Purpose: This article investigates goal pursuit practices in a sample of 31 New Zealand high schools. It examines goal knowledge of middle and senior leaders, the alignment of this knowledge and factors related to improvement. Design/methodology/approach: Goals from schools' annual improvement plans were identified and counted at the beginning of…

Purpose: This paper explores how leaders of new public high schools -- one charter and two innovation schools -- navigated the journey from school-in-theory to school-in-practice during the school's first three years. School leaders at charter and innovation schools have increased freedom over curriculum, budget, scheduling and personnel when…

This dissertation brings together theory and research on educational leadership, on one hand, and theory and research on language education, on the other, to explore how school administrators mediate language policy to shape the education of students designated as English Learners. Even as federal and state policies have sought to address English…

This memo, which is the second in the series, highlights the work of the New Hampshire Learning Initiative (NHLI), a member of the ALP network. The memo describes their efforts to support educators across the state to actively engage students as partners in co-designing learning goals and assessment strategies, showcasing how these efforts have…

The University of Pretoria (UP) adopted an anchor institution strategy and designated the Mamelodi Campus as a faculty with a focus on community engagement with the primary goal of broadening educational pathways to post-secondary school attainment. As a conceptual shift from the community engagement literature, the Mamelodi Campus identifies the…

A career academy is a small learning community within a high school, which selects a subset of students and teachers for a two-, three-, or four-year period. Students enter through a voluntary process; they must apply and be accepted, with parental knowledge and support. A career academy involves teachers from different subjects working together…

This is a must-have resource for busy educators involved in creating, improving, or reevaluating their school mission statements. The authors provide numerous examples of mission statements from a diverse range of preK-12 schools, offering readers an extremely valuable resource for developing an understanding of various themes and ideas in…

The U.S. Department of Education recently released a "College Completion Tool Kit" intended to support the higher education attainment goals set by the Obama administration. These goals are consistent with the state's Strategic Master Plan for Higher Education. The tool kit lays out strategies for achieving higher levels of attainment…

In March 2008, teachers and leaders of the mathematics programs grades 6-12 in the Clark County School District (Las Vegas, Nevada) found themselves under the urgent spotlight of failed expectations. District leaders and teachers had been bold enough to create highstakes, districtwide common assessment semester exams in five subject areas of…

Planning for the future is a necessity for high school principals, as well as for the clear setting of goals and directions, if "crisis management" is to be avoided. The 1960's were the outstanding years in educational progress--but there is a demand now for more. Therefore, the seventies will see more basic changes in education than have been…

This 2007 Annual Joint Report of the State Board of Education and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission identifies four joint priorities and nine associated goals addressing areas of need in both student learning and educator development for the advancement of education in Tennessee. The joint priorities and initiatives focus on points of…

Several factors support the new concept of open campus schools. Traditional high school study halls have outlived their usefulness as more and more teachers have found it appropriate to make nontextbook assignments to students. Youth's resistance to the arbitrary restrictions of school, the greater informality and freedom available in post-school…

This planning statement on improving vocational education in Oregon high schools and community colleges is intended to guide schools in the further development and improvement of vocational education. Discussed in the first section are the concept of a comprehensive curriculum, the relationship of career and vocational education, and the broad…

Designed as a management tool for governing boards and administrators to promote the development and improvement of vocational education opportunities in Maricopa County, this report presents an update of a 5-year (1984-89) vocational education plan for secondary and postsecondary education. Section I provides an introduction to the report and to…

The Fountain Central High School's planning and development process for a five-year technology plan is outlined as a guide for other schools to consult in the development of their own technology plan. Following a checklist of criteria used by the Indiana Department of Education for reviewing technology plans, the four main sections are: (1)…