Reflections on “recognition and development of academic talent in educationally disadvantaged students”

The challenge for school administrators is to direct system-wide initiatives that redefine leadership in ways that support the use of proven practices and link administrative interventions to increased educational achievement for each student who has a disability and for all the students who are in their charge. Leadership that embraces evidence-based practices promises new opportunities for collecting and using data related to student achievement, and determining which leadership practices contribute toward positive student outcomes. Responsive administrative interventions that support teaching and learning, system-wide progress monitoring, and collaborative problem-solving, are suggested as methods for promoting effective school outcomes for all students. This discussion proposes that administrators who organize teams to implement responsive leadership interventions, strategies for system-wide progress monitoring, and problem-solving, create cultures for data-based decisions that link leadership initiatives to instruction and learning outcomes for students who have disabilities.     

Science in the schoolhouse: the critical role of the school leader

School-level administrative support has been identified as an essential component of programs that promote research to practice. In this discussion, I address the critical role that school leaders play in supporting special educators and ensuring effective instruction for students with learning disabilities. Emphasis is placed on the need for teachers to be supported by administrators who are knowledgeable about special education and for administrators to receive the preparation and guidance they require to support science in contemporary schools.     

Leadership challenges in an educational program at a UAE juvenile detention center: A contextual analysis

Effective school leadership is a vital component of successful educational organizations, and the increasing complexity of schools requires leaders to employ contingent skills and contextualized approaches. We examined administrative approaches and challenges at an educational center of a juvenile detention facility in Abu Dhabi. Qualitative data for analysis were collected through interviews from administrators, a social worker, and teachers. Specific challenges encountered by the leaders of the juvenile center included support and communication issues with parents, discontinuity in juvenile students’ education, organizational and systemic problems, policy constraints, managerial pitfalls following early releases, curriculum suitability and delivery issues, problems involving follow-up and progress management of students, and difficulties regarding the general motivation and rehabilitation of juvenile students. The findings illustrated the significance of leaders’ roles in juvenile education and the staff relationships that influenced the fulfillment of leaders’ roles.     

Technology and school leadership

As the demand for schools to become more effective and efficient learning communities increases, the need for principals to cultivate broad‐based, skilful participation in the work of leadership is essential. It is important for educational leaders to recognise the significance of their role in technology implementation and utilisation. They should be proficient in the use of technology and then provide leadership in the use of technology for administrative, instructional, and learning functions. Relatively few studies have empirically examined the level of computer use by principals, their perceived computer competence and their leadership style. This paper will report on these issues from an initial analysis of baseline data gathered from 30 secondary school principals in Tehran, a large province in Iran. Findings indicate that school principals spent a few times a week working on their computers and they had moderate levels of information technology competency. This paper also suggests that transformational leadership can help school leaders increase successful use of technology in schools. Hence, policy makers must design professional development programmes, such as leadership studies, in order to teach the components of transformational leadership: idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individual consideration to future administrators.     

Moral Leadership in the 21st Century: Everyone Is Watching—Especially the Students

Educational leaders continually must be vigilant about their actions as they speak volumes about the values that the leader supports. It is impossible for an educational leader to take an action without generating some comment about how things should be done—which by definition is moral action. What's more, everyone is watching—especially the students.

This article explores leadership relationships, interrelationships, and interdependence—and how administrative “moral leadership” rests with the institution's leader. First, it examines the concept of systems thinking to determine how relationships, support structures, and decisions made by school leaders impact the entire school—especially the students and the community at large. Second, it explores and furthers our understanding of moral leadership models by synthesizing concepts in the literature and offers a new paradigm of moral leadership for educational leaders in the 21st century.     

Leading sustainable schools: exploring the role of primary school principals

The purpose of the paper is to identify the kinds of leadership that are likely to support implementing and sustaining education for sustainable development (ESD) effectively in a primary school. The paper identifies links between ESD and principal leadership literature and constructs a conceptual model of the leadership practices needed for reorienting a school to ESD/education for sustainability. Aspects of the model are explored through Cypriot principals' views on leadership and reported leadership practices. Data were obtained by a nationally administered questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Outcomes indicated some enabling factors for ESD implementation such as encouraging teachers to engage in ESD programmes, collaborate with others and other ways of support which nevertheless reflect what is generally expected of school administrators without seeking deep change. Constraining factors included principals' reported lack of confidence in administrative skills for sustainable schools, limited willingness to challenge the status quo, limited engagement in actions important for supporting ESD activities and features of the national educational policy. Constraining factors pointed towards principals' limited commitment to ESD. The practical significance of the findings is that they identify specific areas of needed professional development for principals such as empowering staff, encouraging critique of current approaches and exploring alternative possibilities for curriculum, pedagogy and policy.     

What motivates students? A study on the effects of teacher leadership and students’ self-efficacy

Students’ educational motivation is significant for performance and achieving learning, but little is known about what fuels such motivation. Educational motivation is regarded as the drive and inner state that energise educational activities, facilitate learning and channel behaviour towards achieving educational goals. Educational motivation paves the way for students to learn and acquire the knowledge that is essential for successful study outcomes. This article aims to explore what determines students’ educational motivation. Building on the self-determination theory, we modelled the influence of teachers’ leadership and students’ self-efficacy on students’ educational motivation. We used survey data from a sample of upper secondary school students in Sweden; we received a total of 993 answers, equal to a response rate of 74%. The results show that students’ self-efficacy and teacher leadership are of extreme importance for students’ educational motivation, and that highly efficacious students lose most educational motivation when the teacher’s leadership is poor. The results thus support the importance of teachers’ leadership for encouraging student learning.     

Factors Influencing Word-of-Mouth Recommendations by MBA Students: An Examination of School Quality,Educational Outcomes,and Value of the MBA

Word-of-mouth recommendations from current students are an important source of influence when prospective MBA students are selecting a school. Based on a sample of 16,297 graduating MBA students, this paper uses multiple regression analysis to identify the factors that affect a school recommendation and to assess their relative importance. Separate models are developed based on prior research on service quality, educational outcomes, and perceived equity; then, variables from the separate models are combined into an overall model. Implications are discussed for school administrators and the marketing professionals who support them.     

Teacher Leadership and Organizational Structure

Traditional models of school organization favor peaked hierarchies that concentrate power and leadership responsibility on the office of the principal. As these models struggle to effectively meet the needs of education in the new millennium, leadership structures that distribute leadership influence and empower teachers to play a greater role in the leadership of the school, are slowly being implemented. This study examines the restructuring of school leadership at a school making the transition from a traditional elementary school to an Edison charter school and investigates the impact the new organizational structure had on teacher leadership. Qualitative data were collected over a four-year period during annual visits to conduct over 50 interviews with district administrators, school administrators, teachers, and the school support staff. The research findings indicate that the structure implemented at the Edison school differed greatly from traditional school leadership structures, as it successfully distributed leadership influence and enhanced the nature and scope of teacher leadership.     

School district consolidation in North Carolina: Impacts on school composition and finance,crime outcomes,and educational attainment

In this paper I analyze longitudinal data from North Carolina to study K-12 school district consolidations, or the merging of multiple districts into a single administrative unit. I use difference-in-differences and event study models to identify effects on theoretically related school- and district-level mechanisms as well as long-term youth outcomes. In contexts where districts consolidate, per-pupil expenditures on instruction and district support services decrease, and schools become more racially integrated. However, youth exposed to mergers are no more likely to be convicted of a crime in early adulthood than those unexposed. These null effects hold when looking at conviction rates by race and by type of crime and when analyzing another key outcome, educational attainment. My results thus provide causal evidence confirming prior research suggesting that consolidation may: 1) reduce the operational costs of schools without negatively affecting students, and 2) support efforts to address persistent racial isolation between schools.     

School Administrators’ Use of iPads: Impact of Training and Attitudes Toward School Use

As Apple iPads are increasingly being adopted in schools for educational purposes, school administrators are seen as the key facilitators in the implementation of this new technology. This survey-based quantitative study investigated the impact of receiving iPad training on school administrators’ attitudes towards iPad use in their professional lives and in the classroom by teachers. The participants consisted of 51 elementary and secondary school administrators in one of the largest public charter school systems in a southwestern state. School administrators reported that iPads were effective tools for administrative tasks and personal organization. Results also suggest that school administrators in this study had positive views regarding the potential of iPads’ current and future use in the classroom by teachers. Furthermore, the training process had a positive effect on the school administrators’ development of iPad skills and knowledge.     

Retaining Black Teachers: An Examination of Black Female Teachers’ Intentions to Remain in K-12 Classrooms

Sixty years after Brown v. Board of Education, retention trends indicate that there is a Black teacher shortage. Research shows that Black teachers’ retention rates are often lower than the retention rates of White teachers. Black teachers report low salaries, lack of administrative support, and other school variables as reasons for leaving the teaching profession. Seeking to alter the predominantly White, middle class teaching force and potentially impact students’ educational experiences, this qualitative study examines twelve Black female teachers’ intentions to remain in the K-12 classroom. Utilizing conventional content analysis, three themes emerged regarding the retention of Black female teachers. Conclusions, recommendations, and implications are offered for school administrators and educational policymakers.     

Aspiring School Administrators' Perceived Ability to Meet Technology Standards and Technological Needs for Professional Development

The merits of technology in general and of educational technology specifically are well documented. The use of educational technology has been shown to improve teaching and learning and the overall educational quality of schools. However, the successful integration of educational technology in schools hinges on school administrators' technology leadership abilities. The purpose of this study was to investigate aspiring school administrators' perceived ability to meet technology standards established by ISTE Standards for Administrators (formerly known as the NETS·A) and to determine which standards they wished to pursue for future professional development. Utilizing the ISTE Standards–A as a framework, a survey was created to decipher how aspiring school administrators perceived their own abilities to become leaders with foundational technology leadership skills. The findings showed that (a) the aspiring school administrators were more likely to indicate a need for professional development in technology utilization to meet the standards than they were to indicate their perceived current competence in meeting the technology standards and effectively utilizing technology in their schools; (b) when interests were examined by race, African American aspiring school administrators were more interested in pursuing professional development to enhance their abilities to perform the tasks than were Caucasian aspiring school administrators; and (c) there was a statistically significant difference between aspiring school administrators' average Perception and Interest scores. It appeared that in general, the participants perceived a greater need for professional development in technology standards than their perceived current ability to perform the standards.     

Teachers’ leadership: a maker or a breaker of students’ educational motivation

Teachers’ leadership plays a critical and central role in students’ educational motivations. This indicates that, in the school context, a teacher’s leadership can have both positive and negative impacts on students’ educational motivation and performance. This article explores these assumptions, building on the path-goal theory, more specifically the effects of teachers’ leadership from students’ perspectives. Using a qualitative research design, this study collected data comprising 35 interviews with children and young people in both primary and upper-secondary school. The results show that the degree of teachers’ developmental leadership greatly affects students’ educational motivation and school performance. Two contrasting teachers’ profiles were found: teachers with a high degree of developmental leadership and teachers with a low degree of developmental leadership. Our findings suggest that teachers with the profile of a high degree of developmental leadership create an environment that fosters educational motivation positively among students, facilitating students’ achievement of high performance levels and a sense of well-being about their studies. In contrast, we show that teachers with a low degree of developmental leadership create an environment that is nonconductive for educational motivation, performance or the welfare of schoolwork.     

学校课程领导主体系统探析

学校课程领导主体,是指在学校情境中利用权力和影响力实施课程领导,构建民主、合作的学校文化,促进学校课程发展,实现学校课程愿景的团体和个人。学校课程领导主体系统是一个多层次、多角色的复杂系统,由学校管理人员、教师、学生、家长、社区人员、课程专家等构成。整合学校课程领导主体系统,应使学校课程领导主体有意义、有能力、有条件参与学校课程领导,形成学校课程领导共同体,构建学习型学校文化。     

高校学籍管理系统的设计与开发研究

随着高等教育的普及,尤其是全国普通高等院校扩招以来,高校的教务管理人员面临急剧膨胀的学生学籍信息,手工机械的教务管理方式已不能满足现代大学教学管理的要求,高校教务管理信息化的要求越来越高。高校学籍学历管理系统最大的优势在于能够和教育部的学信平台成功对接,确保学生学籍学历的顺利申报和注册。在效率和规范上都有严格的技术规定,极大地提高学校教学管理的水平。     

Responding to students' needs in special schools in Ireland and England: findings from two schools

As more students with special educational needs attend mainstream schools, it is critical that the role and operation of special schools be examined. This article reports on two case studies, one special school in England and one in Ireland, which formed part of a national review of the role of special schools and special classes in Ireland. Two students, in each case study school, were shadowed and observed during two‐day visits by the research team. These students, and everyone belonging to them, were interviewed and relevant documents were analysed. Findings are discussed in terms of responding to students' needs through: organization of teaching and learning, curriculum, leadership, specialist staff, collaboration and links outside the special school. The implications are considered with reference to research, policy and practice and the authors conclude that the evidence provides support for maintaining the special school as an integral part of the continuum of educational provision for students with special educational needs.     

Perceptions of School and Aspirations of Rural Students with Learning Disabilities and Their Nondisabled Peers

This study examined the school perceptions and educational aspirations of 6,599 rural high school students, a sample that included 428 students with learning disabilities (LD). Regardless of disability status, rural high school students who had negative perceptions of school had less well‐defined postsecondary educational plans and less often aspired to complete college or pursue an advanced degree. Compared to nondisabled youth, rural students with LD were more likely to have negative perceptions of school and lower postsecondary aspirations. However, students with LD who had positive perceptions of school more often planned to pursue postsecondary education and aspired to complete college or an advanced degree. Implications for research and interventions pertaining to the educational attainment of students with LD are discussed.