School leaders, specifically principals, play a pivotal role in shaping student learning outcomes. The benefits of strong leaders extend beyond academic achievement, such as reductions in absenteeism and exclusionary discipline. While quality principals are critical for creating and sustaining quality schools, the staffing pipeline is facing…

To best train and support school leaders in their evolving roles, they require high-quality preparation and in-service pipelines that both address the changing demands on their positions and acknowledge the cascading effects that well-prepared leaders have on both student outcomes and in school culture and retention. Including school leaders in…

This case study is designed for aspiring principal and superintendent leadership candidates who are studying transitions, change theory in organizations, or board/superintendent relations. It examines the arduous process of closing a school and making huge cuts in a small district because of declining enrollment and expenditures that far…

Principals are essential to improving student achievement and narrowing persistent achievement gaps between students in underserved communities and their economically advantaged peers. The Every Student Succeeds Act provides opportunities for states to invest in developing and supporting effective school leaders. One such opportunity includes…

Public schools throughout the United States face increasing pressure to improve student achievement in math and science. As instructional leaders, principals find themselves facing this pressure head on. Drawing from a comprehensive survey of high school principals in the state of Washington (n = 250), the results indicate that a majority of…

A central problem of practice for professional preparation programs--especially those that are well established and have developed a reputation for doing their job successfully--is to take a careful and critical look at their work at periodic intervals. It is too easy to rest on reputation. And it is also easy to ignore the evolving context for…

This article describes how the Danforth Leadership Program at the University of Washington used Data-in-a-Day, a collaborative, action-research approach, at an urban elementary school to create a reciprocal learning experience focused on motivated learning for diverse students.

This paper uses the urban setting as a case study of some of the persistent challenges facing school principals. It uses data from Washington State and the University Council for Educational Administration's "Thousand Voices from the Firing Line" project to examine the perceived challenges of leading urban schools from the perspective of…

Principals play a vital and multifaceted role in setting the direction for schools that are positive and productive workplaces for teachers and vibrant learning environments for children, but existing knowledge on the best ways to develop these effective leaders is insufficient. The need to identify and replicate effective pre- and inservice…