Better Leaders for America's Schools: A Manifesto. With Profiles of Education Leaders and a Summary of State Certification Practices.

This volume was created around the premise that America's schools face a crisis in leadership. For America to have the great schools it needs, schools and their school systems must have great leaders. After a foreword by Chester E. Finn, Jr. and an introduction by Eli Broad, the book is divided into three parts. The first part presents a manifesto for changing the way educational leaders are recruited, trained, managed, and supported. The manifesto encourages the following: (1) Reduce conventional certification requirements for public-school principals and superintendents; (2) recruit candidates for school leadership from outside as well as inside the education field; (3) school districts should play a major role in shaping the training of their school leaders; (4) principals and superintendents should be well compensated; (5) superintendents and principals need sweeping authority over the personnel and operations for which they are responsible; and (6) principals and superintendents who fail to produce the needed results after a reasonable period should not be retained. The second part of the book, written by Lawrence Meyer, presents profiles of six effective and successful administrators--three superintendents and three principals. The third part of the book, written by Emily Feistritzer, presents a state-by-state summary of state practices for certification of public-school administrators. (Contains 33 endnotes and 2 tables.) (WFA)