Most new principals are thrown into the job to sink or swim. This article describes how a well-designed mentoring program can be one of the best ways to ensure success if schools are going to improve. In 2002, realizing the need for high-quality administrators, the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) identified six key…

School administrators have some tough hiring decisions to make, and an interview to select the most highly qualified applicants is critically important. Even before the mandates of No Child Left Behind, school administrators strove to hire the best new teachers. Competent, caring, qualified teachers are the keys to enhanced student achievement.…

In the June "Kappan," Marc Tucker summarized the "Tough Choices" report, the sequel to a report issued in 1990 by a predecessor group, which attributed the nation's low productivity growth in the 1970s and 1980s to inadequate American schools. The authors critiqued it and charged Tucker with trying to stampede policy makers into adopting reckless…

The failure to ensure that all of the nation's classrooms are staffed with qualified teachers is one of the most widely discussed, but least understood, problems facing elementary and secondary schools. In recent years, dozens of reports and reform initiatives have sought to solve this problem. Unfortunately, the array of recent efforts do not…

Teach for America exists to address educational inequity--the stunning reality that the American nation, which aspires so admirably to be a land of equal opportunity, where one is born still largely determines one's educational outcomes. Despite plenty of evidence that children growing up in poverty can do well academically--when given the…

For decades, the supply of qualified special educators has been critically low. In 1983, the shortage of special educators was highlighted in "A Nation at Risk," and the situation remains much the same 25 years later. The most recently available data indicate that just 0.86 teachers were prepared for each available position in special…

Teacher quality has become a hot topic. Everyone wants to measure it, reward it, or improve it. One reason for this interest is the evidence that teachers differ dramatically in their ability to raise student test scores. Another reason for the current interest in teacher quality is that recent No Child Left Behind requirements focus on highly…

Teacher preparation and licensing are constantly under attack from both national and state policy makers. The extraordinary reporting requirements imposed on university-based teacher preparation programs through Title II of the Higher Education Act and the promotion of "alternative routes" to teacher licensure by the federal government…

The quality of the teacher in the classroom is the most important factor in raising student achievement, as Linda Darling-Hammond noted, and educators should offer their students nothing less than well-trained and well-supported teachers. Providing high-quality teachers is of particular importance in low-income communities of color, where the most…

With the current pressures on teachers to increase academic achievement for all students, high-quality teacher training is more important than ever. Elementary teachers are faced with high expectations for their students to achieve literacy proficiency, and these expectations became law with the No Child Left Behind Act. With or without this…

"A Nation at Risk" sounded the call for school improvement and offered recommendations for bringing it about. "No Child Left Behind" was even more prescriptive in its approach to raising student achievement. However, as the author of this article points out, for all their recommendations and strategies, both reform efforts neglect the essential…

The national guidelines for school library media programs clearly establish that the goal of the school library media specialist is to provide an instructional program that helps students and faculty become efficient and effective users of information. Along with running the library at a technical level as the program administrator, the school…

Those who are entrusted with the economic and social future of the U.S. should be unnerved with what is happening and not happening in the essential areas of teacher preparation, recruitment, and retention. Mindful of the facts, the College Board's Center for Innovative Thought, whose members include academic and business leaders, assessed the…

As a principal, Ms. Brown has firsthand knowledge of the pressures educational leaders face in the NCLB era. If administrators are going to perform effectively in today's school environment, she argues, the programs that prepare them will have to undergo significant reform. She urges university leadership programs to adopt four changes that will…

Lists superintendent characteristics boards of education most often specified as desirable and suggests behavioral patterns that will help develop the four qualities most sought by boards. (IRT)