Attracting and retaining effective education leaders and teaching staff for regional, rural and remote schools in Australia is a major sustainability and quality issue facing every State and Territory. It is also a major concern in pre-service teacher education, particularly for those universities which have a commitment to rural and regional…

How does an assistant principal complete the large number of managerial duties and, at the same time, serve as a credible instructional leader? This book provides practical recommendations for successfully filling the dual role as manager and instructional leader, building effective relationships, using power appropriately, and productively…

You know how important principals are in advancing student achievement and school success, but it's not been exactly clear which components of the principal's job are the highest priority... until now. Following on the results-based approach from the ASCD best-seller "Qualities of Effective Teachers", James Stronge and his coauthors…

Different approaches to conducting and theorising school leadership have become a major preoccupation within school systems throughout the world. This reflects the importance placed upon school-level education and the belief that leadership issues can play a big part in increasing the effectiveness of pupil's learning. This paper re-visits some…

Created for the Stupski Foundation, this document synthesizes recent research and theoretical literature on leadership practices needed to support the success of underserved urban students of color. The report identifies four options for creating and supporting successful school leaders of underserved students: (1) Redefine the role of the school…

Contemporary secondary schools in Canada and the United States are complex institutions whose organizational structures, program delivery mechanisms, and institutional community members combine to produce distinctive mini-societies within their walls. Replete with complex arrays of rituals, ceremonies, as well as traditions and founded on a…

This book illustrates how the ideal of servant leadership can be applied in your school today. With real-life scenarios, discussions, and self assessments, this book gives practical suggestions to help you develop into a caring and effective servant leader. There are 52 scenarios in this book, focusing on situations as varied as: (1) Dealing with…

In recent years the UK secondary educational landscape has witnessed significant change, with the introduction of an ever-extending spectrum of competing government initiatives and policies. This has resulted in the steady erosion of the traditionally recognized role of headteacher. This paper presents the results of a practitioner-based study…

How leaders learn to become leaders has been an area of much research. When asked what were the key experiences in learning leadership, leaders often speak of the importance of "on-the-job" experiences, yet these experiences are rarely fully detailed in the research literature. The importance of "apprenticeships" and being…

Background: Throughout the Western world, the fallout from the standards/standardization agenda has resulted in potential leaders questioning educational leadership as a career path. Moreover, the aging of the baby boom generation has created a shortage of qualified principals in many educational jurisdictions. Policy makers have responded to…

Provision of citizenship education in post-16 education and training organisations can provide enormous benefits for the learner, for the organisation and for society as a whole. However, all commentators agree that leaders and citizenship coordinators in education and training organisations have the greatest impact upon the effectiveness of that…

Over the last three decades schools have been subject to increasing and more varied sets of regulatory frameworks. In order to maintain creativity teachers need a clear educational perspective from which they can mediate, prioritise and lead change and one that enables them to develop and act upon their beliefs about education. The extent to which…

School leaders are increasingly being asked, whether by rhetoric or policy, to measurably improve student achievement. The resultant need to assist school leaders in their ability to improve teaching and learning for all students in their schools led to the establishment of the National Institute of School Leadership's (NISL's) Executive…

The current focus on instructional leadership within a high stakes accountability environment has frequently ignored the political role of school leaders. This article examines the perceptions of a group of new English headteachers to determine the features of their political role and their process in learning this role. The investigation is part…

Modern principalship is often characterized as complex, convoluted, and filled with paradoxes and ambiguities. But it also has predictability, behaviors that seem constant for students, teachers, and principals. Their predictability makes them a normal part of the schoolhouse culture. This light-hearted article lists some of these constants.