School Turnaround Principals: What Does Initial Research Literature Suggest They Are Doing to Be Successful?

As the research literature on principals leading school turnaround grows, determining whether or not real differences between good, even effective, principals and turnaround principals becomes increasingly important. Recent federal government policy and investment established turnaround models that emphasize the role of the school principal, suggesting that turnaround principals do need to be different than other principals in some meaningful ways. But any difference in skill or characteristic remains undefined. For this article, we conducted a systematic review of empirical research literature to identify studies of principals who led successful school turnaround initiatives. We reviewed 18 empirical studies to categorize the education leadership areas in which turnaround principals must excel. We also present the limited evidence regarding attitudes, traits, or perspectives principals leading turnaround should likely possess. Finally, we consider implications of our findings for research and practice.     

The Educational Challenge of Unraveling the Fantasies of Ontological Security

In this article we address the current context of intensified racialized state securitization by tracing its roots to the naturalized colonial architectures of everyday modern life—which we present through the metaphor of “the house modernity built.” While contemporary crises are often perceived to derive from external threats to the house, we argue that in fact these crises are a product of the violent and unsustainable practices that are required in order to build and sustain the house itself. As the structural integrity of the house increasingly comes under strain, there are different possible responses, three of which we review here. We conclude by asking what kind of education might enable us to imagine and practice alternative formations of existence in a context where the house appears to be crumbling, and, indeed, has always been a fantasy.     

Some Student Comparisons

Abstract

The First Feminist Revolution: In Adamless Eden: The Community of Women Faculty at Wellesley By Patricia Ann Palmieri New Haven. Conn.: Yale University Press. 1995. 382 pages. $35. Reviewed by Frieda A. Stahl.

An Essential Guide: Learning Networks A Field Guide to Teaching and Learning OnlineBy Linda Harasim, Starr Roxanne Hiltz, Lucio Teles, and Murray Turoff Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1995, 329 pages, $35. Reviewed by Roger H. Marty.     

Students' Understanding of the Library of Congress Call Number System

Students' ability to effectively understand and use call numbers to locate materials in the library is still an important skill in the digital age. This study explores students' perceptions of Library of Congress call number schemes and identifies the conditions that impede or facilitate students' successful location of desired library materials. Using a multiple case study design, this article describes the perceptions of undergraduate students who attend a 4-year public university in the Midwest. The findings suggest that students demonstrate little facility for locating books easily and independently, misinterpret call numbers in diverse ways, and do not fully understand the library's organization of materials.     

Planning for school turnaround in the United States: an analysis of the quality of principal-developed quick wins

Research suggests that high-quality school improvement planning reflective of the school’s needs and objectives is central to a principal’s success in leading a school. Some American scholars contend that successfully planned and executed “quick wins” are critically important to launching high-level organizational change processes necessary to turn around low-performing schools. Yet, lack of research suggests that the concept of quick wins may be built more on assumptions than evidence. In this study, we evaluate formal quick wins as planned by school principals participating in a turnaround leadership program in the United States. Our results suggest that principals struggle to develop high-quality quick wins despite their relative simplicity as an improvement planning starting point, especially in comparison with the development of traditional annual improvement or development plans. Finally, we consider the implications of these results in relation to traditional school improvement planning, especially in response to low-performing school contexts.     

The Development of Reasoning about Causal and Noncausal Influences on Levers

2 studies examined 5–12-year-olds' judgments regarding the behavior of balance scales and other levers whose arms varied in a causal (the number of equally weighted objects or their distances from the fulcrum) or a noncausal (the color, position, or orientation of objects) variable. There were age-related increases in correct judgments for each causal and noncausal variable, with children tending to make correct judgments about the influence of physical features of objects (their number and color) at an earlier age than they did about spatial relations between objects (their distance, orientation, and position). Children's patterns of errors judging the influence of causal (particularly distance) and noncausal (particularly position and orientation) variables were different, and there was no relation between children's correct judgments regarding causal and noncausal variables The results suggest that there are separate processes underlying children's ability to identify causal and dismiss noncausal influences on levers which are dependent on the kinds of features (physical or both physical and spatial) which children conceive of as potentially influencing the behavior of levers.