The National Study of New Professionals in Student Affairs is a year-long study of the transition of 90 new professionals to their first full-time job in the field. Data collection for this qualitative study was conducted monthly through an online survey system. We report findings of the study that bear on graduate program curricula,…

This is the second "Profiles" report to examine nonprofit education management organizations (EMOs). This report is modeled after the 11 annual "Profiles" that cover for-profit EMOs. While the number of schools operated by for-profit EMOs grew rapidly in the 1990s and is now leveling off, the number of schools operated by nonprofit EMOs has been…

In Australia, mentoring has been incorporated into the induction process for principals, aspirant leaders and beginning teachers. However, internationally three significant impediments to mentoring success have been identified in the literature: insufficient time; mentors' lack of professional expertise; and personality mismatches. To address…

The purpose of this study was to examine principals' perceptions of parental involvement at various levels in terms of their role in facilitation and parent involvement in school processes. The principals in this study (n = 171) were receptive to their roles in facilitation, but not to parental involvement in school processes. Because there are…

To address some of the financial challenges facing low-income students, federal policymakers enacted a provision in the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) that makes financial literacy a required service of all TRIO programs (or, in the case of McNair, simply makes permissible). Effective August 2008, these programs started offering…

Almost nobody, it seems, disputes the importance of effective teachers--including teachers themselves. However, principals actually do none of the things they do when they value something as highly as most people say they value good teachers. By looking at scores on year-end standardized tests by teachers, principals think they have a pretty good…

This study reports on findings from a survey of Massachusetts' school principals that examined their perceptions of the nature and quality of certification programs. Results indicate that "when" participants were certified (pre or post NCLB) and "where" they were certified (public, private, alternative programs) has a…

Inverness Research is an independent national educational research group based in California. Its mission is to help projects assess the quality and efficacy of their efforts, and to help funders better understand the design of their initiatives and the value of their investments. Inverness Research has served by contract with CSTP (Center for…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of primary school teachers on principal cultural leadership behaviors, and examine the opinions of the participating teachers according to their various occupational characteristics. The study is descriptive in nature and evaluates the teachers' perceptions by using the Cultural…

Purposes: This study aimed to improve our understanding of the nature, causes and consequence of school leader efficacy, including indirect influences on student learning. We asked about district contributions to school leader efficacy, whether leader self- and collective efficacy responded to the same or different district conditions and the…

Although teacher learning and collaboration are repeatedly linked to school improvement, surprisingly little is known about the facet of collaboration involving the dissemination or sharing of teacher knowledge; that is, what teachers share, why and with whom they share it, or how and when they share what they have learned. This article describes…

This paper offers a survey developed as part of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy's Professional Development Study. Most of the questions in this survey were tested with 100 adult education and literacy teachers in the New England area; a few changes have been made to this version to correct poorly worded questions…

This paper examines three concepts relating to the role of heads of department (HoDs) in secondary schools: boundary management; the roles of subject leadership and departmental functioning as HoD activities; and the place of HoDs in evolving school hierarchies. To throw light on the last an empirical study is reported that explores hierarchies in…

The documents enclosed in this report provide a comprehensive and systematic review of the progress made in developing a network organization capable of supporting nanoscience education for the public on a national scale. There is a logic to the studies that were done and to the reports that are included in this notebook. The following are the…

The establishment of a parent-education program provides a way by which parents may get accurate information on the program and policies of the superintendent; it helps parents to improve their methods of guidance at home; and it shows them how, as a group and individually, they may cooperate successfully with school authorities in meeting school…