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Leadership is a critical component of creating and sustaining a school culture that promotes the inclusion and success of students. The purpose of this study was to examine how school leaders helped to enact and sustain a reformed Advanced Placement (AP) culture designed to increase participation and success of students of color. Building on existing work of transformative leadership, this study describes the experience and challenges of educational leaders in understanding how leadership practices change the AP culture. The case study method examined one mid-sized urban district in Southern California that utilized transformative leadership. The methods included 15 open-ended interviews with educational leaders in a variety of capacities (i.e., district leadership, school administrators, counselors, and teacher leaders). The findings demonstrated critical components leading to deep and meaningful cultural change in AP. The analysis showed leaders in this district, who sought equity, were driven to create meaningful change, and were grounded in the community. Being grounded in the community had a great impact in promoting a transformed culture at the classroom, site, and district level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated social justice from the point of view of school directors, teachers, and parents. We chose two schools that were undergoing major demographic changes because of increased immigration into Catalonia, Spain. They were both classified as "schools of maximum complexity" because of their socio-economic characteristics. The research questions focused on how directors, teachers, and parents give meaning to social justice and what actions they take to achieve it. Teachers and principals adopted practices that have been described in leadership literature as transformational, such as building trust and challenging the process; they only occasionally showed transformative practices like those described by Santamaria (2014) as applied critical leadership (ACL). They were motivated by seeing the needs of migrant families and students with special needs. They seriously considered social cohesion and believed that all students should be given the same opportunities and treated fairly. While these principals wanted to guide teachers to see their work in new ways and develop practices to address the needs of a changing student population, they did not reflect on the connection between day-to-day problems and the larger social system. This critical perspective is essential to ACL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Study of Principal Preparation has made major contributions to research on novice principals across the world. The network has carried out cross-cultural research on novice principals in 15 countries on five continents since 2004. ISPP employed a mixed methods research design. The first stage was qualitative and carried out through case studies and in-depth interviews. The second stage included narrative accounts of new principals. The third stage of the study employed a survey to gauge principals’ challenges. The chief question of the study was: How can principal preparation programs be useful to novice principals? In spite of cultural differences and economic development of the countries studied, the challenges faced by novice school principals had more commonalities than differences. They included feelings of professional isolation and loneliness, the style of the previous principal, management of time, multiple tasks, and priorities, the school budget (Liang, 2011), ineffective staff, implementation of new government initiatives, and problems with school buildings and site management. Two principal preparation frameworks are presented based on the findings. They highlight the importance of context over standardization. Recommendations are made in the areas of policy, practice, and research. Formal principal preparation programs should be expanded to both developed and developing countries. Beyond basic instruction on management issues, the ISPP frameworks argue for the development of a conscious identity as a professional and an entrepreneur who is rooted in place. These roles are important, but they must be understood within the broader social, political, and economic forces that are affecting their students. Principals need to be in a position to help teachers guide students to learn to be critical of the status quo and become agents of change for a more just community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an examination of two social justice leaders, one in Costa Rica and one in England. It is part of the International Study of Leadership Development Network, a multi-nation study of social justice and educational leadership. A brief discussion of the philosophy of social justice and an examination of the macro and micro context in each of the countries set the stage to understand the social perspective of the two school leaders. Interviews were conducted to construct a narrative to illuminate their views of social justice. A comparison of the leaders found more similarities than differences even though the settings in each country were quite different. They both felt that it was important to challenge inequities in society and demand that the government provide for all citizens; they emphasized respect for students; and, to some extent, they grounded their beliefs in faith. These narratives can be valuable for both practitioners and researchers to learn from the conceptions of social justice and the challenges of these leaders. Illuminating the agency of a school leader in one national context may stir the possibility of emancipation in another context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compared PISA 2009 student reading literacy scores with principal perceptions across three countries with varying levels of student performance: Korea, Mexico, and the United States. Seventy-five countries participated in PISA 2009, which measured 15-year-old children’s reading achievement and principal perceptions. The study explored the relationship of principals’ perceived levels of leadership, school autonomy, and use of test results with student attainment of reading literacy. School variables were treated as covariates when each effect of principal leadership was interpreted. All variables were included in a multilevel model and analyzed simultaneously. The means and standard deviations of outcome variables and the explanatory and control variables for the model of the study were calculated by taking into account sampling weights, as well as plausible values for reading literacy scores. SAS PROC MIXED was used to fit hierarchical linear models for the study. There was a positive relationship between student achievement in reading literacy and testing to improve instruction in all three countries—Korea, Mexico, and the United States—and there was a negative relationship between student achievement and lack of resources. Social, economic, and cultural status showed a positive relationship with reading literacy. To be specific, testing to improve instruction can be beneficial in all three countries when it is defined as using tests to group students for instructional purposes and to identify aspects of instruction or the curriculum that could be improved. Results also indicate that students are likely to achieve better if principals perceive that there are no shortages of personnel and equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper explores the different circumstances of newly appointed principals around the world. It is a literature review that examines articles from both English-speaking and non-English-speaking countries. Being a novice principal is stressful and even traumatic. Principals appear to feel unprepared for their role. The problem most common to all countries is interpersonal conflict. Principals have to serve as a sort of buffer to reduce shock due to contact. They gain tacit knowledge and become more confident as they learn on the job, but they do not necessarily become instructional leaders.1 [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article reviews recent literature in educational administration that supports the argument that leadership matters. School principals exert influence on teachers, who in turn affect student achievement. There is a need for an international approach both to replicate large studies and to use a narrative approach to study leaders in their historical and school context. Concepts and methods from adult development can provide an understanding of the role of the principal. Future research in educational administration should address the lives of principals expressed in their own voices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

After rejecting the extremes of complete coordina tion and no coordination in answering the question posed above, Patterson and Slater make a case for the middle ground. They then proceed to emphasize some points they consider essential to any educa tional program. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]