Purpose: School leaders rely on a number of collaborative policy tools to address fiscal and governance issues. While prior research has examined the dynamics and implications of research-practice and public-private partnerships, this study addresses a third form of collaboration: interdistrict cooperative agreements. Method: We develop a unique…

Educational Collaborative Networks (ECNs) aim to achieve educational goals at the community level and base their actions on collaborative partnering between schools and community organizations. These approaches are an emergent and innovative leadership and policy strategy being used increasingly across the globe, given the interconnected and…

This work attempts to examine instructional leadership from a peer influence perspective within a districtwide network of educational leaders. This approach to instructional leadership supplements a conventional understanding of technical core of professional collaboration. We argue from a social network perspective that individual perception is…

Purpose: This study responds to major administrative and policy priorities to support science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education by investigating a multi-sector ecosystem of regional organizations that support a STEM pipeline for education and careers. Design/methodology/approach: We use social network analysis to…

In this article, Kara Finnigan and Alan Daly argue that studying churn among central office leaders and school principals can improve retention of high-quality leaders who can better support teachers. Constant churn often means that initiatives barely have the opportunity to get off the ground before a new central office administrator or principal…

Globally, teacher education (TE) is challenged to change relationships with schools and teachers and become more collaborative in teaching and research. This study examined the way knowledge is developed, shared, and used when school and institution of higher education (IHE) partners create research networks in the context of master's programs for…

In this article, Alan J. Daly, Yi-Hwa Liou, and Chris Brown explore the idea of positive affective arousal through "energy exchange relationships" within a district leadership team. Education leaders have long been expected to be not only effective leaders but also motivators who can move change efforts forward. Although there has been…

This study investigated the way developing, sharing and using of research-based knowledge occurred in the school-university research network of a master's programme for in-service teachers in the Netherlands. Over a 10-month period, a combination of quantitative and qualitative network data was collected. Data were analysed at three network…

Improving student achievement through teacher collaboration networks is a current focus of schools in many countries. Yet, empirical evidence on the relationship between teacher networks and student achievement and mechanisms that may explain this relationship is limited. This study examined the relationship between teacher networks and student…

School and district effectiveness studies show that high levels of student achievement are possible when schools and the district act as coordinated units of change. There is also a growing recognition that principals cannot lead alone and that school leadership teams (SLTs) are essential to the improvement process. Limited studies have explored…

Purpose: This article describes how trust emerged as an issue in one school district and the processes by which central office administrators enhanced trust with its school site leaders. Method: This exploratory participant observer case study uses multiple sources of data including surveys, interviews, observations, and documents collected during…