To best train and support school leaders in their evolving roles, they require high-quality preparation and in-service pipelines that both address the changing demands on their positions and acknowledge the cascading effects that well-prepared leaders have on both student outcomes and in school culture and retention. Including school leaders in…

Despite the importance of teachers and the fact that teacher hiring is decentralized in most school districts, we know relatively little about the process through which individual principals hire faculty for their schools. Using interviews with 31 Chicago principals, we explore how principals find job candidates, whether they collaborate with…

Previous research has established that attracting and retaining members is a significant challenge associated with the formation and maintenance of interest groups. Research has also established that interest groups play a significant role in the formation of educational policy. This study will attempt to provide insight as to those factors that…

Given the ubiquitous nature of social media, it is important for prospective and current teachers to be aware of the impact of a personal digital footprint upon their career. Teachers are held to a higher standard due to the public nature of their employment. Teachers represent the school district not only during the school day, but beyond the…

School principals in Illinois face an ethical dilemma when evaluating tenured teachers. Giving an unsatisfactory rating and placing a tenured teacher under a remediation plan opens the door to a time-consuming process filled with legal and financial issues that will strain relationships in the school. However, giving a less than honest rating…

This qualitative mixed methods study explored how Special Education Directors transformed and maintained a successful inclusion model throughout their district. The study identified leadership strategies and inclusive behaviors utilized by Special Education Directors who have successfully transformed their district into inclusive school districts.…

This article describes a teacher-led school "Mathematics and Science Leadership Academy" (MSLA) that is part of the Denver Public Schools. At MSLA, teachers collaborate to make authentic and substantive decisions about how the school operates and seek to meet each student's needs. At teacher-led schools, teachers hire their own…

This quantitative study investigated the relationship between teacher dispositions, subject content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and reasons that school principals recommend non-renewal of teachers' contracts. Nearly 2,000 school principals in 13 states completed an emailed survey. In deciding whether to non-renew a teacher contract,…

The purpose of this study is to examine how Illinois school districts are utilizing the Illinois 5Essentials Survey results, particularly for school improvement, to determine challenges to successful implementation, and to make recommendations for improvements to the 5E Survey and implementation process for statewide use. We also summarize…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to analyze how high school principals approached developing a collaborative culture and providing collaborative leadership in a large high school setting. The population sample for this study was 82 principals of large comprehensive high schools of grades 9 through 12 or some combination thereof with…

The purpose of this study was to discover what school leaders considered during the decision-making process when adding a transitional kindergarten program and how the decision was made. This study investigated the decision-making process for superintendents and principals by examining decisions made by rural, suburban, and large school…

This paper takes advantage of a unique policy change to examine how principals make decisions regarding teacher dismissal. In 2004, the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) signed a new collective bargaining agreement that gave principals the flexibility to dismiss probationary teachers for any reason and without the…

The growing body of research on school consolidation does not detail the role of the high school principal. This revelatory case study examined a principal in an Illinois high school during the first year of consolidation. Furthermore, this study is informed by two separate bodies of literature. The first relates to school district consolidation.…

By concentrating on the formal school organization, researchers can miss the informal relationships that are fundamental to leadership. Distributed Leadership Studies (DLS) provides a framework for examining school leadership and management that considers the interactions of leaders, followers, and aspects of the context. The framework involves…

This study explored the strategic use of negotiating as a tool for creating and enhancing democratic communities. A total of 44 principals from four elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school, provided data for this study. Results found that within schools, principals used certain skills to negotiate bureaucratic roles, and…