There has been, without question, a persistent demand for holding both leaders and teachers accountable for increasing test scores in schools, particularly in schools serving impoverished children and youth. This concern for increasing test scores and holding educational leaders and teachers accountable for student achievement is central to…

In this commentary, Stech develops a rationale for leadership educators by discussing education, training, and development. He guides the reader through a discussion of instructional types and how each differs from the others. He provides a current view for how research in leadership education may be distinguished by the intention of the…

The first article in this special issue is about the doctoral programs, the suppliers of new doctoral graduates in special education. It focuses on one component of a larger effort, the Special Education Faculty Needs Assessment (SEFNA) project, which investigated many aspects of the supply of new doctoral graduates as well as the demand for new…

Leaders are made, not born. Like so many other of life's complex issues, the question of nature vs. nurture in leadership is one that is analyzed, researched, and debated by educators, philosophers, social scientist, and even leaders themselves. Leadership has been dissected as to personality, character, and behavior. Researchers have developed…

What are the major priorities for preparing educational leaders for their work in school communities? Clues to this question are nestled within higher education curricula. Prevalent 21st-century priorities that governing standards specify, such as innovation, assessment, distributed leadership, and technology, must be vigorously shaped into social…

When selected as a pilot redesign site, we decided to both refocus the underlying assumptions guiding our program and to engage in processes allowing us to model best practices while creating a new program. This article summarizes key aspects of our redesign work and offers reflections on the processes used and challenges faced. Murphy's (2006)…

With the success of graduates directly influencing the college's reputation and ranking, leadership propensity should be an important selection criterion in higher education institution's undergraduate admissions processes, but is it? For most colleges and universities, selection is done through a paper application containing only a sliver of the…

The commentators' responses to the viability of open groups using Therapeutic Enactment (TE) in a university setting are important. This reply addresses four main points: (a) single versus multiple sessions; (b) principles of brief therapy; (c) issues around training for group leaders; and (d) further research. The author agrees with commentators…

Approximately four months ago the author was sitting at his desk at the Air Force Academy preparing a course in leadership that he would be teaching during the fall semester. Then, something happened that would have a drastic impact on his professional life as an educator and a military officer. He was informed that he would be deploying to Kabul,…

Business schools across the United States since the late 1800s have taught accounting concepts, business tactics, and management skills in their predominately management-oriented core curricula. They strive to provide students with an effective toolbox designed to improve market share and the bottom line. The teaching of management exposes the…

Background: The term "distributed leadership" is now widely used among scholars and practitioners in the field of educational leadership. Major actors in the nonprofit sector promote and financially support the development of distributed leadership. Unfortunately, there is confusion and ambiguity about what "distributed leadership" means, and…

Beverly Hall has been superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools since 1999. Before coming to Atlanta, Hall was state district superintendent of Newark Public Schools, deputy chancellor for instruction of New York City Public Schools, superintendent of Community School District 27 in New York City, and a principal in Brooklyn. Hall chairs Harvard…

A dominant conjecture underlying the literature about leadership for social justice brought up in Jean-Marie, Normore, and Brooks' (2009) paper suggests that leadership preparation programs (LPPs) need to prepare school leaders to promote a broader and deeper understanding of social justice, democracy, and equity, as well as to struggle with forms…

Serving as a new principal is not only demanding, it can also be a lonely job. But successful leadership doesn't happen in a vacuum, and principals need to know from their peers best practices about everything from focusing on instruction to planning fire drills. With this in mind, "Principal" magazine created a virtual roundtable--between…

This article is framed in two ways. First, by an editorial concern regarding the Americentricity of a special issue for the "Journal of Research on Educational Leadership" on leadership preparation. And second, Jean-Marie, Normore, and Brooks' (2009) desire for a "new social order" for a "multinational dialogue" as…