This qualitative case study reports and interprets school principals' perceptions of their role in implementing and sustaining Second Step, a social skills development programme. The study compares schools that implemented the programme as a formalised strategy for all teachers and those that did not. The results suggest that the key features of…

Structured interviews with 20 speech language pathologists indicated that their views of administrative support and nonsupport covered many dimensions, including working conditions/resources, advocacy, staff development, and program assistance. (Author/DB)

Is it possible for principals/heads to be effective educational leaders? In this study, we compared the work of principals/heads in two policy contexts. In Policy Context 1, standards for student performance were common and well-established, and authority was devolved to the school level for reshaping the school to meet those standards. In…

This report assesses the relationship between teacher expectations and the achievement of black intermediate school students attending school in Fairfax County, Virginia, a relatively affluent part of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan Area. Information was culled from interviews with and observation of 46 black students, their peers, teachers,…

Guided by interpretive ethnographic methods and by instructional leadership concepts, this comparative study of secondary principals in Japan and America discovers characteristics of excellent principals and examines their values in relation to dominant cultural themes. The investigation applies anthropologist Clifford Goertz's assumptions (1973,…

This study of the school board agenda-setting role among 30 Minnesota superintendents interprets their perceptions in relation to environmental contexts, group demands, issues control, and district enrollment size. A microperspective of David Easton's political systems model provided the guiding conceptual framework. Respondents were interviewed…