For the last five years, the lives of New York City (NYC) public school educators have been governed by constant change. With certainty, every January or June heralded something new--restructured departments and offices, staff changes and new initiatives. One of the most interesting chapters in the history of the NYC school system unfolded in the…

Six years ago, to gauge the challenges facing new school system leaders, "The School Administrator" tracked the challenges of six superintendents who had assumed their first superintendency in summer 2001. The story of their experiences, "Superintendent Rookies," appeared in the magazine's October 2002 issue. The six…

In this article, the author explains why she took an unpaid leave for a year from her central-office administrative role in an upstate New York school district, and shares two defining moments that helped her find her way back to public education. The first was an academic exercise and the second was less academic and more emotional. Through the…