This article evaluates the "Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction: Reports of the Subgroups" (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000). The author also examines the…

In her 27 years as an administrator in Merrimack, New Hampshire, Marge Chiafery can legitimately claim to have seen the best of times and the worst. The high moments were the earlier years when Merrimack's job-sharing initiative, teacher evaluation system and middle school project promoting parent-child communication were emulated statewide. The…

In this article, the author, superintendent of the Nixa R-II School District, Nixa, Missouri, describes what it is like to work with a board of education that has been named the Outstanding School Board of the Year in its state twice since 2000? He feels that the keys to the strong superintendent-board relationship are effective communication and…

This article reports on ethics issues involving school leaders. Some superintendents have landed in murky ethical waters for their ties to for-profit companies, highlighting the temptations administrators face as industry and education increasingly intersect. Some questionable judgments by superintendents--from accepting company-paid trips to…

In this article, the author focuses on how to reinforce the anti-obesity lessons being taught at home with some solid school programs. She stresses the importance of addressing the problem of childhood obesity in the schools from the aspect of what school boards can do through policy, what administrators can do through better practices in the…

Most schools have a code of conduct, pledge, or behavioral standards, set by the district or school board with the school community. In this article, the author features some schools that created a new vision of instilling code of conducts to students based on work quality, respect, safety and courtesy. She suggests that communicating the code…

The author's advice for for a school board superintendent is to assume incompetence instead of malevolence. Board members who behave inappropriately are a minority, and those with malicious intent are extremely rare. Most misbehaving board members act out of frustration. They may not understand the appropriate role of a board member.…

The efficiency of America's school boards based on information from the past is examined.

After the quality of a school's teachers, the quality of a school's leaders is the most influential school-based factor affecting student learning, and research indicates that leadership impacts student achievement the most in academic settings serving students who traditionally have not done well in school. In an effort to provide high-quality…

Presented at the National Conference on Student Assessment in Orlando, hosted by the CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers), June 2008. This presentation explores use of the assessments within the classroom and how those choices can affect performance and learning.

This report offers an inside look into the world of the nation's best and brightest education leaders, its school superintendents. What makes these superintendents stand apart, however, is their sheer dedication to and success in finding new ways to teach, new approaches to communicate and listen to their communities, and new strategies to ensure…

This Backgrounder Brief is an executive summary of "Telling the Technology Story: PR Strategies for School Leaders," a component of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) Essential Leadership Skills Series. Public relations is a critical component of a district's successful technology implementation--and it involves communicating on an…

Headlines recently were full of studies about the obesity problem of America's children and young people, as if kids became overweight without anyone noticing. An accumulation of both school and family habits, however, have been contributing to the fact that at least 13% of children ages 7 to 11 are overweight, double those of the 1970s (and…

This study examines the role of district central offices in recruiting and hiring teachers and principals in an urban setting. Findings indicate many district human resources offices, particularly in urban settings, often lose quality candidates to suburban districts whose HR offices are better organized and pay closer attention to managing…

It is hard to win passage of a school construction bond--whether through a citizen referendum or the vote of a town council or general town meeting. Property owners' resistance to tax increases remains strong. Sizable segments of any local community--senior citizens, childless adults, parents who send their children to private school, and…