In "Districts That Succeed," long-time education writer Karin Chenoweth turns her attention from effective schools to effective districts. Leveraging new, cutting-edge national research on district performance as well as in-depth reporting, Chenoweth profiles five districts that have successfully broken the correlation between race,…

Teacher leadership remains at the forefront of conversations in teacher education, with discussions on recruitment, retention, and effectiveness. Teachers are at the core of schooling, and the roles they assume and types of leadership they engage in are multi-dimensional. Teacher leadership comes in many shapes and definitions. In this sense, both…

"Rethinking School-University Partnerships: A New Way Forward" provides educational leaders in K-12 schools and colleges of education with insight, advice, and direction into the task of creating partnerships. In current times, colleges of education and local school districts need each other like never before. School districts struggle…

The centennial volume of "Review of Research in Education" ("RRE") takes a "retrospective, prospective" approach on a diverse range of education research topics spanning the last 100 years. While using historical trends as foundations for their chapters, the authors also look ahead to the most challenging issues and…

This volume presents the 2010 Yearbook of the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA). This year's theme is "Promoting Critical Ideas of Leadership, Culture and Diversity." This yearbook contains five parts. Part 1, Invited Chapters, includes the following: (1) President's Message: Critical Issues in…

Boulder County's long and well-documented history provides a unique opportunity to study the life of a school system, from its inception to the consolidation of its many districts almost 100 years later. The first three chapters of this book describe the establishment of school districts within Boulder County, the characteristics and working…

While the condition of rural school facilities varies across the country, most rural school districts face similar issues as they consider new facility construction, renovations, or additions. These issues are how to gain public support for funding, how to make the best use of local resources, how to design buildings that meet a variety of…

This is the 2011 Yearbook of the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA). This Yearbook contains five parts. Part I, Invited Chapters, includes: (1) NCPEA President's Message, 2011 (Gary W. Kinsey); (2) Shadows and Images II (Lloyd Duvall); and (3) Micropolitics in the School: Teacher Leaders' Use of Political Skill…

The rural school superintendency is, in many ways, as demanding and difficult as the urban superintendency. Chapter 1 of this book provides a working definition of a rural small school district, an estimation of the number of rural systems in the nation that fit the criteria, and a profile of rural small school superintendents. Chapter 2 discusses…

During the past two decades federal, state, and local school leaders have attempted to institute major changes in educational programs and organizational arrangements. Recent assessment studies reveal that the great majority of change efforts did not meet intended objectives. As a result, policy formulators have developed serious reservations…

Rural schools present unique challenges for school administrators, challenges that require knowledge of various skills in a range of disciplines. This book touches nearly every aspect of rural school leadership. It aims to help educational leaders in small or rural schools better understand their role, and to help all educators learn elements of…

This book examines the role of the educational service agency (ESA) in the process of enabling and facilitating rural school improvement. The introductory chapter discusses the continuing significance of rural education, service to rural districts as an explicit reason for establishing ESAs, and the characteristics of several types of ESAs.…

During a 6-month odyssey over America's back roads, 80 schools in 25 small school districts in 21 states were visited, in hopes of finding effective schools where smallness facilitated participation by all. District size ranged from 450 to 2,000 students. Data collection included observation of classes and meetings; group interviews of classes;…

From 1990 to 2000, a qualitative study of the implementation of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) was conducted in four small rural school districts in Kentucky. KERA reflects key components of what would later be termed "systemic reform": a unifying set of goals that all students must attain, a coherent system of instructional…

This illustrated book chronicles the history of the one-room school in the Midwest and its vital influence on American education from the pioneer era through consolidation after World War II. The Midwest's one-room schools were the most democratic in the nation. Located in small independent school districts, they were sustained with the barest of…