This article describes a comprehensive strategy for developing a larger corps of effective principals, "The Principal Pipeline Initiative," launched by the Wallace Foundation in 2011. Its purpose is working to strengthen school leadership by documenting and evaluating leadership development in six urban districts (Charlotte-Mecklenburg…

By mixing up various writing genres, the author interweaves a hybrid narrative of a fable, her postcolonial feminist subjectivity, and her research. The narrative begins with Aesop's fable, "the Bat, the Bird, and the Beast." In the fable, a bat wants to be both a bird and a beast, but being neither, s/he is refused by both. Connecting…

The purpose of this action research proposal is to create a Modification of Instruments and Tools in Science (MITS) program to address the need for providing Students With Disabilities (SWDs) appropriate access to scientific tools and techniques of scientific inquiry. This proposal contains a review of literature on SWDs, differentiating…

In this paper, we look at the inner workings of a school district through the lens of the "district operating system (DOS)," a set of interlocking mutually-reinforcing modules that includes functions like procurement, contracting, data and IT policy, the general counsel's office, human resources, and the systems for employee and family…

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity evidence of first-grade spelling scores from a standardized test of nonsense word spellings and their potential value within universal literacy screening. Spelling scores from the Test of Phonological Awareness: Second Edition PLUS for 47 first-grade children were scored using a standardized…

Classrooms across the United States increasingly find immigrant science teachers paired with urban minority students, but few of these teachers are prepared for the challenges such cultural assimilation presents. This is particularly true in secondary science education. Identifying potential prospects for culturally adaptive pedagogy in science…

School leaders are under constant pressure to ensure that schools are safe and to demonstrate that student safety and discipline are priorities. In many districts, schools rely on local law enforcement, school police, or security personnel to assist with promoting and maintaining safe schools. To encourage school leaders to think critically about…

This study investigates the effects of widely advocated organizational reform for secondary schools, namely the small school model, on the collective efficacy of teachers and students who did not share the school's common vision. Themes that emerged during the study linked the students' academic engagement to faculty dispositions, the physical…

Amid the growth of charter schools, autonomous schools, and private management organizations, an increasing number of urban districts are moving toward a portfolio management model (PMM). In a PMM, the district central office oversees schools that operate under a variety of governance models. The expansion of PMMs raises questions about local…

This article describes a museum-based urban teacher-residency (UTR) program's approach to building subject-specific content knowledge and research experience in Earth Science teacher candidates. In the museum-based program, graduate-level science courses and research experiences are designed and implemented specifically for the UTR by active Earth…

In the landmark school funding litigation, "Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. State" ("CFE"), the highest Court in New York recognized that reasonable class sizes are an essential element of a constitutional "sound basic education." In response to the rulings in the case, in 2007, the Legislature adopted a law mandating…

School district officials have faced the urgent task in recent years of ensuring that all schools, not just a lucky few, benefit from sure-footed leadership by professionals who know how to focus on instruction and improve it. The question boils down to this: How can districts develop a pipeline of great school principals? Research about a Wallace…

Building on the work of John Hattie, Richard Kent, and Tom Newkirk, a think tank collaborative in New York City's high schools works to raise the level of students' close reading, argumentation, and agency across the curriculum by teaching students to analyze athletic competitions, to compose sports arguments, and to transfer and apply these…

The significant growth of charter schools in the United States has brought praise for the excellent results achieved by some schools as well as criticism that charter schools may not be serving the most disadvantaged students. Critics of charter schools, in New York City and elsewhere, commonly assert that charters' (often) strong academic…

This report seeks to contribute to the ongoing dialogue of raising our expectations for males of color and provide a resource for school districts seeking to build or recalibrate their initiatives to improve the academic outcomes of young men and boys of color. Throughout this report there are exemplars of current initiatives across the nation's…