The creator of the Policy Governance model explains a system whereby the superintendent/CEO is not responsible for governance. Under Policy Governance, the board is solely responsible for describing and fulfilling its own job (determining what the public purchases for the next generation), and the administrators run the schools. (MLH)

The most significant finding of various commission reports is stakeholders' lack of involvement in the decisions affecting them. School board's major function is to develop processes that ensure stakeholder participation in developing and implementing a shared vision for education. Board should ensure that all competent administrators and teachers…

U.S. and British school leaders are preoccupied with many of the same issues, including the curriculum and its assessment, the reporting of pupil achievement and use of raw scores, site-based management, parental choice as a quality lever, small schools, the school board's role, and different approaches to quality improvement. Overemphasis of…

The common ground process is an ongoing effort for inviting, scrutinizing, debating, and selecting ideas or making decisions about improving schools. Superintendents should assign a full-time communications person to executive staff, create a communications team, conduct a full-scale communications audit, listen better, urge the silent majority to…

Calls on school administrators to protect education from further damage from federal legislation by being in closer touch with federal policymaking. Describes a Congressional shift away from instructional issues toward issues affecting noninstructional operations and a corresponding shift in lobbying effectiveness from a Washington-based emphasis…

Japanese school management should consider more broad-based, active participation in school board policymaking and should democratize school board-school relationships by adopting the lay-control principle. Both U.S. and Japanese schools should improve the exercise of appropriate administrator leadership. Japanese schools are evaluated on a…

Women and minorities are still underrepresented in the superintendency. Search consultants can tackle discrimination by helping a school board consider desirable administrator competencies and personality traits and by advancing outstanding "nontraditional" candidates. Candidates should take consultants' advice about networking, resume…

Summarizes 10 research projects that competed for the American Association of School Administrators'"Outstanding Research Presentation Award." Topics included early entry to kindergarten, Project SHAL, reading approaches, superintendents and school boards, preferred learning styles, gender bias, teacher evaluation, administrators' brain…

Details the increasing competition among search firms that often find themselves caught between the demands of the school board that employs them and the demands of the best candidates willing to risk a career move. Also contains one person's journey from superintendent to search consultant. (MLF)

The challenge with mixed-ability groups is satisfying both equity and excellence. A Colorado school district pursued differentiation by ensuring that the board, central office, and principals understood the need to provide informed leadership, differentiated teaching models, and training for transfer. Sidebars list resources and advice for…