A comprehensive home-school-community involvement plan aims to create a responsive support system for collaborative action to address educational concerns, quality-of-life issues, and specialized needs. Strategies include enlisting community resources and volunteers, developing school-community partnerships, and converting schools to…

The link between caring and learning is very strong. Research suggests that the pervasiveness of a caring ethos and an empathetic regard and respect for students that focus on individual and interpersonal growth and development can result in measurable, positive outcomes in schools (Beck, 1994; Noddings, 1992). Caring schools foster a sense of…

Whether the dropout rate is a good measure of a quality education is debatable. One could probably make a case that a high dropout rate is just as credible an indicator of a quality education program as a low dropout rate. As with any high-stakes measure of performance, those being evaluated scramble, sometimes frantically, for strategies that…

Educators can no longer count on public approval, trust, or support to help them guide students' learning. External forces are now calling the shots of daily practice through state and federal accountability testing, unfunded legislative mandates, print and television media exposes, as well as special interest groups lobbying for their students…

Not so long ago, principals could not have imagined that they would need to plan for a terrorist attack on their schools. However, it is a reality in today's world. The public demands that school administrators have a crisis plan for every school--to be ready for all possibilities, even the unimaginable. In this article, the author provides…

Since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), school leaders have been locked in a continuing struggle to comply with it. Unrelenting student testing, revisions to class schedules, required disclosures, teacher-quality issues, and requirements for supplemental services are straining every sector of school district operations.…

There are more math classes than there are math teachers to teach them. School administrators often decide how to cover such classes by selecting a person from a pool of other teachers, counselors, and administrators. This can inhibit student progress in math because an appointed math teacher cannot do the job as well as a real math teacher.…

Engagement has become the hallmark of personalized learning. When students are engaged in learning, they actively apply what they know and search for ways to know more. Two years ago, researchers from the Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory, a program of the Education Alliance at Brown University, began a study to identify events…

When a new principal was hired at Gallup Junior High School in northwest New Mexico, he saw redesigning the administrative team as an important opportunity to develop leadership skills in his assistants and groom them for eventual advancement. His changes also provide cross training, so no single individual controls an essential function of the…

In this article, the author describes her personal experiences as the principal of Princeton Junior High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her administrative strategy focuses on: (1) maintaining a quality faculty; (2) using a model for classroom observation that is best suited to helping the teachers at Princeton succeed; (3) providing teachers with…

This article presents eight ways a school librarian can help promote literacy and life-long learning: (1) Offer books that teenagers want to read; (2) Promote reading for pleasure; (3) Recommend related reading to teachers in many subject areas; (4) Collaborate with teachers to incorporate literature and technology into the curriculum; (5) Offer…

The author conducted a study of reasons why novice teachers become disenchanted with the administrative support in their schools. Using the ideas of Rosenholtz and Simpson (1990) as a basis for his research, the author designed and administered a survey to 53 novice teachers and 15 building principals regarding the factors that influence novice…

When the author became the principal of Citrus Middle School in 1998, it was the lowest performing school in the district. Students from Citrus were viewed as largely under-prepared, often read below grade level, had high drop-out rates, and were responsible for a significant amount of the gang activity on the school campus. She was also told that…

In recent years, principals have had to act as referees for a new type of match between teachers and technology staff members, affectionately known as the "techies." This time the match is for the control of the technology-integrated classroom. Creating technology-integrated classrooms often puts the interests of teachers in opposition to the…

Teacher burnout and attrition are epidemic in the field of special education. The annual attrition rate for special education teachers has been estimated to be between 8% and 10% (Whitaker, 2000), and special education teachers are leaving the field in much greater numbers than their peers in general education (Nichols & Sosnowsky, 2002).…