Principals' use of the curriculum council to develop the professional management function and establish a position of educational leadership is recommended. Additional benefits would include improved communications with staff and increased professional collegiality. (MJL)

Examines five ways in which an administrator can improve school office management. (WD)

The similarities between the principal's role and certain other marginal occupational roles are reviewed, along with a discussion of the costs and benefits to the principal of a marginal personality orientation. (LRA)

Asserting that an effective school administrator understands the significance of needed change and the consequences of what it means to be a change-driven school administrator, discusses various aspects of knowing when it is time to leave one paradigm and embrace a new one. (EV)

Summarizes preliminary results of a 3-year study of 250 new head teachers in secondary schools throughout England and Wales. The main problems confronting new head teachers involved relationships with the senior management teams. Most head teachers continued to teach, were involved in curriculum development, and exerted stronger instructional…

Most assistant principals aspire to the principalship. Principals play an important role in helping assistant principals attain that goal by sharing the instructional leadership role with them and working side-by-side with them in every aspect of school administration. (MLH)

Because most people will resist law and reason (government), power must be rendered in someone else's name to make ruling palatable. Executives, including principals, represent the law. To enforce a given law, executives must often exceed their base of authority to act decisively--despite recent rhetoric about staff empowerment and site-based…

The loss of pedagogic motive among contemporary educators is a matter for concern. This article explores the twin issues of motives and intentions, with particular reference to one high school principal who describes his work in exclusively managerial terms. This language (and a persistently managerial-administrative ethic) may be inappropriate…

Strategic leadership is a critical component in the effective development of schools. Currently the educational debate is shifting to focus on how short-term improvements can become strategically sustainable. This article will put forward the view that renewed attention needs to be paid to the strategic dimension of leadership to ensure this…

This keynote address examines the role of the deputy principal and the stress cycle in an educational climate of uncertainty and rapid social and educational change. A profile of the "average" deputy principal is offered, and the term stress is defined. Methods of researching stress are examined. Factors that contribute to stress in school…

Despite the claims of conventional wisdom, business and education can learn from each other. An examination of "In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best Run Companies," by Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman, reveals several ideas and practices that schools can use effectively. (1) A bias for action: hold daily administrative…

Six different assertions about school administration that have recently appeared in the press are examined in this paper in order to determine whether each is myth or reality. The six assertions are: (1) there are too many administrators; (2) the number of administrators is growing rapidly; (3) administrators are being paid too much; (4)…

Several recent articles theorizing about the principalship are compared, contrasted and analyzed with focus on leadership and changing roles. One main difficulty found in the first article--a literature review (Murphy)--was the absence of clarity of definitions among researchers. Several common issues emerged, including a causal relationship…

This report presents a very detailed look at the elementary school principal's day-to-day activities. The executive summary highlights the study's chief findings and suggests where major problems exist. Although concerns have been raised about student behavior and discipline, results indicate that most elementary principals at the Montgomery…