In this qualitative study we sought to understand the experiences of K-12 school personnel serving on Comprehensive, Integrated, Three-Tiered (Ci3T) leadership teams. We conducted 22 semi-structured interviews and five focus groups across three states and five school districts to determine team members' perceptions regarding facilitators and…

The purpose of this article is to examine the leadership beliefs and practices of three school leaders in a large urban school district in the Rocky Mountain West to determine whether any are consistent with transformative leadership. We sought to (a) describe the challenges faced by these school leaders in addressing the needs of changing…

In this article, we report findings from two cases of rural, high-needs elementary schools in the Southeastern United States that successfully improved learning outcomes for their students. As illustrated by our findings, a combination of effective teacher professional development, focused student learning initiatives, and enhanced community and…

This mixed-method multiple case study investigated nine elementary schools. Six "odds-beating schools," which serve relatively high numbers of economically disadvantaged children, achieved higher than predicted performance on state assessments when compared with three typically performing schools. The overarching research question…

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…

Social network analysis (SNA), a methodological approach that enables the mathematical examination of interprofessional relationships, can be an important tool for understanding and leveraging the social relationships that support and restrain instructional innovation and the quality and pace of school reform initiatives. In this article, we…

Much of the earlier research on women in leadership has told the stories of White women. Since there are very low numbers of superintendents of color both male and female nationwide, there have been very few stories reported of women leaders of color (Brunner & Grogan, 2007). This article describes the leadership issues involved when one Black…

The Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education is a 360-degree assessment of the effectiveness of principals' learning-centered leadership behaviors. In this report, we present results from a differential item functioning (DIF) study of the assessment. Using data from a national field trial, we searched for evidence of DIF on school level,…

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…

This study explores the process one school district employed in its search for, and selection of, a new superintendent. The research design is a single site case study using qualitative methods. Data collection techniques include observation in the form of "shadowing" a search consultant, document analysis, and open-ended interviews of…

According to recent data, the pool of principal candidates is shrinking. How is the role perceived and what can school districts do to make it more attractive in recruiting and retaining highly qualified administrators? This open-ended, qualitative study sought to uncover the underlying reasons leadership-skilled women teachers choose to remain in…