Unexplored Conditions of Charter School Principals: An Examination of the Issues and Challenges for Leaders, explores contemporary policy issues confronting charter school principals. The purpose of this book is to explore the issues and challenges confronted by charter school principals across an array of goals and expectations set forth by the policy and local context. By drawing on leadership and policy experts and researchers, we offer an in-depth examination of what current issues charter school principals face. Starting with autonomy, we work our way through teacher evaluation and succession and socialization and then conclude with an opportunity to reflect on what we know and how to look forward. By drawing on autonomy, sensemaking, teacher evaluations, and succession and socialization, this book traces the development of the charter principal within these policy contexts. Collectively, these topics form the beginnings of what we hope will be an informative and useful conversation of where the charter school principal has been and where they are headed.
This book provides a foundational understanding of the charter school principalship through the lens of culture, mission and vision. By drawing on the experts in the field of charter school research, this volume expands our understanding of the unique challenges facing the charter school principal as they engage in the core responsibilities of developing and sustaining charter schools. With this expanded knowledge practitioners and policy makers are positioned to ponder and engage in improved practice, while researcher can further expand the knowledge base surrounding the charter principal.
Updated to reflect the latest developments and increasing scope of school-based options, the second edition of the Handbook of Research on School Choice makes readily available the most rigorous and policy-relevant research on K–12 school choice. This comprehensive research handbook begins with scholarly overviews that explore historical, political, economic, legal, methodological, and international perspectives on school choice. In the following sections, experts examine the research and current state of common forms of school choice: charter schools, school vouchers, and magnet schools. The concluding section brings together perspectives on other key topics such as accountability, tax credit scholarships, parent decision-making, and marginalized students. With empirical perspectives on all aspects of this evolving sphere of education, this is a critical resource for researchers, faculty, and students interested in education policy, the politics of education, and educational leadership.
Leading in Change: Implications for School Leadership Preparation in England and the United States considers the ways in which school leadership, and its preparation has changed and developed in response to a rapidly changing educational scenario over the past decade. Drawing together leading thinkers, researchers, and practitioners in the field of school leadership and management this text takes an international perspective to consider what we know about school diversification, and school leadership preparation. Theoretically and conceptually informed, the contributors’ draw on recent empirical research studies and practitioner experience into school leadership preparation to examine how neoliberal and neoconservative policies are working in unison to privatize and corporatize public schools. It looks at how these policies have impacted the preparation of school leaders. In addition to information, critique, and analysis, multiple perspectives are provided that readers can draw upon to ensure aspiring school leaders are successfully prepared to lead in a diversified and corporate school context. The book is divided into three sections. In the first section key topics covered include: • Relationship between school corporatization and leadership preparation in England and the United States • Comparative analysis of US charter schools and UK academy trusts Section two is focused on England. Key topics covered include: • System leadership and governance in networked systems • Role of a specialist leader • Role of social capital in the leadership of academy and free schools • Building leadership capacity • Women's leadership preparation in the independent sector Section three is focused on the United States. Key topics covered include: • Overview of current education reform, issues and challenges for school leadership • Historical analysis of standards for educational leadership preparation programs • Preparing charter school leaders, emerging challenges and opportunities • Role of a growth mindset in principal preparation programs • School leadership preparation and development in one state Leading in Change: Implications for School Leadership Preparation in England and the United States is essential reading for those who work, study, or research in k-12 school reform. Contributors examine the current research and best practices on present school leadership preparation programs in England and the US adding to the discourse on effective training methods for 21st century school leaders. Given the crucial importance of leadership for effective school performance, a number of strategies are proposed by chapter authors to help future school leaders operate successfully in demanding and changing times.
This is a book about educational leadership. It tells the stories of 7 educational leaders who made the difficult decision to change their school to public charter school status. Several of the stories are told by those leaders themselves. Their journeys span over 25 years in many cases. The authors also conducted follow-up interviews, dialogues, and investigations to investigate the keys to their sustained success over time. These leaders all possessed an unwavering commitment to their school communities and maintained unusual dedication to their stakeholders.
The Journal of School Leadership is broadening the conversation about schools and leadership and is currently accepting manuscripts. We welcome manuscripts based on cutting-edge research from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological orientations. The editorial team is particularly interested in working with international authors, authors from traditionally marginalized populations, and in work that is relevant to practitioners around the world. Growing numbers of educators and professors look to the six bimonthly issues to: deal with problems directly related to contemporary school leadership practice teach courses on school leadership and policy use as a quality reference in writing articles about school leadership and improvement.
Introduction In everyday life, working class people come across many situations where they have to cope with many situations and conditions, putting them in a lot of stress. Stress has become an inevitable part of human life in modern times. It is becoming a global phenomenon affecting all genres of people. The optimum level of occupational stress poses a risk to most organizations. “Teachers in particular not only have the stress of dealing with so many diverse children on a day to day basis; they are also entitled with educating and helping to mold these children into productive members of society. With rules, regulations, guidelines and performance expectations can induce very high levels of stress; the job can be demanding and has hardly any relief. Quite often teachers must take their work home overnight or on the weekends in order to be prepared for the next class or session on the field, or the teachers will have to score the test given to the children, in free time, which is possible only when he/she gets home. The traditional summer break that so many teachers once looked forward to, has began to reduce over the past few years, as well with most schools beginning to adopt block schedules which require yearlong school sessions with no more than nine week vacation period”(Kaur, 2011).
The Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS) is a one-year follow-up of a sample of approximately 8,400 teachers who were originally selected for the teacher component in the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). This report examines the characteristics of teachers who left the teaching profession between the 1999-2000 and 2000-01 school years (leavers), teachers who continued teaching but changed schools (movers), and teachers who continued teaching in the same school in 2000-01 (stayers).
This report examines the operational and educational changes that school administrators attribute to charter schools. It is part of the U.S. Department of Education's 4-year study to document and analyze the charter-school movement. The study asked two questions: What changes have districts made in district operations and district education that can be attributed to charter schools? and Under what conditions do charter schools affect change in district operations and district education? To answer these questions, researchers conducted in-depth site visits in 14 school districts and interviewed by telephone administrators in 35 other districts. The results indicate that every district in the study reported being affected by charter schools and, accordingly, had made operational changes. Nearly half of the district leaders believed that their diminished budgets were attributable to charter schools and had begun tracking the number of students who attended these schools. Likewise, almost half of these leaders reported becoming more customer-service oriented, increasing their marketing and public-relations efforts, or heightening their frequency of communication with parents. Most districts also implemented new educational programs, made changes in educational structures in district schools, and/or created new schools with programs that were similar to those in the local charter schools. (Contains 20 references.) (RJM)
