Vice-principals' (VPs) work is intensifying in its complexity and volume but the changing nature of their work is not thoroughly documented. This article focuses on the often-overlooked VP's role and records the factors that evidence the intensifying work conditions for VPs. The data for this article come from a large-scale online survey that has…

This exploratory qualitative study was focused on the impact of state and federal mandates on the role of middle school principals, specifically what increased responsibilities and major areas of stress middle school principals are experiencing; how any enhanced stress impacts these middle school principals, both professionally and personally; and…

In "Navigating the Principalship," James P. Spillane and Rebecca Lowenhaupt look at the major challenges of the principal position, examining how new principals adapt to the role, set an instructional agenda, and build cooperation and collaboration. They focus in particular on the dilemmas that mark the principalship--the inevitable,…

This article presents findings from a study into the reality of beginning as a principal in a New Zealand secondary school. The views of beginning, experienced and former principals are presented and discussed drawing on the literature of organisational sensemaking. The findings suggest that the challenges of unexpected occurrences, relationship…

The phase of entering the role of assistant principals and the coping strategies assistant principals use upon entering their role have barely been studied. Most studies that dealt with assistant principals focused mainly on the role of the assistant principals and their readiness to advance to the position of school principal, while the study…

Being a principal, superintendent, dean, provost, or president carries a wide array of responsibilities and burdens. An inevitable part of being a leader is that some decisions are very hard to make which means that leaders carry a huge emotional burden. Author Rick Ginsberg identifies strategies that educational leaders have identified as helping…

Transforming failing schools presents special leadership challenges. What do successful "turnaround" principals actually do? What skills do they need? Where should we be looking for such leaders and what support do they need? For answers, the Wallace Foundation asked Public Agenda to interview principals currently working in high-needs schools as…

This study identifies specific coping techniques helpful to educators in handling the tensions of their jobs, clusters the reported techniques into coping categories, assesses the number and frequency of coping techniques used by educators, and identifies similarities and differences in coping responses. (Author/TE)

Describes the most frequent stress producers identified by school administrators. Suggests four areas that warrant further training and improvement--time management, interpersonal relations, community relations, and coping with rules and regulations. (Author/WD)

Findings of a study that examined the relationship of administrative role conflict and ambiguity with stress and burnout are presented in this paper. A survey sent to 1,000 Washington State administrators (250 each from the following groups--elementary, junior, and senior high school principals; and superintendents) elicited 741 returns, a 74…

When properly managed, stress can serve as a key to successful job performance. This book explores the link between pressure and performance in schools. It shows how to recognize stress as both a facilitator and debilitator of effective performance. Chapter 1 serves as a personal stress checkup. Chapter 2 explores the myths of administrative…

Taxing situations that threaten the administrator's sense of self-efficacy meaningfully account for burnout in human-service professionals. This paper presents findings of a study that hypothesized that environmental or role stressors could be classified as task, organization, and relations stressors, each pertaining to a different domain of the…

Highlights selected issues on early childhood education which have been discussed in CHILD CARE INFORMATION EXCHANGE articles over the past ten years. Provides an alphabetized, index of these articles, topically arranged, which indicates month and year of publication. (RWB)

The president of the University of Miami (Florida) at the time of Hurricane Andrew discusses the challenges of coping with widespread campus destruction and the resulting organizational crisis, and offers guidelines for responding rapidly and effectively to the needs and concerns of various constituents. (MSE)

An experienced college president offers 12 suggestions for coping as president: control calendar; keep passion for work; protect health; manage stress in all life areas; make changes one step at a time; stop when reaching limit; pay attention to support system; learn to live comfortably with ambiguity; separate ego from outcomes; control…