Reflecting everyday experiences at schools around the country, this book presents a series of situations to be analyzed, compared, contrasted, studied and discussed by those who want to be part of this new approach to education and school leadership. The book aims to encourage and contribute to the reflection on the situations that school administrators, along with their teams, must confront and resolve in their roles as pedagogical leaders. Therefore, it is intended for future educational leaders to take charge in transforming their schools into institutions of educational excellence.
Rather than asking students to memorize rote recipes for action, this new book enhances students' ability to encounter new situations, assess relevant factors and decide on effective courses of action on their own. It offers valuable vicarious experiences and insights by combining case studies of actual beginning superintendents with analyses by experienced, knowledgeable professors of educational administration.
This book focuses on the changing role of the superintendent who now must lead with new skills in a time when the landscape of communities is shifting necessitating the mobilization of people through advocacy and activism alongside new partnerships with businesses, local governmental agencies, and community organizations. To lead districts, superintendents must ask new questions about current school structures while navigating changes in local, state, and federal education policies to ensure practices are aligned to meet the needs of all children. Key questions throughout the book help leaders create coherence in a system of change while leading the learning for members in the district and developing effective governance structures to empower leaders in making strategic decisions. Superintendents must focus efforts on leading systems to think through the world of information and digital access, so students can learn for tomorrow and to leverage social media to brand and support system-wide transformations. The frenetic work, role, and responsibilities of the superintendent requires personal and professional balance to be effective in leading districts and communities.
Building a High-Impact Board-Superintendent Partnership will consist of 11 brief chapters, each covering a critical question that practitioners need to answer in building the board-superintendent partnership
The 2020 AASA Decennial Study of the Superintendent is an extension of national decennial studies of the American school superintendent that began in 1923. The research was conducted in late 2019 and early 2020. The results are presented in various ways throughout the study, ranging from aggregate findings to two and three level crosstabs that disaggregate data by eight different enrollment categories. Just as findings from previous decennial studies suggested, the various job-related happenings of superintendents are not always homogeneous. They can be influenced by a multitude of factors such as district enrollment, demographic characteristics of the superintendents, and characteristics of the students and communities they serve.
Preparing school administrators for the challenges they will face requires materials well-informed about the nuts and bolts of education in real life. Only a richly detailed case study book like Short and Scribner's will provide them with the opportunity to analyze current issues. Each narrative chapter concludes with application questions and a list of references. The authors, some of the most respected American scholars on the superintendency have compiled cases grounded in research and reality. They explore topics such as the politics of education, the debate over merit pay, women in the superintendency, and the role of the superintendent as an instructor.
Case Studies for Educational Leadership gives educational leadership students an opportunity to project themselves into real-life administrative situations and prepare for their future positions in the field. Each case study contained in this practical first edition book asks students to analyze complex problems, consider the moral ramifications of their approach, think on their feet, and ultimately solve the issue at hand. Appropriate as a supplemental text or a main text to a range of educational leadership courses, this text thoroughly presents the key areas of educational leadership, including instructional leadership; ethics and management; organization and development of curriculum and its alignment with instruction with assessment; supervision of personnel; school community relations and strategic planning; and diversity issues in educational leadership. Features "Here's What Happened" features following each case study share the true-life story of a real school administrator and prepare readers for realistic situations. "Ethical consideration" components within each case study encourage students to reflect upon different approaches to solving the case studies, as well as the possible moral ramifications of each decision. Covers multiple administrative positions, such as department chair, assistant principal, principal and central office administrator, preparing readers for a range of educational leadership positions. ISLLC standards alignment and cross-reference charts allow readers to draw parallels between standards and case studies.
Parents, lawmakers, supervisors, and unions are among the many constituencies that demand influence, if not control, of the educational process. How does the school administrator balance all the needs of the various groups and still remain true to the ultimate, though most powerless constituency: the students? Through case studies and anecdotes based on real-life experiences, the authors share the ups and downs of the educational world, seeking to find the balance that is most effective in ensuring success. School Leadership:Case Studies Solving School Problems details decision making and actions taken that dramatically affect the success of students and schools as well as school systems. This second edition continues and improves on the first edition with a series of new and timely school leadership case studies that require the reader to reflect on the variety of issues that cross the principal's desk every day. The reader will find the case studies and anecdotes highly absorbing. They are so real, fraught with complexity, and will require the reader to use a sophisticated decision-making process.
Bridge the great divide between distanced administrative duties and daily classroom impact. This book introduces a top-down power mechanism called defined autonomy, a concept that focuses on district-defined, nonnegotiable, common goals and a system of accountability supported by assessment tools. Defined autonomy creates an effective balance of centralized direction and individualized empowerment that allows building-level staff the stylistic freedom to respond quickly and effectively to student failure.
