To examine support for comprehensive counseling program implementation, we explored principals' and school counselors' perceptions and experiences from programs awarded the Alabama School Counseling Program of Distinction. A mixed-methods explanatory sequential design was employed. We found substantial agreement and no statistically significant…

Adolescents experience challenges navigating psychological, physiological, and emotional transformations. This article contributes to research into how middle school and high school environments can reinforce the needs of students through the transition from middle school to high school. In this grounded theory study, we interviewed 11…

The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to examine how the interorganizational relationship between school administrators and law enforcement personnel with diverse cultures, missions, and objectives collaborates to create, implement, and sustain emergency management readiness. The theoretical concept that guided this study…

This article reports findings from a study investigating the capacity of assistant principals to be instructional leaders. Analyses of survey responses yielded four interesting findings: (a) years of experience as a teacher and age had no significance on assistant principals' perceived readiness as an instructional leader; (b) those completing…

Principals are increasingly held accountable for school achievement. This paper reports the results of a mixed methods sequential Quan --> Qual research study to explore how middle school principals created a culture of academic optimism (AO) that promoted high student achievement (SA). Based on the analysis of AO scores from 26 schools, mostly…

When Alabama Governor Bob Riley established the Governor's Congress on School Leadership in 2004, few people in the state fully anticipated the resulting transformation in the state's philosophical and conceptual framework for educational leadership. The Governor's Congress on School Leadership resulted in an unmistakable statewide paradigm shift…

This publication is a "collection" of three separate manuscripts: (1) "A Paradigm Shift in Preparing Instructional Leaders" (published in December 2010); (2) "Transitions" (an introduction to the "Revisited manuscript"); and (3) "A Paradigm Shift in Preparing Instructional Leaders Revisited"…

The components of a successful school are clear. Many educators can easily list them: high expectations for all students, a safe and orderly learning environment, strong instructional leadership, highly qualified teachers, data-driven decision making, etc. Then why don't more schools change the what they are doing to mirror them? Knowing the…

Determined the status of women administrators in Alabama in terms of demographic and career patterns through a survey completed by 42% of the state's principals. In Alabama, women principals are likely to be newer in the position, to have come directly from the classroom, and had less mobility in acquiring the position. (SLD)

The situational leadership model identifies four leadership styles--telling, selling, participating, and delegating. This paper discusses the initial findings of a study that examined the role of superintendents in Alabama. The study sought to determine if secondary school principals and local teacher-association representatives differed in their…

A survey of randomly-selected Alabama principals sought to compare a theorist's model of educational administration with the actual model used by working principals. The 172 principals ranked the importance of 13 statements about administrative priorities drawn from the theoretical model, a three-part construct combining administrative processes,…

This paper examines the principalship in Alabama. It focuses on the "individual role conception" of the principalship as perceived by those in that role and investigates whether gender affected these perceptions. For the research, principals were asked to provide personal demographic and professional information and to respond to three…

Investigated (Alabama) principals' role perceptions and possible gender influences. Results show the principal's job has changed significantly during the past 5 years. Male and female respondents agreed about challenges and necessary skills, but differed on role perceptions. Women were more global and team-oriented; men were more managerial.…

Perceptions of the current and ideal functioning roles of the principal were compared using responses of 147 Alabama teachers. Differences between current and ideal roles were found for categories of counselor, evaluator, motivator, and supervisor. These results emphasize the varying perceptions teachers have of principals. (SLD)

A study of the perceived importance of selected tasks for building and coordinating educational articulation programs in Alabama and the frequency with which those tasks were actually performed by articulation personnel revealed considerable disagreement about both the functions of articulation programs and their administration. (MSE)