Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) have become increasingly popular in schools. PLCs are groups of teachers, administrators, parents, and students who collaborate to improve their practices and focus on results (DuFour, 2004). Grade-level and department teachers participate in regularly scheduled collaborative team meetings; however, many…

Prior research on Troops to Teachers (TTT) affirms that TTTs are effective instructors likely to work in high-poverty, high-minority schools, teach high-demand subjects, use research-based instructional and classroom management practices linked with student achievement, and plan to stay in the profession. A nonexperimental, mixed method design…

Offers recommendations about how to evaluate student activity programs. (JM)

Discusses factors to consider in establishing an administrative salary schedule based on performance. (IRT)

Presents the Quality Reading Program Questionnaire, which has been used in more than 100 school districts to evaluate or improve existing reading programs. (Author/WD)

An alternative program, the authors believe, can be successful only with the full support of the principal. Charts the attitudes of 63 Philadelphia principals toward their city's alternative schools. (Editor/RK)

Principals, this author says, must allow teachers to appraise themselves. Introducing teachers to observation systems and inviting them to participate will give them the impetus to improve their teaching through increased self-knowledge. (Editor)

This article looks at the problem of why so few students, in certain schools, complete accelerated math programs. Hard facts and student opinion are combined here to give insight into the situation. The author suggests ways to salvage an accelerated mathematics program if an attrition problem exists. (Editor)

Outlines results from a survey of assistant principalships in a six-state area. Presents a comprehensive listing of competencies resulting from the findings. Includes references. (MD)

The ideas, suggestions, and personal beliefs presented here have been gleaned by the author over a long period of time from a wide range of experiences in the political and educational arenas. The writer wishes to make the political process more accessible to local and state principals' associations. (Editor)

Readers are invited to complete a self-assessment scale to find out how they rate as listeners. Administrators can become more effective listeners by developing certain verbal and nonverbal attending behaviors and refraining from interrupting speakers by recounting personal anecdotes about similar experiences. Includes 10 references. (MLH)

Investigators randomly selected principals from Virginia's public schools to investigate the significant relationship that exists between principal quality and student achievement. Two persons supervising each principal were asked to complete the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC)-based questionnaire about the principal. State…

Current research supports the importance of positive school climate and the use of school-climate measures as school-effectiveness predictors. This article describes several instruments, including the Organizational Climate Index, the Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire, the Effective School Battery, the Charles F. Kettering Ltd.…

Claiming that there's an aura of dissatisfaction with the present pre- and inservice programs for principals, the writer reports his findings about existing programs and suggested improvements. (Editor)

Administration of the Student Achievement Diagnostic Questionnaire for Administrators to 1,278 Georgia teachers verified the instrument's utility for measuring several factors affecting teacher motivation, including teachers' attitudes toward principals, toward the utility of improving performance, and toward the nature of and the possibility of…