首页 | 本学科首页   官方微博 | 高级检索  
相似文献
 共查询到20条相似文献,搜索用时 421 毫秒
1.
Careful evaluation of principals can help school systems to ensure that they have effective principals and effective schools. This study investigated policies and practices used by school systems in Alberta, Canada, to evaluate principals. Nearly all the superintendents in Alberta and a sample of recently appointed principals participated in the study. Three sources of data were used: (1) policy documents supplied by superintendents; (2) questionnaires completed by superintendents and principals; and (3) interviews with ten superintendents and ten principals. The results revealed substantial diversity among practices of principal evaluation, several constraints upon effective evaluation, the complexity of the evaluation function, substantial differences between the opinions of superintendents and principals about the importance of evaluation purposes, and the potential for positive effects for school districts of this evaluation activity.  相似文献   

2.
The public school superintendency in the United States is overwhelmingly socially constructed as masculine even though the educator workforce from which superintendents are drawn is 75% female. Predictably, those who teach, research and write about the superintendency in the US, again overwhelmingly male, have largely reinforced the sexist gendering of this critical leadership position. In contrast, this study explores how three women superintendents engaged, in a complex fashion, the gendered social construction of the super intendency as they conducted the daily work of leading school districts in the state of Texas. This study also verifies for feminists in other national contexts the critical need for feminist research to be conducted in a wide variety of national contexts, especially because the feminist work of one specific context may be very different than that of another. The study ends with recommendations that fit Texas and the US at the beginning of the 21st century.  相似文献   

3.
Data on selected characteristics of superintendents of American residential schools for the Deaf were gathered in a 1999 survey. The resulting profile of superintendents of residential schools was then compared with a profile of superintendents of public elementary and secondary schools that had been compiled in 1992 by the American Association of School Administrators. The study population consisted of the lead administrators of the 72 residential schools for the Deaf in operation in the United States at the time of the survey. One particularly note-worthy finding was that these superintendents reported the same beliefs about their essential responsibilities that had been reported by superintendents of public elementary and secondary schools. The greatest disparity between the two groups of superintendents was in how they characterized their relationships with their governing boards: Generally, the residential school superintendents reported relationships that were less formal. The study, apparently the first attempt to profile superintendents of American residential schools for the Deaf, establishes a baseline for future studies of this kind.  相似文献   

4.
This article describes the independent study project of a student who was a graduate assistant in a child development laboratory preschool when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast area. Through her experiences with “Project Katrina” she deepens her understanding of developmentally appropriate practices as she learns firsthand about the project approach and writing an article for publication in a professional journal.  相似文献   

5.
A graduate student in early childhood education discusses observations of his children during and after Hurricanes Rita and Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. He relates his use of responsive parenting and provides examples of his children's learning and play that emerged after the storms. He reflects upon how aspects of developmentally appropriate practice are applicable to parenting and how teachers may support reciprocal relationships with families.  相似文献   

6.
The negative consequences of school desegregation on Black families, educators, and communities in the US are well documented in education research today. The purpose of this article is to examine the experiential knowledge and wisdom of practice of former Black school superintendents who attended all Black segregated schools and led desegregated school districts. Using critical race theory as a methodological and analytical framework, I seek to advance our understanding of how the positive aspects of valued segregated schools can improve Black education today. Findings include Black superintendent reflections of and calls to action concerning separate and unequal schooling contexts according to the following constituencies: the Black community, the Black parent, the Black teacher, and the Black student. Building on the participant directives for political engagement and community-based activism, I conclude with a discussion about transforming Black education through a political race project aimed to resist educational inequities, advance racial justice, and promote social change in education.  相似文献   

7.
We report on how fifty superintendents (chief executive officers of public school systems, each invited by a researcher to participate) from seven states in the US talked in eight focus groups of their perspectives on their influence as leaders, their efforts to communicate with stakeholders, and how they learn from these stakeholders. We maintain that our participants’ revelations suggest that three definitions must be expanded to fit their work. First, influence or authority must be seen not merely as vested in the superintendent; rather, these superintendents described their leadership in terms of working with and through others. Second, organizational communication for these superintendents is more than the district’s leader communicating his or her perceptions and wishes to others; it is more relational, in which a variety of actors communicate their perspectives to one another. Third, this type of inter‐professional leadership leads logically to relational mentoring, where learning does not pass merely from expert to novice; rather, superintendents described their roles in terms of various parties learning from and teaching one another. We discuss implications of these insights for practice, research, and preparation.  相似文献   

8.
In this case study, teacher inquiry groups from 3 school districts engaged and transformed various facets of their professional knowledge and practice in the context of science education. To examine the nature of teacher learning, a 3-part teacher knowledge and learning framework, proposed by Cochran-Smith and Lytle in 1999, was adopted (knowledge-for-practice, knowledge-in-practice, and knowledge-of-practice). While 16 school-based inquiry groups participated in the collaborative action research project, one case study involving a primary teacher, Katrina, is highlighted to illustrate outcomes related to the role of collaborative inquiry in supporting teacher learning, contextual issues and concerns that impact teachers’ daily classroom practice, and the types of knowledge generated by teachers within collaborative inquiry communities.  相似文献   

9.
Superintendents and school board presidents from the 100 largest school districts in the nation were surveyed to determine the major problems confronting these education leaders. Both superintendents and school board presidents were in agreement on most concerns, including the top three major problems. They are in complete agreement that finance and related worries are the most important problems they face. The survey identified several critical variables, including the superintendents' age, gender, and experience; the school board presidents' gender and experience; and the school districts' size, geographical region, metropolitan setting, and ethnic student profile.  相似文献   

10.
Any serious debate or discussion about the No Child Left Behind Act's prospects for success in rescuing students, who historically have not been well-served by the nation's public schools, must include the important voices of local school superintendents, who are charged with implementing the many disparate elements of the law's main provisions. As might be predicted, those voices are not unanimous in their support for this historic federal education policy measure. Though some superintendents view the law as a helpful and supportive part of overall school reform strategy building on local and state accountability initiatives, others see it as a punitive and draconian measure designed to build the case for vouchers and other private sector provider schemes by arguing that public schools have failed in many communities in America. This discussion concludes with the fervent hope that federal policy researchers in the next decade will focus both attention and resources on the many unresolved questions of implementation associated with this landmark measure.  相似文献   

11.
In developing the next generation of school leadership, school districts across the United States and internationally must consider who is being promoted, the training they are able to access beyond traditional university degree work, the schools in which these emerging leaders enter their first principalships, and how prepared these new leaders are to succeed and remain in the role. This study explores international literature regarding school leader, particularly new leader, development, and placement. The study discusses what is happening internationally in terms of the gender distribution of school leaders and the literature of non-traditional leadership development. To explore gender, race, and ethnicity in hiring and promotion practices, the study employs the methodology of case study analysis. This case study analysis formed from a need to understand the changing dynamics of race, gender, and ethnicity in school leadership in four American school districts participating in a non-traditional regional leadership development programme. These districts, in the Richmond, Virginia (USA) metro area, are experiencing changing student demographics by race, ethnicity, and socio-economic status. Specifically, the study addresses the demographic profile of those seeking leadership, the changing demographics of these communities, and the professional assignment of participating early career leaders.  相似文献   

12.
A professional learning community (PLC) facilitates collaborative learning among colleagues at all levels in their common working environment. PLCs are particularly useful in schools, with teachers and principals meeting regularly to solve problems relating to teaching and learning. Being a means of improving student achievement, PLCs have received growing support from researchers and practitioners alike, yet some professionals are still exploring ways to develop learning networks focusing on teaching and learning issues. The purpose of this study was to examine Israeli teachers’, principals’, and superintendents’ perceptions of inhibiting and fostering factors of the PLC. In this qualitative, topic-oriented study, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 15 teachers from elementary, middle and secondary schools and their respective principals (15) and superintendents (15). Generating themes was inductive, grounded in the perspectives articulated by participants. The principals and the teachers indicated that overload, a lack of resources and top-down commands were PLC-inhibiting factors. The superintendents saw the principal’s leadership style as a main PLC-fostering factor. Understanding how these three echelons in the school system perceive the inhibiting and fostering factors of a PLC could indicate whether and how this collaborative learning process can be nurtured and sustained in schools.  相似文献   

13.
This article describes the independent reading and research project of an early childhood education graduate student who taught in a school district heavily impacted by Hurricane Katrina. She surveyed a sample of kindergarten teachers in the district to determine how they were responding in the aftermath of Katrina. The voices of teachers reflect their personal and professional struggles as they went about teaching in a post-Katrina world. She describes the challenges she faced in completing this project and what she learned through this experience.  相似文献   

14.
In this article we examine the nature of administrative control of school principals in 12 especially effective districts in California. We combined two lines of inquiry, knowledge regarding control in organizations and information from the teacher effects and school effectiveness research, to examine types and patterns of control mechanisms in these districts. Although the work reported herein is exploratory in nature, we see evidence that, contrary to the norm, supervision and evaluation of site level administrators were rational and meaningful processes in these effective districts. We report further that the supervision and evaluation functions appeared to form important linkage mechanisms between schools and districts. In addition, we note that supervision and evaluation provide a strong base for the development of other important linkage functions, especially goal setting. Finally, we report that the superintendents often appear to be the key figures in the supervision and evaluation functions in these effective school districts.  相似文献   

15.
In urban districts, homeless and highly mobile students are an important contributor to achievement disparities—and their numbers are rising. To date there has been little inquiry into how broader education and housing policies shape the schooling experiences of homeless and highly mobile families. Using semi-structured interviews with 132 key community stakeholders (parents, school social workers, other school staff, and community/service personnel) in one urban area, this study explored how families living at the policy intersection of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act and federal rehousing policies, such as the HEARTH Act, experience the schooling process. These policies have important impacts on students; the McKinney-Vento Act provides them with a range of supports while recent federal policies such as the HEARTH Act are shifting where and how they are living. Taking a policy perspective and drawing insights from Lin’s network theory of social capital, the findings suggest that these policies both independently and concomitantly shape families’ life opportunities. Implications for schools, communities, and scholars are addressed.  相似文献   

16.
The school district is the fundamental administrative unit of schooling in the United States and the superintendent the lead official. The nature and the challenges of this position, however, vary across the landscape. Because most superintendents lead rural districts, the challenges facing those districts are the ones that typically bedevil the superintendency overall (perhaps a surprising thought to many readers). From this vantage, we theorize such challenges overall, and illustrate the theory with three episodes: (1) the continuing threats of school and district consolidation; (2) the arrival of ethnic diversity in previously all-White rural places; and (3) the leasing of school lands for mining, with a focus on hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”).  相似文献   

17.
The presumed link between schooling and the economy has been a prime force in motivating educational reform proposals in many countries. Educators feel caught between expectations by many that schools will play a key role in labour market success for young people and the reality that their influence on labour market outcomes is relatively weak. Solving the problem is not possible, but neither is ignoring it. Schools face an intractable yet compelling problem.This paper looks at the way in which school districts in a Canadian province understand and try to respond to changes in the labour market and the nature of work. The paper is based on collaborative case studies of five school districts and surveys of school board members and chief superintendents. We conclude that people in school systems are aware in a general way of labour market changes, and see them as having negative implications for students. However the changing job situation seems to be an important but largely unanalyzed issue. There is relatively little discussion of school-work issues in schools and districts. Administrators and school board members rely on informal sources of information rather than gathering data about their own situation. Schools and districts are using various programmatic devices to address labour market needs, such as partnerships, work experience, or co-operative education, but all of these operate within the confines of a traditional model of schooling. None of the districts has a strategy for this issue or has made it a priority.We conclude with some suggestions for measures schools could reasonably take to respond more effectively to the impact of changes in work.  相似文献   

18.
ABSTRACT

This paper contains a brief review of the research literature on superintendents’ leadership for school improvement as an introduction. Following that, the patterns of five superintendents’ leadership that evolved in five school improvement sites is reported; the activities in which the superintendents engaged in five quite different organizational settings is the focus. In addition, the strategies and events used by external assisters assigned to the sites to develop and enhance leadership behaviors are shared. The paper concludes with a short discussion of the unique conditions and influences on rural superintendents and their leadership for increasing educational effectiveness.  相似文献   

19.
Conclusion Supervision, the most prevalent of the control mechanisms studied, was used in all of the schools to varying degrees. The frequency of superintendent visits fluctuated between a high of almost every day, in the case where the superintendent and the principal shared the same facility, to two times a year. Superintendents did visit schools without formal sessions with the principals. Several principals described their superintendents' visits as informal walk-throughs. District size did not influence the frequency of supervision by the superintendents. Schools in both large and small districts received roughly the same number of visits. Ninety-two percent of the principals received a medium or high number of visits. In some schools, particularly unit districts composed of grades kindergarten through 12, principals were evaluated by associate superintendents for secondary education. Central office personnel usually visited several times each month. Principals from large districts received fewer visits from central office staff than did principals from medium or small districts. Most principals perceived the visits by their superintendents and central office personnel as nonthreatening. When superintendents and central office administrators visited schools, they added to the system of control by collecting information about all aspects of schooling, including the climate. In general, principals perceived supervision as light, and felt that schools and principals were afforded considerable autonomy.Vanderbilt University  相似文献   

20.
The combined impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 left the education system in the Gulf Coast region of the United States with tremendous challenges to rebuild infrastructure, reestablish services, and accommodate the movements of students that occurred as result of the storms. This article focuses on Louisiana's public school students, of whom 1/4 were displaced as a result of the storms. It explores the experiences of students and the effects of student movements on student achievement and on the state's public education system during the first academic year following the hurricanes. Results suggest that, overall, the education system handled the disruptions of the disaster relatively well. However, more detailed examinations show that some displaced students had problems such as nonenrollment or poor attendance, mental health or behavioral problems, and academic setbacks. Negative achievement effects, which were small overall, were most pronounced among students who remained displaced for the duration of the academic year, and appeared to be mitigated by students' tendency to enroll in schools with higher student performance than their original schools. Additional results show that the negative effects were associated with both the number of schools attended and the amount of school time lost. However, these analyses do not include the displaced students who did not reenroll in a Louisiana public school. These students constitute more than a 1/4 of displaced students and tended to be those who are most at risk for poor academic outcomes.  相似文献   

设为首页 | 免责声明 | 关于勤云 | 加入收藏

Copyright©北京勤云科技发展有限公司  京ICP备09084417号