Purpose: We examine the extent to which assistant principals' time spent in different leadership roles (instructional leadership, student affairs, and school management) is associated with their perceptions of the evaluation system. We focus on this outcome because individuals are more likely to engage with evaluation feedback if they have…

The COVID-19 pandemic and the rapidly changing societal issues that it occasioned have accelerated the dynamic nature of the principalship. Changing demographics, technological advances, teachers' working conditions, social unrest, and in particular the global pandemic are among the factors driving this continuous role transformation. This study…

Purpose: While previous research has examined the impact of school turnaround models, less is known about the principals who lead these turnaround schools. This study examines the personal demographics, experience, educational background, prior school performance, salaries, and turnover of principals who led two turnaround models in Tennessee's…

Rural school principals in Tennessee face serious challenges in leading their schools, including isolation, high turnover, and a lack of instructional leadership skills. Facilitated by a state university, the Tennessee Rural Principals Network (TRPN) was developed to provide professional learning opportunities for rural school principals. The…

Purpose: This study's purpose is to provide statewide evidence on the mobility patterns of instructional coaches (ICs) and teacher peer observers (TPOs). Research Methods/Approach: Using 5 years of administrative and survey data from Tennessee, we conduct descriptive and regression analyses to document the mobility of classroom teachers, ICs, and…

The COVID-19 pandemic plunged education communities into an emergency mode of operation and challenged the pedagogic core of education. Schools across America suddenly lost access to everything essential to their daily educational practices, including face-to-face interactions with students. School administrators scrambled to devise remote…

Because schools are a customary location to conduct child abuse and neglect investigative interviews, this study examines survey results from 109 principals in Tennessee to determine if the Title I status of a school or years of experience as a principal predict awareness of DCS interview policies and an ability to accurately interpret policies…

As online learning continues to grow and became an integral component of many higher education institutions, the role of leadership in guiding those online learning initiatives differs from institution to institution. This paper explores the experiences of leaders in centers for teaching and learning who have a role in online learning leadership…

Jane Frazee, an American music educator, administrator, and author has contributed to music education in the United States. This article surveys the impact of her efforts from 1960 to 2015. A pioneer member and past president of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association (AOSA), she taught music to children and adults using the Orff approach and has…

Student attendance is increasingly recognized as an important measure of educational success, which has spurred a body of research examining the extent to which schools can affect this outcome. However, prior work almost exclusively focuses on teachers, and no studies have explicitly examined the importance of school leaders. This study begins to…

Headship transitions in U.S. independent schools represent critical organizational events that affect multiple school constituencies, including faculty, staff, and students. With recent projections forecasting a high level of impending headship transitions in independent schools, this paper seeks to capture how second-year U.S. independent school…

The answer to the question, Can evaluation improve teaching? is a qualified yes. Teacher evaluation has changed and the role of the principal has changed as well; the focus now is on evidence, not merely good judgment. With the right tools, systems, and support, it should be possible to help improve teaching performance and student learning…

Policy makers at the federal level have embraced an educator effectiveness agenda, which in turn has driven many states across the country to rapidly develop and implement new and more complex teacher evaluation systems. It is increasingly clear that the success of these nascent teacher evaluation systems partly depends on the will, skill, and…

Tennessee was one of the first states to win Race to the Top funds in 2010, partly based on new state policy which tied student achievement measures to teacher and principal evaluations. Nearly half of state legislatures in the United States have passed similar legislation in the past two years. This article examines recent state legislative…

When the author became principal at South Pittsburg High School in the rural southeast corner of Tennessee, he noticed that the school had a serious problem with students arriving late to school in the morning and late to classes during the school day. When this issue was discussed, it was decided that there was a need to initiate a Saturday…