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Copyright of School Administrators is the property of School Administration Research Association, R.O.C. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Schools in the US and across the globe are increasingly engaged in marketing practices to attract and retain students and families. This study examines why and how administrators and school board members in two public school systems in the US seek to market their schools. Using in-depth case studies, a socio-cultural approach to policy, and critical race perspectives, I trace administrators’ and school board members’ logics about marketing, and specifically their emphasis on marketing the racial ‘diversity’ of their students. I find that despite differences in economic circumstances and community orientations to racial inclusion, leaders in these two competitive, under-resourced, and demographically changing school districts target upper- and middle-class White families, draw on discourses of global cosmopolitanism, and commodify racial diversity as a competitive advantage for upper- and middle-class White families that leaders believe do not see inherent value in students of color. This attempt to use racial diversity as a ‘selling point,’ varies in its particularities in each district-one district acknowledges and emphasizes how all students may gain from interracial and intercultural interactions and knowledge while the other district leverages abstract notions of diversity, removed from actual children of color - a consequence, in part, of district leaders’ uniquely racialized marketplaces. I conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with Jason Sachs, Ben Mardell, and Marina Boni, who are all involved with early childhood educators for Boston Public Schools school district in Massachusetts. Sachs offers a description of the school district, citing its size, key challenges, and strategic initiatives. Mardell talks about the Boston Listen program and its link to the system's challenges and strategies. Boni discusses what brought her to the Boston Public Schools and her experiences in early-childhood education.

This article presents a case study examining the demise of a high school Mandarin language program in a school district that appeared to offer an exceptionally friendly habitat for its survival. Though members of the school board majority who voted against funding the program offered rational explanations for their decision (e.g., insufficient fiscal and human resources), other case evidence revealed the influence of emerging political polarization. Using policy ecology theory and event ecology analytic lenses, evidence indicated the fundamental cause of program failure to be political climate change within the district ecosystem resulting from years of community conflict over a high school renovation proposal. The climate shift led to the election of a factionalized school board, whose first budgetary action was to cancel funding for the Mandarin program, despite its popularity and established position within district strategic planning. We argue that much present and prior theory on organizational action lacks the dynamic perspective necessary to account for the type of climate and policy changes described in the present case. Our study thus highlights the usefulness of ecological theory in understanding the threats posed to small yet valued policy species by emerging, politically toned policy streams, school board factionalism, and ideological voting patterns. We argue that this phenomenon poses particular risks for local public school governance during times of resource uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the benefits, obstacles and challenges in implementing the balanced scorecard (BSC) in non-higher education public schools, more specifically, in a Portuguese school district. Design/methodology/approach – An action research approach was used to develop a BSC, help to implement changes and reflect about the outcomes. Findings – The paper presents the BSC for the school district and discusses five benefits, two obstacles and three challenges that emerged from the study. While some findings are in line with those found in other levels of education, others seem to be context-specific. Research limitations/implications – The results refer to a single intervention in Portugal and the methodology used precludes any generalization attempts. Practical implications – The findings are particularly relevant to the Portuguese context, providing evidence that the BSC can overcome some weaknesses of schools in the area of strategic management, as identified by the literature. They also raise implications for the wider field of the BSC's use in non-higher education public schools, suggesting reasons why things may go wrong. The results may be of value to practitioners wishing to make the implementation of the BSC more effective. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the scarce body of literature on the application of the BSC to non-profit organizations by providing an understanding of its possible benefits, obstacles and challenges in non-higher education public schools. It shows how the BSC methodology can be adapted to fit the specific requirements of a school district. This is one of the first papers to discuss an application of the BSC to non-higher education public schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the recent histories of the urban public school districts of St. Louis, Missouri and Cincinnati, Ohio in the United States of America. The purpose was to identify the similar challenges that each had recently faced in regard to the maintenance and development of its public school systems, as well to gauge the level of community support for the numerous reforms proposed by local education officials in each city over the past decade. After a critical review of the research and applicable theory, the authors offer suggestions for solidifying the future success of each system with examples of positive experimentation occurring in these cities and others. The city of St. Louis received the primary focus, as its enrollment and monetary problems tend to revolve back several years before similar issues surfaced in a comparable manner in Cincinnati. Each city was also examined in its particular historical context, with the accompanying educational, political, and social issues which have manifested themselves to the present state of affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

After two failed referendum attempts and facing serious budget shortfalls, the Franklin Township Community School Corporation in Indianapolis became the first public school district in Indiana to eliminate their existing school-provided transportation services for all general education students. This article explores the background and rationale behind this landmark decision, as well as economic and policy consequences for Indiana's K-12 public schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to paint a portrait of an African American public school administrator, capturing the essence of his leadership style and educational philosophy during extremely challenging circumstances. This portrait reveals the many creative ways that this administrator handled discipline, secured resources, and ultimately impacted the lives of many students in his district. This research is important in light of the fact that schools across the nation are returning to segregation and an increase in Black superintendents is concomitant with this increase in predominately Black urban school districts. Much can be learned from examining this portrait as administrators find themselves presiding over districts with historically underserved children from low-income families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boards of education of public school districts are legislative bodies. As such, they can be analyzed using the same theoretical assumptions, empirical procedures, and evaluative criteria employed by political scientists to study other legislative bodies. This paper considers the responsiveness of school boards to their constituents. The authors argue that responsiveness is a complex multi-faceted concept, and present prototype empirical indices for eleven school boards. Comparative analysis indicates that school board responsiveness varies within and across indices, and that operational measures of responsiveness are independent within and across theoretical components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was designed to measure the opinions of practicing teachers regarding the most effective assessment methods for measuring student achievement in K-12 public schools. The subjects were practicing teachers from 14 public school districts in the state of Georgia. Each participant was enrolled in a masters degree program at a satellite campus of Troy University. The study was descriptive in nature and the researcher used a mixed-method to collect data. A researcher-developed instrument was administered to each student. The study was conducted between June 2006 and June 2007. The findings revealed that the participants were similar in their view of current assessment practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]