Over the past two decades, scholars and practitioners in a variety of industries have considered work redesign among a constellation of strategies to promote employee recruitment and retention, development, motivation, and performance. Although educational policymakers in the middle to late 1990s shifted their attention to standards, systemic…

Some indicators point to a potential shortage of school administrators. The principalship has grown more complex due to increased accountability and escalating social complexities. This qualitative study sought to understand why leadership-skilled women teachers choose to remain in the classroom rather than seek administrative positions. Despite…

This study moves from theory to practice to theory. Through multiple narratives, I present how theory and practice work together to produce praxis, defined as critical pedagogy. The story takes place through my experience as teacher and researcher, but it shows how the theory takes place in practice on many different levels. I present a critical…

Critical Friends Groups (CFGs) are vehicles for creating collective intentionality that reaches a shared end: increased opportunity for the disadvantaged to create equality of opportunity. Not that participating in CFGs is the only action educators can take to create moral schools; rather, moral schools reflect the beliefs, ends, and practices…

This study examined high school and middle school transition practices from the perspective of special education teacher leaders. Results indicated that the majority of schools offer functional curricula, social skills training, and an array of school-based functional learning opportunities. However, a significant number of schools did not provide…

School leaders deal with pressures, pitfalls, and opportunities every day. The authors maintain that creative leaders can keep schools moving in the right direction by reflecting on their natural talents and maximizing the strengths of their staff. This completely updated guide helps you assess your role as an administrator, shows how you might…

How can all students be provided with a first-class education with all the obstacles and challenges faced by today's schools? Based on his experiences growing up in the Mississippi Delta during the era of segregation, Clifton Taulbert shares time-honored principles that can transform the lives of the teachers, students, administrators, and staff…

Between 1996 and 1998, a team of teacher-consultants affiliated with the Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project (KMWP), Georgia, used support from Project Outreach of the National Writing Project to develop a model for promoting teacher leadership within individual urban schools and for their writing project site as a whole. Their model is not a…

This publication presents highlights from the 2001 National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) National Board Certified Teacher Leadership survey, which involved 2,186 questionnaires from National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs). The survey examined the leadership activities of NBCTs and how National Board Certification impacted…

These 10 papers address current approaches to teacher leadership and behavior management. Each paper demonstrates a commitment to support classroom teachers with practical action research in such areas as discipline and behavior management, effective teaching, teacher leadership, working with students who show behavioral-emotional disorders, and…

This paper addresses educational reform centering on teacher participation and leadership. Although schools have developed new mission statements and implemented strategic planning and site-based management in recent years, most schools are not set up to accept teachers in leadership roles. The literature suggests that our "new" schools…

Presents findings of a case study that examined the use of teacher leaders on an elementary school management team and perceptions of teachers and staff members. Team members were positive about using teacher leaders on a management team but found a need for clearer definitions of leadership roles and better communication between the staff and…

Examined leadership roles that classroom teachers filled within the University of South Carolina's Professional Development School (PDS) network. Focus-group discussions with participating teachers indicated that mentor teachers worked with preservice teachers in nontraditional ways, engaging in meaningful teaching experiences and instructing…

Uses health and openness metaphors to develop measures of organizational climate in a study of 86 middle schools. In addition to socioeconomic status, other aspects of school climate that significantly influence student achievement in basic skills are environmental press, collegial leadership, teacher professionalism, and academic press. Moreover,…

This article describes a long-term effort to improve student achievement in an urban school district through a unique school-university partnership. The Oak Park School District in Oak Park, Michigan, collaborated with Western Michigan University (WMU) to design and administer special master's and doctoral degree programs for nearly half the…