With dwindling funds and resources, tougher state and federal standards, and fatigue from more regulations and testing, many school administrators are giving up _or 'crashing' and leaving their posts. This book examines the process of preparing, encouraging, and retaining quality leaders at the school and district levels. Beginning with a chapter outlining six steps of critical organizational supports, subsequent chapters address factors in preparing administrator candidates effectively; improving novice teacher retention through principal support and mentoring; utilizing more fully mid-career teachers who come to schools having worked outside of education; the role of isolation in new principals' sense of efficacy; research findings about assistant superintendents about job satisfaction, efficacy, and ambitions for promotion; and finally, contemporary leadership challenges existing at the superintendent level. Concluding with thoughts about administrator accountability, the various chapters offer contemporary views on the preparation, utilization, and retention of school administrators throughout the life cycle. The chapters provide needed insight into what should and must be done to grow the best leaders for US schools.

Preparing Principals for a Changing World provides a hands-on resource for creating and implementing effective policies and programs for developing expert school leaders. Written by acclaimed author and educator Linda Darling-Hammond and experts Debra Meyerson, Michelle LaPointe, and Margaret Terry Orr, this important book examines the characteristics of successful educational leadership programs and offers concrete recommendations to improve programs nationwide. In a study funded by the Wallace Foundation, Darling-Hammond and the team examined eight exemplary principal development programs, as well as state policies and principals' experiences across the country. Using the data from the study, they reveal how successful programs are structured, the skills and knowledge participants gain, and what they are able to do in practice as school leaders as a result. What do these exemplary programs have in common? Aggressive recruitment; close ties with schools in the community; on-the-ground training under the wing of expert principals, and a strong emphasis on the cutting-edge theories of instructional and transformational leadership. In addition to highlighting the programs' similarities, the study also explains the differences among the programs and sheds light on the effectiveness of approaches and models from different states and contexts?East, West, North, and South; urban and rural; pre-service and in-service. The authors analyze program outcomes for principals and their schools, including illustrative case studies and educators' voices on the influence of programs' strategies for recruitment, internships, mentoring, and coursework. The ideas and suggestions outlined in Preparing Principals for a Changing World are presented with the goal of increasing the number of highly qualified, thoughtful, and innovative educational leaders.

A volume in International Research on School Leadership Series Editors Alan R. Shoho and Bruce G. Barnett, University of Texas at San Antonio Our fifth book in the International Research on School Leadership series focuses on the use of data in schools and districts as useful information for leadership and decision making. Schools are awash in data and information, from test scores, to grades, to discipline reports, and attendance as just a short list of student information sources, while additional streams of data feed into schools and districts from teachers and parents as well as local, regional and national policy levels. To deal with the data, schools have implemented a variety of data practices, from data rooms, to data days, data walks, and data protocols. However, despite the flood of data, successful school leaders are leveraging an analysis of their school's data as a means to bring about continuous improvement in an effort to improve instruction for all students. Nevertheless, some drown, some swim, while others find success. Our goal in this book volume is to bring together a set of chapters by authors who examine successful data use as it relates to leadership and school improvement. In particular, the chapters in this volume consider important issues in this domain, including: - How educational leaders use data to inform their practice. - What types of data and data analysis are most useful to successful school leaders. - To what extent are data driven and data informed practices helping school leaders positively change instructional practice? - In what ways does good data collection and analysis feed into successful continuous improvement and holistic systems thinking? - How have school leadership practices changed as more data and data analysis techniques have become available? - What are the major obstacles facing school leaders when using data for decision making and how do they overcome them?

Features lessons learned about the successful implementation of leadership program preparation and development programs that are grant-funded by the United States Department of Education through the School Leadership Program.

Keeping and Improving Today's school leaders examines the process of sustaining and retaining quality leaders at the school and district levels. Beginning with a foreword by Michelle D. Young on the importance of administrative leadership in schools, subsequent chapters address the following: six steps of critical organizational supports for leaders; the need for socializing assistant principals into their roles; administrators' perceptions of their administrative teams; school routines and rituals; the need for administrator mentoring of Latino/a leaders; and the relationship between superintendent leadership and principal job satisfaction and efficacy. Concluding with thoughts about retaining and sustaining the best leaders in dynamic environments, the chapters offer contemporary views on retaining and encouraging school administrators throughout the life cycle. The chapters provide needed insight into what should and must be done to develop the best leaders for U.S. schools. --From cover.

In today's demanding school environment, many of the principals in your district will retire or leave the job within a few years. Instead of scrambling to fill vacancies, use the ideas and advice in this practical guide to keep a constant supply of high-quality school leaders. Discover a plan for leadership development that helps you * Assess and improve your organization's ability to attract and retain good administrators. * Identify prospective candidates and analyze their leadership qualities. * Groom future school leaders and support their first years on the job. * Reduce the stress that principals experience in their daily work. Handy charts and checklists help you implement your plan. Plus, each chapter brings you up-to-date on innovative ideas such as teaching assistant principals, university partnerships, apprenticeships, and internships.

The purpose of this work is to broaden the scholarly dialogue in educational leadership and to address the changing role of the American school principal in the twenty-first century with regard to increasing diversity in the United States. This book seeks to provide theoretical and practical insight into the role of school principals dealing with an ever-increasing multicultural student population. We cover an array of issues that we believe are critical in order for the twenty-first century school principal to be effective and relevant. A primary inquiry that needs to be made is: Are school leaders taking seriously the increasing social and cultural diversity in their schools? It is the school principal who sets the tone for the school culture and who provides the vision as to the direction of the organization. We endeavor to help scholars and practitioners have a better understanding of the importance of the diversity of their students, and to give them the tools to appropriately lead schools in ways that ensure all students, regardless of their life circumstances and status, are provided a school climate that promotes high academic achievement and a sense of belonging.