incorporating analyses of educational decision-making basics, accepted site-based management practices, sound educational research, assessment of policy values, and a disciplined decision-making process, campus management teams can provide the effective, proactive…

Examines the principal's role in school restructuring using essential school precepts. Based on qualitative data from a 2.5-year longitudinal study, results indicate that principals must assume a more inclusive, prominent role in restructuring efforts. The Coalition of Essential Schools' metaphor "student as worker, teacher as coach"…