Providing an in-depth look at the processes, pitfalls, and successes that can emerge from major education reform efforts at the state level, this volume covers the full policy change cycle in the development and transformation of the Illinois principal preparation program. Offering perspectives from the major stakeholder groups involved in…

Accounting for a quarter of a school's impact on student achievement, principals are the leverage point for education reform and the primary drivers of school improvement. School leaders have a greater influence on all students than teachers, and are the best long-term investment in effective teaching at scale. The current system of principal…

The growing prominence of value-added models for measuring teacher effectiveness has prompted a recent surge in policies that consider students' classroom performance part of a teacher's evaluation. Yet, in light of the criticism and limitations of the current models, whether and how evaluation systems will adapt over time is unclear. This paper…

U.S. school districts have taken widely varied approaches to reopening public schools for the 2020-2021 school year. The divergence stems from the highly localized approach to both schooling and addressing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and differences in COVID-19 transmission rates among communities. To develop a national…

"Changing Schools" places educational and social aims at the centre of a discussion of educational change. It draws on 14 case studies to explore school change which is oriented towards social justice and democracy. In an age of global mobility, economic polarization and unprecedented environmental and cultural challenges, the education…

Different groups have different ideas about how schools should be restructured. Although decision-making and control are increasingly shared with other groups, the principal remains most accountable. Innovative leadership styles, such as the inhouse critic and the master generalist, address issues of curriculum totality, function, and goals.…

Discusses several factors (aside from state immunity statutes) reducing the threat of education malpractice suits in recent years, including improved community attitudes and involvement in schools, more facilitative leadership roles for principals, increased importance of staff development, and expanded options for students through new…

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VPISU) offered in Richmond (Virginia) a cooperative graduate program to prepare inservice administrators to act as change agents in Richmond-area schools. This paper considers the program's purposes, development, implementation, and future. Section I reviews the program's development, discussing…

In examining the dynamics of change processes in high schools, this study makes initial interpretations about school officials who serve as change facilitators. The researchers found that a trend exists for the source of change to come from outside the high school. Principals, assistant principals, and department heads as well as central office…

This paper describes three paradigmatic "change facilitator styles": initiator, manager, and responder. These styles were identified through observations of principals' school improvement practices and the effects that those practices had on implementation at the classroom level. Initiators have clear, decisive long-range policies and…

This handbook is the result of more than 2 years' deliberations by The Commission on the Restructuring of the American High School. The Commission emerged from a partnership of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The report focuses on revitalizing education…

This monograph offers leadership approaches for school principals. Discussion applies the business leadership theory of Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus to the role of the principal. Each of the booklet's three parts concludes with discussion questions. Part 1, "Visions and Values for the Provident Principal," demonstrates the importance of…

In the face of fiscal crisis, today's education reform measures must be both cost-efficient and classroom effective. Experience shows that successful measures incorporate lessons gained from the growth years of the 1970's. New teaching practices, for example, can be transferred from site to site; schools can use to their advantage past efforts of…