School principals are essential to the implementation of culturally relevant practices in schools. The need for culturally relevant, responsive, and competent leadership is significant given the increase in the number of children representing a diversity of racial, ethnic, and linguistic populations (Horsford et al, 2011). Schools are becoming…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate how school leaders are assisting at-risk students in urban schools develop social capital. It sought to understand specifically what strategies they perceive as useful for developing social capital with students. This study's findings are significant to the field of education in providing…

The representation of African American male teachers in elementary urban schools has decreased. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to investigate administrators' and African American male teachers' perceptions of how administrators are challenged to support the retention of African American male teachers in elementary and middle…

Purpose: This paper aims to describe the levels and type of contingency faced by school principals in Chile and the way certain aspects of the Chilean school system result in a greater or lesser presence of these contingencies. Design/methodology/approach: The results reported here are based on the application of a structured questionnaire to 381…

In this qualitative ethnographic research study, I focused on a first-year assistant principal's leadership experiences in an urban PK-8 school environment and the coaching, mentoring, support, and training needed to develop an effective building administrator who will be retained in the assistant principal position. The guiding research questions…

This retrospective study by SCOPE Associate Director, Ann Jaquith, chronicles the progression of the Canterbury Learning Collaborative (CLC), first within the Collaborative and then later within the district in which the CLC resided, and shows how its development has supported instructional change. The story of the CLC provides lessons about how…

This article examines how a dual language program can be developed within the framework of social justice leadership. The authors analyzed principal, teacher, and parent interview transcripts as well as field notes and key documents to understand the role of school leadership in creating inclusive dual language programs to close the Latina/o-White…

The expectation that educators will use data in the service of school improvement and planning is a major feature of national and local reform agendas. Prior research has found that the principal plays a critical role in making policymakers' visions for data use a reality at the school and classroom levels. Most prior studies, however, have not…

Based on two years of extensive data collection in four urban elementary schools, this paper examines the role of principals in the implementation of the Together Initiative (TI), a school reform model for schools labeled low-performing per state accountability standards. The reform model aims to increase school autonomy from district mandates and…

School and learning have historically been a community endeavor and the recent focus on community schools and neighborhood focused schooling illuminate the possibilities of these endeavors. Distributed leadership, while a relatively newer educational concept, has also gained popularity in recent years focusing on shifting focus from the lone…

This investigation assesses the effects of leadership coaching on the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of urban public school administrators in P-12 underperforming schools. The study specifically examines leadership, management, and student achievement growth during the time of coaching. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, three domains were…

Teacher self-efficacy has been linked to multiple positive student outcomes and teacher practices (Ashton & Webb, 1986; Grant, 2006; Klassen, et al., 2009; Perrachione, Rosser, & Petersen, 2008). However, few studies, have explored teacher self-efficacy qualitatively (Manuel, 2003; Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2007; Tschannen-Moran, Hoy,…

Scholars of educational change agree that leaders need to develop a vision, build capacity and ensure ownership of change by staff. We argue that understanding the actual work that leaders must do in order to convert these categories into action, requires a social practice approach. Taking the notion of sense-making as a social practice, drawn…

Numerous districts are implementing Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) as a part of reform efforts to improve student achievement to meet external accountability mandates. Few districts, however, have considered the essential supports and components that teachers working in PLCs require for these teams to result in instructional improvement.…

Background/Context: Over four decades ago, Arnold van Gennep used the term rites of passage to describe the ceremonial and ritualistic behaviors that marked the passage between social roles. Although the transition from teaching to administration is not as clearly delineated as passages in traditional societies, it is also characterized by…