Central Falls is, by far, the poorest community in Rhode Island. More than 40 percent of the children under 18 live in poverty, and 40 percent of that group live in severe poverty. At Central Falls High School, low-income Latino students have fallen behind their white counterparts, with shockingly low graduation, poor literacy, and low…

Some tragedies are so emblazoned in people's minds that years later they can recall where they were when they first heard the news. The assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., the Challenger explosion, and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are among these events. So also is the Columbine High School tragedy of April 20, 1999.…

School leaders are reporting an uptick in anger in their communities these days--often diffuse, unfocused anger--among staff members, parents and neighbors. In the face of threat, the first impulse of education leaders is to toughen up, tighten down and begin broadcasting their messages. Since anxiety and rage come with uncertain times, the…

Leadership is a lonely obligation. Every leader, no matter how many followers, is an individual actor, sharing ideas and concepts, mostly verbally, in the hope of producing a result that benefits the operation and the people whose lives those operations affect. Every school leader asks himself or herself: How can I effectively move the…

In this article, the author shares her experience when she was still a student until she became a superintendent. In her 17th year in the superintendency, the author finds the joys of her work all around her, grateful to be bestowed with the gift of leadership. She shares with colleagues a few especially meaningful moments from her professional…

Six years ago, to gauge the challenges facing new school system leaders, "The School Administrator" tracked the challenges of six superintendents who had assumed their first superintendency in summer 2001. The story of their experiences, "Superintendent Rookies," appeared in the magazine's October 2002 issue. The six…

In this article, the author explains why she took an unpaid leave for a year from her central-office administrative role in an upstate New York school district, and shares two defining moments that helped her find her way back to public education. The first was an academic exercise and the second was less academic and more emotional. Through the…

Legacy thinking is about a person--as an individual. How he interacts with others on a one-to-one basis every day. Someone with personal hopes, goals, desires and expectations. Thinking about one's legacy can help one better understand his strengths and weaknesses and help him steer his legacy in the right direction. In this article, the author…

Administrative power for some school teachers can be an aphrodisiac that can be applied negatively, especially when a leader has devastating instinct for the weaknesses of others. A leader's intellect and heart closes shop and ceases to function when drunk on power. In this article, the author describes how the use of administrative power can be…

In the most recent Programme for International Student Assessment of science learning, the equivalent of six school years separate the achievement of 15-year-olds in Finland, the best-performing country, from their counterparts in Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic. Still more than a school year lies between the neighboring countries Canada,…

On the morning of Dec. 12, 2006, hundreds of federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement descended upon six Swift and Co. meat-packing plants in Texas, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and Utah affecting communities. These federal crackdowns on illegal immigrants reverberate in schools too, forcing superintendents to confront some…

Principal describes his experience in planning for the opening of a new high school. (PKP)

Presents a technology-planning framework for administrators that facilitates development of a strategic plan. The process includes planning the planning, benchmarking the current status of district technology use, envisioning future trends, identifying stakeholders' needs and wants, developing the technology model, identifying resource…

Marcy Dutton, a lawyer and associate director of the Illinois Association of School Administrators, believes that Superintendents are prone to practice law and sometimes practice it badly. Because school leaders, and superintendents in particular, are take-charge people, they want to function as armchair lawyers. In other words, they have just…

This article talks about the force behind education leaders. With all the challenges facing public education today, it is difficult to remain focused and to remember why one chartered this particular leadership course. Perhaps someone respected encouraged one to take this path long ago. Perhaps this kind of service to the nation and its future…