Other Educational Administration and Supervision Commons^™

Relationship Among Essential Leadership Preparation Practices And Leader, School, And Student Outcomes In K-8 Schools, Donna Braun, Robert K. Gable, Stacey L. Kite

Teacher Education

A questionnaire was administered to school principals (N=88). The questionnaire data, along with student data, were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression to investigate the relationships among leadership preparation practices, self rated leader behavior, the school learning environment, and student achievement. After controlling for demographic variables, the amount of variance explained was incremented a statistically significant degree between: preparation practices and leader behaviors (R2 = 5%); preparation practices and student achievement (R2 = 5%); preparation practices and leaders’ instructional knowledge (R2 = 6%); and leaders’ instructional knowledge and instructional practices in schools (R2 = 5%).

Staff Perceptions Of Structure, Process, And School Readiness Outcomes In Private South Florida Child Care Centers, Deborah Mazzeo

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

The quality of child care centers and school readiness outcomes continue to be important topics in the State of Florida since policymakers, school districts, and child care centers, in August 2005, began to implement the Voluntary Prekindergarten Program. The problem area of child care is whether various characteristics of child care center programs result in different outcomes for children's development.

Qualities of child care centers can be attributed to structure and process variables. A theoretical framework that is grounded in Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory is discussed. The structure-process-outcome model of quality and Spady's outcome-based education model were combined to explain the …

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 …

From The Co-Editors

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

No abstract provided.

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 …

International Perspectives On Citizenship, Education And Religious Diversity, Sarfaroz Niyozov

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

Challenges To Education In Tajikistan: The Need For Research-Based Solutions, Sarfaroz Niyozov, Stephen Bahry

Book Chapters / Conference Papers

Education in Tajikistan today is acknowledged by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Tajikistan and by international agencies as facing many challenges. Infrastructure and materials need replacement or repair; curriculum needs to be adapted to changing conditions; professional development for teachers is required, while means to retain experienced teachers and attract new ones need to be found. At the same time, children's' meaningful access to education has been threatened by various factors that reduce their attendance and participation in education, keeping some youth out of school altogether. This chapter argues that research in education in Tajikistan and the …

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 & …

Role Expectations Of The District Superintendent: Implications For Deregulating Preparation And Licensing, Theodore J. Kowalski, Lars G. Björk

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

At this juncture when policymakers are being asked to choose between deregulation and reform, problems affecting the superintendency need to be framed appropriately and policy decisions need to be based on evidence and not raw politics or emotion. Deregulating a profession clearly is a serious matter that is prudent either when the need for the state to protect the public from practitioners is no longer valid or when the underlying knowledge has been found to be fraudulent or irrelevant (Kowalski, 2004). This paper identifies role expectations and position requirements that have evolved for school district superintendents over the past 100 …

Developing Policy For Part-Time School Administration Faculty, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

This inquiry is an analysis of the trend toward infusing practitioners into the preparation of school administrators. Motives for increasing the number of part-time employees in higher education are identified and specific problems associated with the deployment of these instructors are discussed. The argument is made that the merits of this trend depend on the extent to which department policy addresses adjunct faculty employment, deployment and development in relation to a reform vision and strategy. Essential policy considerations related to involving practitioners are recommended.

Evolution Of The School District Superintendent Position, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Clearly, no issue is currently more crucial to the future of the position of school district superintendent than the battle being fought over professional preparation and state licensing. The intent of licensing professionals is to protect society and not the licensee. Consequently, a decision to deregulate a profession should not be made solely in political arenas in which self- and group interests are more likely to outweigh societal interests. This chapter is grounded in the belief that persons within a profession, regardless of their personal views, have a responsibility to ensure that policy debates of this magnitude will be objective …

The Ongoing War For The Soul Of School Administration, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The volume in which this essay appears was a response to the book Better Leaders for America’s Schools: A Manifesto, published in 2003 by the the Broad Foundation and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. It was created around the premise that America's schools face a crisis in leadership. For America to have the great schools it needs, it contended, schools and their school systems must have great leaders.

The material to which Dr. Kowalski's essay responds is available online here>>>.

Web-Based Digital Portfolios And Counselor Supervision, Paul E. Barnes, Paul A. Clark, Bryce Thull

Counseling Faculty Publications

Web-based digital portfolios provide a promising tool for counselor supervisors looking for effective ways to evaluate counselor candidates while maximizing the associated learning process. This paper describes a project involving the use of web-based portfolios that were created by counselor candidates. The project illustrates the benefits of the web-based portfolio for both the counselor supervisor and for the counselors in training.

The Relationship Of The Transformational Leadership Of The Administrators In America's Middle College High School And Their Feeder Institutions To Selected Indicators Of Effectiveness, Christine M. Michael

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Middle college high schools in America identify potential college students who are at-risk in the traditional high school environment. These students are placed on the college campus to take high school and college classes and receive dual credit for the latter. The program is specifically designed to keep these pupils in high school, graduate them, and send them on to higher education. This investigation focused on the leadership style of the administrators of both the middle college high schools and their traditional feeder high schools and its relationship to four indicators of effectiveness: attendance rate, dropout rate, graduation rate, and …

Today's Threats Prove To Be Tomorrow's Promise: Higher Education In 2027, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The effects of technology on the instructional mission of this nation's colleges and universities have been both positive and negative. While an estimated two million students, many of whom would not have had access to higher education a few decades ago, are already engaged in distance learning, this gain has been paralleled by a proliferation of inferior, profit-driven institutions and degree programs. Some observers already have predicted the demise of the modem university, claiming that a small number of independent, entrepreneurial scholars and an army of low-paid adjunct instructors using the Web and cable television will replace regular faculties in …

Planning And Managing School Facilities, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Nearly half of the nation's school buildings need to be renovated or replaced. This book provides a knowledge base for administrators to plan and manage construction projects, and addresses specific planning tasks including public opinion polling, enrollment projections, financial planning, selecting architects and other professionals, and managing facilities once they are operational.

Theodore Kowalski addresses the administrative procedures associated with planning and managing school facilities. As noted at the outset, practitioner interest in school facilities has been growing rapidly in recent years because decades of neglect, poor planning, and cost cutting have created a situation in which large numbers of …

Cultural Change Paradigms And Administrator Communication, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Public school reform has taken three distinct turns over the past two decades. In the early 1980s, most policymakers blamed a lack of educational productivity on lazy students. Influenced by this argument, virtually every state legislature enacted laws lengthening the school year, lengthening the school day, and increasing high school graduation requirements. Within a relatively short period of time, however, the would-be reformers concluded that intensification of student experiences was insufficient to produce significant improvements. While not abandoning their original conviction, they shifted their attention to a second target-educators. The result was a flurry of proposals to revise or eliminate …

The School Superintendent: Theory, Practice, And Cases, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

This book provides both theoretical and practical insights into the evolving responsibilities associated with being the chief executive officer of a school system. Treats school administration as a science and a craft involving professional artistry, and examines the position in relation to challenges and potential frustrations and accomplishments. Describes contemporary superintendency in the context of four role conceptualizations (professional educator, business manager, statesman, social scientist). Traces the evolution of each role's expectations and discusses their continued emphasis in current practice. Considers policy development -- with an emphasis on deregulation and decentralization. Focuses on relevant issues, including communication, decision making, ethical …

The Organization And Planning Of Adult Education, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The heightened interest in and the rapid expansion of adult education has become a trend in a variety of environments. In order to serve these developing areas, educators, personnel directors, as well as staff development specialists require improved methods for planning learning activities within their own unique organizational contexts.

In The Organization and Planning of Adult Education Kowalski examines the issues created by providing a social service in diverse organizational settings and presents a format for initiating and developing adult education programs. In order to comprehend the complexity of the context of programming within an organization, two novel components are …

Institutional Transformation As Scholarly Activity: The Experience Of Portland State University, Charles R. White, Judith A. Ramaley

Public Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

In American higher education, change is continuous but occurs most often at the margins, generally taking the form of piecemeal or isolated efforts and programs. Only rarely are change projects comprehensive in their scope and transformative in their effects. In this chapter we describe the context for comprehensive curricular change at Portland State University and offer a more general theoretical construct about institutional change in higher education. That there are so few examples of comprehensive institutional change in American higher education is indicative of the complex mix of internal and external factors that constrain change efforts. We have found that …

Public Relations In Educational Organizations: Practice In An Age Of Information And Reform, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

This collection of readings addresses the greatest demand being placed upon educational administrators in this, the Age of Information — using technology to create two-way communication systems within their organizations and between their organizations and their communities. The author integrates theories and techniques taken from a wide variety of leading theorists and practitioners in both public relations and educational administration to provide an interdisciplinary, contemporary foundation for practice.

Chasing The Wolves From The Schoolhouse Door, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Interestingly, warnings about the deterioration of America's schoolhouses have generated only limited public reaction. State legislators, governors, federal officials, and corporate executives — all of whom were exceedingly eager to react to earlier education reports such as A Nation at Risk- have been amazingly silent. Where are the legislative proposals to eradicate this problem? Where are the creative ideas from managers in private industry? Where are the calls for establishing a national commission to address this crisis? The most likely response to these questions is that the cost of solving the problem is simply too great. Accordingly, neither those who …

Keepers Of The Flame: Contemporary Urban Superintendents, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

A wealth of qualitative data concerning urban districts and their school superintendents in the United States is contained in this book. Theodore J Kowalski examines the lives of 17 urban school superintendents focusing on their problems and aspirations. Of particular significance is the discussion of how factors such as community environment, organizational change and culture, and the person in the job combine to influence decision-making and administrative behaviour.

Case Studies On Educational Administration, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

This book immerses prospective administrators in the realities of practice and decision-making through the use of a wide range of open-ended case studies. Effective practice in school administration involves making decisions about management of schools and reform, including state deregulation, district decentralization, and school restructuring. Leaders need to think beyond management and consider how to affect school culture, professional development, and changing populations. The cases in this book will help leaders address those issues by honing three key skills: (1) How to identify and solve problems; (2) How to develop and evaluate alternative solutions; (3) How to continuously refine professional …

Preparing Teachers To Be Leaders: Barriers In The Workplace, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Efforts to prepare teachers to be leaders are often impeded by a number of barriers in society and schools. Obstacles in the workplace are largely products of organizational cultures and climates that place teachers in subordinate roles. The argument is made that consideration of these barriers must be incorporated into revisions of teacher education curricula.

Case Studies Of Beginning Teachers, Theodore J. Kowalski, Roy A. Weaver, Kenneth T. Henson

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Case Studies of Beginning Teachers offers a collection of 35 case studies of first-year teaching experiences — a mixture of true dilemmas and best solution scenarios — that bridge educational theory and practice to shed light on actual problems and challenges new teachers most often confront.