School planning and design implicitly enters the realm of urban development when public school districts make land-use decisions on where to locate, construct, operate, maintain, and close their facilities. Moreover, schools and their campuses can impact the physical environment, influence urban design and development patterns, affect the local…

Superintendents as decision-makers in public school systems, in their roles of both leader and manager, have been the topic of studies for many decades (Waters, J. T., & Marzano, R. J., 2006; McClellan, R. L., Hyle, A. E., & Ivory, G. (2010). However, there is little research regarding superintendents' decision-making related to resource…

While the likelihood and probability of school districts encountering major crises remain unknown, superintendents need to anticipate and prepare for such events that have the potential to threaten their organization. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore the behaviors and actions of New York State public school superintendents…

This study examined how superintendents and principals' childhood experiences influenced the decisions they make regarding their students of poverty. A qualitative research design was used to gather findings and draw conclusions through an interview process of three superintendents and nine principals. The criteria for participation was being…

This article explores issues that had to be confronted over a three-year period in terms of two New York State funded grants for which I was the evaluator. Major, critical challenges are presented, described, and discussed. Specifically, the paper addresses issues related to lack of planning at the grant design stage that resulted in challenges…

Across the country, school district superintendents are transforming into community school leaders. Responsible for systems of learning that also include school nutrition, bussing, safety, finances, community engagement, and so much more, superintendents recognize that they need a different strategy to effectively address the learning needs of the…

Build for Equity supports proficiency of educational leaders to recruit, hire, develop and retain quality teaching candidates, building and system leaders from historically marginalized populations. National Network of State Teachers of the Year (NNSTOY) conducted a months-long study on how to diversify the teacher workforce. This study, sponsored…

The purpose of the "District Self-Assessment Tool" is to provide school district and community stakeholders with an approach for assessing district capacity to support a college readiness indicator system and track progress over time. The tool draws on lessons from the collective implementation experiences of the four College Readiness…

The New York State Department of Education (NYSED) has been supporting selected districts in the planning and implementation of PreK-3rd Grade systems. NYSED is supporting the use of the Framework for Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating PreK-3rd Grade Approaches developed by Kauerz and Coffman (2013). Recognizing the ultimate goal of PreK-3rd…

This descriptive study of a change initiative by the Syracuse (NY) City School District informs the question, "How do school boards and districts better use research and data to inform policy decisions?" Researchers used interviews and artifacts to describe how the district developed and implemented a new discipline policy, the Syracuse…

How has the recession and its resulting family instability impacted children’s residential and school mobility? Officials from housing, homeless, and school programs discussed the full spectrum of residential mobility in two recent Urban Institute roundtables: from chronic mobility, eviction, and foreclosure to doubled-up households and…

The purpose of this study was to investigate school administrators' perceptions of teachers' adherence to the highly effective critical attributes of the four domains of Charlotte Danielson's "Framework for Teaching" (Planning and Preparation, The Classroom Environment, Instruction, and Professional Responsibilities) in kindergarten…

This article explores whether two popular policy initiatives are compatible or conflicting strategies for enhancing educational equality in diverse large urban centers. These two initiatives are (1) charter school expansion and (2) improvement of resource equity across urban public school systems through policies often referred to as weighted…

The Wallace Foundation is funding a multiyear demonstration project to determine whether voluntary, district summer learning programs can stem summer learning loss for low-income students. Six districts--Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Duval County (Florida), Pittsburgh, and Rochester, New York--were selected for the demonstration project and…

This 19th annual edition of "Quality Counts" takes a broad look at the issues and forces shaping the discussion around early-childhood education. It examines how new academic demands and the push for accountability are changing the nature of early-childhood education for school administrators, teachers, and children alike. Reporters…