In 2023, the U.S. Department of Education announced the "Raise the Bar: Lead the World" initiative to use decades of research and professional experience to transform public education and advance education equity. There are three focus areas: (1) Achieve Academic Excellence; (2) Boldly Improve Learning Conditions; and (3) Create Pathways…

The requisite knowledge and skills of principals are in a constant state of flux. Principal preparation programs need to proactively create systems and structures for continuous improvement and create pathways for information-sharing in order to remain responsive to the needs of local districts. James Coviello, Joan I. Birringer-Haig, and…

Kay Psencik, Frederick Brown, and Stephanie Hirsh explore how school leaders can apply a learning lens to achieve their ambitious goals for educators and students in "The Learning Principal," their new book for Learning Forward. Chapter 3, "Managing Change," details how leaders can create the conditions and learning…

This paper investigates how Norwegian school principals prepared to carry out the LK20 reform process. The importance of school principals and middle-level leaders as enactors of change efforts results from their close ties to teachers and teacher classroom practices. This suggests that without negotiation and support from micro-policy actors,…

The Division of School Leadership (DSL) manages and builds the capacity of superintendents and principals across New York City Public Schools (NYCPS). This capstone presents a detailed glimpse into my strategic project as a doctoral resident in the DSL. The project sought to answer the question: "with no formal team or budget, how does the…

Purpose: This study examines the critical elements that contribute to the effective adoption of educational digital resources (EDRs) in schools, with a focus on school principals and their leadership, from a strategic pedagogical standpoint. Design/methodology/approach: Using survey data from 200 school principals, measurement and structure models…

Research suggests that high-quality school improvement planning reflective of the school's needs and objectives is central to a principal's success in leading a school. Some American scholars contend that successfully planned and executed "quick wins" are critically important to launching high-level organizational change processes…

Virtual schools have gained popularity by providing students with the flexibility to learn anytime, anywhere. The appeal of virtual education lies in its capacity to enhance student choices and improve the efficiency of public education (Molnar et al., 2019). Online learning, with its adaptable and personalized approach, proves more effective than…

This article summarizes lessons and examples from a learning community of leaders from 78 large and medium school districts across the U.S. that has been meeting monthly throughout the pandemic, that other educators might apply to their work as they continue to navigate difficult and ambiguous times. The learning community members have identified…

One of the most important actions that school leaders pay attention to and spend time to develop is setting a strategic plan for their school as it helps in shedding the light on the upcoming achievements and developments that their school aims to and require to achieve in a certain period of time. It is more important at this stage to think about…

Principals of low-performing schools in northern New Mexico lack adequate professional development to improve student outcomes. Exploration of experiences in the professional development program, Principals Pursuing Excellence, studied the lived phenomena of 12 rural northeastern turnaround school leaders through the conceptual framework of…

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic undermined basic routines and typical conduct of schools, introducing uncertainty and instability to an extent that schools had never encountered in the last decades. The current study focuses on leaders' coping strategies while struggling to maintain school stability and on the extent to which these extreme…

This qualitative study explores how 60 Israeli high school principals vary in their perceptions and enactments of shared sense-making processes while engaging in strategic activities to gain teachers' support during a national reform implementation. Data analysis has yielded three major themes: (a) a common language; (b) a collaborative learning…

Recently, the large-scale reforms of special education have been carried out in many countries. This study focuses on the latest Finnish reform of special education in compulsory education. As principals lead educational reforms in schools, their role in the implementation of reform is significant. The study explores principals' views on the…

This paper reviews one of the policies which have been removed from implementation as a management approach (Total Quality Approach) in education. The main argument is that barrowing policies from abroad without considering to what extend the characteristics of the existing system would suit to the intended approach or to what extend the major…