Self-efficacy significantly influences the success of school leaders in managing the school environment, offering instructional programs, and working morally with the community. In this study, I addressed the following questions: What are school leaders' self-efficacy and its various components of management, instructional, and moral leadership?…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify the characteristics and experiences of elementary assistant principals that contributed to their perceptions of readiness to serve as instructional leaders. Data were collected from survey responses of 118 elementary assistant principals across the state of Alabama. Six key findings were: (1)…

Principals are increasingly held accountable for school achievement. This paper reports the results of a mixed methods sequential Quan --> Qual research study to explore how middle school principals created a culture of academic optimism (AO) that promoted high student achievement (SA). Based on the analysis of AO scores from 26 schools, mostly…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 increased the importance of having principals who are not only effective leaders of general education programs but knowledgeable and skilled in special education and able to effectively lead special education programs. The researcher examined four principals of elementary schools (i.e., kindergarten through…

This report describes how five states -- Alabama, Kentucky, Maryland, Tennessee and Texas -- made exceptional progress in student achievement during the first decade of the 21st century. State leaders in these states all realized early in the decade that they had a problem they wanted to address. They established a "plan" at the state…

To stem the tide of students dropping out, many schools and districts are turning to early warning systems (EWS) that signal whether a student is at risk of not graduating from high school. While some research exists about establishing these systems, there is little information about the actual implementation strategies that are being used across…

Bullying is a serious problem among students. Research linking school climate and trust as to bullying is minimal. This study examined elements of school climate and trust in relation to bullying and protection using Hoy and Smith's (2004) climate study and Smith and Birney's (2005) trust study. Trust was found to be the significant predictor of…