Elementary and Middle and Secondary Education Administration Commons^™

Teacher Unions, The Right To Work, And Fair Share Agreements, Charles J. Russo, C. Daniel Raisch

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The status of collective bargaining in public education is in flux. As a result of a movement that began in the early 1960s, more than 30 states now have laws that allow teachers and other public school employees to form unions in order to bargain collectively with their school boards over the terms and conditions of their employment.

Further, three jurisdictions prohibit public-sector unions, and in an overlapping tapestry, 23 states—most recently Indiana— have enacted right-to-work laws that bar contracts that require workers to join unions as a condition of employment.

Aware that unions derive their operating revenues from member …

The Status Of Teachers Unions: Are Rumors Of Their Demise Exaggerated?, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Recent legislation raised questions about the status of teachers unions and public-sector collective bargaining. Although the changes in Florida, Idaho, and Tennessee occurred with a minimum of disruption, the same was not true in Ohio and Wisconsin. Voters in Ohio repudiated a law that would have placed significant limits on the rights of public employees to bargain collectively (McNeil 2011a). Conversely, voters in Wisconsin defeated a recall election intended to remove the governor and legislators who acted to curtail the bargaining power of teachers unions (Stein 2012).

Organized labor and collective bargaining in education have grown to the point at …

Negotiating In School Districts When Times Are Tough, David Alan Dolph

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

When the economy is depressed, resources are limited, mandates are overwhelming, and the organizational climate in the district is souring, education leaders and teachers union officials often brace themselves for contentious negotiations. Poor economic conditions affect the district’s ability to offer raises, maintain current benefit levels, and provide adequate instructional programs, supplies, and equipment. Some districts are forced to cut staff positions to balance their budgets.

Amidst this turmoil in education and an already- heightened public awareness and concern about accountability and transparency, recent legislative attempts have attacked the rights of public workers to bargain collectively.

Adolescent Dating Violence: How Should Schools Respond?, Jeanne L. Surface, David Stader, Thomas Graca, Jerry Lowe

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Educational leaders have a substantial degree of control over students and generally have a tremendous influence on the decisions that they make. District administrators are already involved in comprehensive efforts to stem sexual harassment, teen violence and bullying; therefore, they may be well positioned to identify and address the problem of teen dating violence. Unfortunately, school district failure to take action is far too common, despite the statutory duty to ensure the safety of all students during school hours and at school sponsored events. School districts can be held liable for student dating violence under Title IX, under 42 U.S.C. …

Can The Law Keep Pace With Technology? Regulating Student Use Of The Internet And Cyberspace, Charles J. Russo, Allan G. Osborne Jr.

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Who could have anticipated the effect of the Internet on education, or of social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace? Yet given the relatively new state of the law, as the legal system struggles to keep pace with technological advances, the courts are reaching markedly different outcomes on the extent to which education officials can punish students who violate school rules, especially if their behavior originated out of school or involved First Amendment free speech claims.

In light of the legal and technological challenges facing school business officials (SBOs), school boards, and other education leaders, the first part of …

Job Satisfaction Of Female And Male Superintendents: The Influence Of Job Facets And Contextual Variables As Potential Predictors, Ila Phillip Young, Theodore J. Kowalski, Robert S. Mccord, George J. Petersen

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

A descriptive multiple regression approach was used to assess the job satisfaction of female and male public school superintendents taking part in a decennial survey conducted by AASA. Self-reported job satisfaction of public school superintendents was regressed on their affective reactions to specific job facets (supervision, co-workers, and compensation) and to contextual variables (type of school district, legislative mandates, and funding sources) purported to influence their job satisfaction. Results indicate that female and male superintendents were found to be similarly satisfied with their current job assignment but for different reasons as revealed by interaction terms addressed in the regression analyses.

Disciplining Students With Disabilities: An American Perspective, Charles J. Russo, Allan G. Osborne Jr.

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

A significant interconnectedness exists between and among schools, parents, students with disabilities, and local communities. A topic of great interest in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and beyond, educators, working in conjunction with their attorneys, struggle with meeting their legal duty to meet the needs of students with disabilities, not only when they are in school but also when they leave formal educational settings since they must then sustain themselves for the rest of their lives. As educators seek to meet the educational needs of students with disabilities, an area that often presents a major controversy is discipline, particularly …

Can Students Be Disciplined For Off-Campus Cyberspeech: The Reach Of The First Amendment In The Age Of Technology, Charles J. Russo, Allan G. Osborne Jr.

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The widespread use of technology in today's schools has ushered in a host of legal issues that educators and parents could not have contemplated just a few years ago. Within the past decade, students have had the unprecedented ability to send text messages and instant messages, create websites, post blogs, construct Internet profiles, and post messages on burgeoning social networking sites, most notably Facebook. Even when students engage in such speech-related activity off campus using their personal computers, their actions and posts on such social networking sites as MySpace and Facebook can have carryover effects into school and classroom environments. …

Are Alternative School Leader Preparation Programs Really Needed To Prepare Next-Generation School Leaders?, Thomas J. Lasley, Emmy L. Partin, Jamie Davies O'Leary, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The essays in this chapter focus on the issue of how best to recruit the very best administrative talent to leadership positions in schools. For years, the accepted practice has been for school leaders to be prepared through traditional school administration programs with higher education institutions. These programs, almost exclusively housed within colleges and schools of education, consisted of a range of courses from school law to school finance, often with associated and embedded field and clinical components. The focus on school leader preparation has emerged in partial response to the No Child Left Behind legislation. Clearly, there are expanded …

Factors Accounting For Variability In Superintendent Ratings Of Academic Preparation, Theodore J. Kowalski, Ila Phillip Young, Robert S. Mccord

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

This study utilized findings from the 2010 decennial study of the school superintendent to determine the extent to which four predictor variables (courses, professor credibility, size [enrollment of employing school district], and gender) accounted for variability in superintendent overall ratings of their academic preparation. The standardized regression coefficients indicate that most of the variance accounted for in the linear equation was due to ratings of professor credibility and ratings of the perceived value of courses. Neither the institutional variable, school district size, nor the personal variable, gender, accounted for meaningful variance in the overall ratings. Recommendations are made for extending …

The School Superintendent: Roles, Challenges, And Issues, Theodore J. Kowalski, C. Cryss Brunner

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The purposes of this chapter are to detail the development of the office of school superintendent, to examine issues of gender and race, to identify contemporary issues affecting practice, and to identify future research topics. The first two sections provide historical perspectives summarizing how the position has evolved over the past 150 years at three different levels-state, intermediate district, and local district. A discussion of the position's history produces five role conceptualizations; having evolved over the past 150 years, these characterizations provide a mosaic of contemporary expectations. Next, considerable attention is given to the causes and implications of race and …

Public-Private Partnerships, Civic Engagement, And School Reform, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The number of partnerships between public schools and private organizations increased dramatically after the National Commission on Excellence in Education (1983) issued its report "A Nation at Risk." ... In this essay, I propose an uncommon perspective of public-private partnerships in the United States—one that calls for direct citizen involvement to ensure that collaboration is linked to and compatible with reform efforts carried out at the local (school district) level. The need for a new conceptualization is framed by three convictions: public-private partnerships have been largely ineffective in terms of improving instruction and student learning; democratic deficits in these ventures …

Explicitly Differentiated Eighth-Grade Reading Instruction In A Rural Middle School Seeking To Reestablish Adequate Yearly Progress Benchmarks, John W. Hill, Sean Dunphy

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of explicitly differentiated reading instruction on eighth-grade students’ reading comprehension assessment scores and classroom reading grade scores in a rural middle school seeking to reestablish satisfactory No Child Left Behind, Adequate Yearly Progress, benchmarks. After one school year of participation in assessment-based and readiness-focused explicitly differentiated instruction, randomly assigned students across all three reading ability conditions high (n = 25), middle (n = 25), and low (n = 25) had statistically significantly improved pretest-posttest reading comprehension assessment scores and classroom reading grade scores. Furthermore, statistical equipoise was observed for posttest-posttest …

Principal Led In-Class Positive Behavioral Support Intervention, David Lavender, John W. Hill

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Results of this one-year study supported the use of an in-class behavioral intervention program that allowed 8th-grade students to reclaim themselves after verbally disruptive behavioral incidences with direct principal led administrator assistance resulting in student return to differentiated individualized instructional classroom activities. Students involved in a second verbally disruptive incident in the classroom were identified for intervention. Academic and behavioral improvement noted for verbally disruptive students with co-occurring below grade level reading test scores (n = 23) and verbally disruptive students with grade level reading scores (n = 12) suggests continued use of this intervention. All participants were in attendance …

From Stalled To Successful: The Art Of Negotiating, David Alan Dolph

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

In times of limited resources, the likelihood of difficult negotiations between labor and management may increase even in the best of school districts. The negotiation process can range from traditional to positional to competitive to a more collaborative and cooperative interest-based approach. The most productive approach is a matter of debate and can vary from district to district.

Regardless of the negotiation model used, bargaining can break down because of poor relations between parties, a lack of understanding of each other’s needs, and a variety of other reasons. When breakdowns occur, it is difficult for either side to achieve its …

Walking The Talk: Educational Administration Candidates' Espoused And Observed Dispositions, Kay Anne Keiser, Peter J. Smith

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Teachers who seek a career as a school administrator envision their leadership will be transformational and charismatic--and are often surprised by the conflict and confrontation that is an inevitable part of school administration (Hall, 2008; Hartzell, Williams, & Nelson, 1995; Sigford, 2005). Just as preservice teachers imagine a future career where all children love learning and respect teachers, only to find a reality that is less utopian (Su, 1992), this disconnect between the ideal of the vision and the reality and the new job often produces disappointment and shock (Senge, et al., 2000). The reality is that successful school leaders …

Racial Isolation And Student Achievement, Peter J. Smith

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Achievement data of African American, Hispanic American, and Caucasian students from racially segregated and racially integrated settings in an urban, Midwestern school district were analyzed to determine the effect of racial isolation on achievement within each racial group. In the district studied, achievement of students from segregated schools was not significantly different from the achievement of same race students from integrated schools. The study’s results should encourage district officials and instructional leaders to look at those factors that have a positive impact on student achievement regardless of the level of racial isolation.

Parents Involved In Community Schools V. Seattle School District No. 1: An Overview With Reflections For Urban Schools, Charles J. Russo, William E. Thro

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

In Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, a highly contentious and divided Supreme Court invalidated race-conscious admissions plans in two urban school systems, Seattle and Louisville. As such, Parents Involved was the latest chapter in the Court's almost 40-year history of reaching mixed results in such far-reaching areas involving race-conscious remedies as admissions to higher education, employment in the general workforce and in education, minority set aside programs, and voting rights. In light of the impact that Supreme Court cases on race-conscious remedies have in education, particularly in urban settings, this article first reviews …

Novice Superintendents And The Efficacy Of Professional Preparation, Theodore J. Kowalski, George J. Petersen, Lance D. Fusarelli

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The preparation of superintendents is a critical component and essential element of systemic education reform. However, Cooper, Fusarelli, Jackson, and Poster (2002) remind us that, ―the process is rife with difficulties‖ (p. 242), including synchronization of preparation and actual practice, the theory-practice disconnect, the need for life-long learning, and development of an adequate knowledge base.

In light of these complexities, two facts are especially noteworthy: The vast majority of research on the efficacy of administrator preparation programs has focused on the principalship (Kowalski, 2006b), and most doctoral programs in educational administration have de facto become preparation programs for superintendents, even …

Crossing Into Uncharted Territory: Developing Thoughtful, Ethical School Administrators, Jeanne L. Surface

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

In this distrustful, unstable, and ethically polarized era, there is a need to prepare school administrators to resolve a myriad of moral dilemmas. As professors of school administration, how can we make sure that our future leaders have the capacity to make thoughtful, ethical decisions? How do we prepare these leaders to develop, foster and lead tolerant and democratic schools? What follows is a small action research project aimed at elevating moral and ethical wherewithal among graduate students studying school administration. Ninety-Six percent of the students indicated that learning through dialogue or Socratic questioning, deepened their understanding of the topic. …

Coming Together: The Pros And Cons Of School Consolidation, David Alan Dolph

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The viability and acceptability of consolidation— combining two or more school buildings or districts into a single entity—have ebbed and flowed over the years. In the early 1900s, the main targets of school consolidation were the rural schools. The education leaders and policy makers of the time believed that a centralized model in which all schools looked alike would prove to be the best approach for educating youth to be productive citizens (Kay, Hargood, and Russell 1982).

In addition to providing an expanded curriculum, they believed, consolidated schools could be operated more efficiently and economically—an idea that has continued to …

Frequency Of Principal Turnover In Ohio’S Elementary Schools, Michelle Chaplin Partlow, Carolyn Ridenour

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

One remedy for Ohio schools that fail to meet the state’s test score criteria for “effectiveness” is to force a change in the principalship. Concerns have been raised that such a remedy may simultaneously undermine the organizational stability of the school. The researchers in this study examined the frequency with which elementary building principals in 109 southwest Ohio schools changed during the 7-year period of 1996-1997 (FY 1997) through 2002-2003 (FY 2003). The researchers found that urban and rural schools had a significantly higher turnover frequency than did suburban schools. Ways to counter frequent principal turnover while, at the same …

Restoration Vs. New Construction: How To Make The Right Decision, Timothy J. Ilg, David Alan Dolph

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Restoration or new construction? That is a dilemma that educational leaders, particularly superintendents and school business officials, have had to wrestle with for years. In the past, state regulations often dictated whether school buildings should be renovated or torn down to make way for new construction. State reimbursement guidelines favored new construction over restoration for public school development by either withholding funds or denying the full state support for restoration projects. In fact, some states established complex formulas that mandated new construction if the cost of restoration exceeded approximately two-thirds of the new construction costs.

Reversing the mindset among many …

Playing It Safe In Secondary School Athletic Programs, David Alan Dolph

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

School business officials play a critical role in ensuring that district assets are protected and that students and staff have a safe environment in which to learn and work. In their role as risk managers, school business officials work closely with the board of education and fellow administrators to identify and track potential risks, develop plans to mitigate those risks, and perform regular risk assessments to determine how risks have changed.

Some risks are inherent in all school systems. For example, students on the playground, buses on the roads, chemicals in the science labs, even food in the cafeteria pose …

Real Change Is Real Hard: The Challenge Of Transforming School Systems, David Alan Dolph

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Since 1983 when the National Commission on Excellence in Education published A Nation at Risk, school systems have been the target of calls for change. Proposed reforms have ranged from large- scale efforts focused on accountability and high-stakes testing to more targeted issues such as inclusion, vouchers, technology, and differentiated instruction.

Whether the changes that have been implemented can be judged as truly transformational or as large-scale tinkering remains to be seen. Nevertheless, since school systems have been and will continue to be the object of change efforts, this article offers food for thought for school business officials and other …

The Development And Validation Of The Elementary School Ethical Climate Index, Kay Anne Keiser, Laura E. Schulte

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The purposes of this study were to develop and validate an instrument that measures the ethical climate of elementary schools. To create the Elementary School Ethical Climate Index (ESECI), we adapted the ethical climate index for middle and high schools. The ESECI assesses student and teacher interactions and relationships through the application of five ethical principles: respect for autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice, and fidelity (Kitchener, 1984, 1985). To provide evidence of the ESECI’s reliability and validity we distributed the ESECI to the students and teachers/staff at one urban elementary school in a Midwestern city. There was a significant difference in …

Myths And Poor Policy Affecting The Future Of School Superintendents, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Across the country, state policymakers are acting to weaken professional standards for school superintendents. Nine states no longer require a license for this position and among the remaining 41 states, over half (54%, including Ohio) have provisions for waivers or emergency certificates and 15 states (37%, including Ohio) sanction alternative preparation programs for licensure (Feistritzer, 2003). Sadly, this trend toward de-professionalizing the most influential position in public education is being fueled by myths and unless it is curtailed, it will seriously damage our public education system.

The Levy Process And Your Constituents: Know The Issues, David Alan Dolph

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

School levies and bond issues have dramatically increased across the country. State funding formulas that limit inflationary growth in revenue, more man- dates that require additional resources, and changes in tax laws all contribute to this growing phenomenon.

More and more, school boards are turning to their constituents for financial support through the levy process. School business officials and other education leaders are looking at a variety of approaches and techniques for increasing the likelihood of voters’ approving levies. One technique is to survey constituents to determine the issues foremost on their minds. Data collected through statistically accurate survey techniques …

School Reform Strategies And Normative Expectations For Democratic Leadership In The Superintendency, George J. Peterson, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The concept of democratic leadership emerged in the early decades of the twentieth century in response to the effects of social change on schools and to growing dissatisfaction with autocratic management. One of its most prominent advocates was John Dewey, an eminent philosopher who viewed scientific management’s obsession with efficiency to be detrimental to a well-balanced social interest (Razik & Swanson, 2001). Democratic school administration was not practiced widely, however, until America had suffered a great economic depression circa 1930. After many successful businesses failed, classical theory and scientific management, the philosophical pillars of the Industrial Revolution, lost much of …

Facing An Uncertain Future: An Investigation Of The Preparation And Readiness Of First-Time Superintendents To Lead In A Democratic Society, Theodore J. Kowalski, George J. Peterson, Lance D. Fusarelli

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The preparation of superintendents is a critical component, an essential element, of systemic education reform, although as (Cooper, Fusarelli, Jackson, & Poster, 2002) observed, “the process is rife with difficulties,” including synchronization of preparation and actual practice, the theory-practice disconnect, the need for life-long learning, and development of an adequate knowledge base (Cooper et al., 2002, p. 242).

The vast majority of research on the efficacy of administrator preparation programs focuses on principals. Most doctoral programs in educational administration serve as de facto preparation programs for superintendents, even though some contain little coursework specifically tailored for the position (Andrews & …