Current Realities for Public Schools

Administrators in today\u27s schools work in a constant state of flux; change is the norm. Congress\u27 recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Act, through the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), provides a signal example. Just as many were beginning to fully understand and adjust to the implications of the now defunct No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, there\u27s a new set of rules to play by

The Changing Landscape of Leadership

Leading a campus is not what it used to be (nor is teaching a class, being a student, or raising a child for that matter). The increasing pace of societal and technological change provides an ever-evolving backdrop against which educational leaders view and conduct their work. Overlay a culture of accountability enacted amid budget cuts, surging enrollments, and shifting demographics, and the roles of school leaders become clouded with uncertainty, imbued with responsibility, and demanding increased personal commitment and professional and technical knowledge. One principal preparation student recently commented that her teaching colleagues routinely asked her, Why in the world do you want to do that? Upon reflection, it\u27s a valid question we should all answer

Preparing Aspiring Superintendents to Lead School Improvement: Perceptions of Graduates for Program Development

Changes in the design and delivery of educational leadership preparation programs are advocated in order to meet the needs of leadership for 21st century schools (Byrd, 2001; Cox, 2002; McKerrow, 1998; Smylie & Bennett, 2005). The changing needs of the 21st century, coupled with accountability standards and more diverse populations of students within school districts, create challenges for leaders who are attempting to increase student achievement (Firestone & Shipps, 2005; Schlechty, 2008). Further, student performance demands have increased at the state and national level because of the No Child Left Behind Act (Wong & Nicotera, 2007). These standards have thus increased the emphasis of the administrator\u27s responsibility to positively impact student achievement (Taylor, 2001). With the graying of the profession and the need for exemplary school superintendents, the preparation of school superintendents who can successfully lead school improvement is vitally important (Lashway, 2006). According to the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE, 2002), university preparation programs should seek current leaders\u27 perspectives of critical content components and the processes to be used in the preparation of educational leaders who can lead school improvement practices and processes

Accountability and Students\u27 Needs

Our schools are working under many pressures often with increased expectations and less resources. These increased expectations hold administrators and teachers to high accountability standards while working with increased diverse populations of students

Legal, Moral, and Transformational Leadership for our School Districts and Universities

This current issue of the School Leadership Review has a wide variety of topics addressing the legal, moral, and transformational leadership for our school district administrators and university personnel. The legal issues of bullying and transportation liability are important to the safety and welfare of our students and staff. As administrators develop policies and procedures, there needs to be careful consideration to legal and moral implications that will guide their district. These many legal issues would be minimal if the leaders led with honesty and integrity. Transformational leadership has this honesty and integrity woven throughout its tenets

Introduction to Smart Learning Analytics: Foundations and Developments in Video-Based Learning

Smart learning has become a new term to describe technological and social developments (e.g., Big and Open Data, Internet of Things, RFID, and NFC) enable effective, efficient, engaging and personalized learning. Collecting and combining learning analytics coming from different channels can clearly provide valuable information in designing and developing smart learning. Although, the potential of learning analytics to enable smart learning is very promising area, it remains non-investigated and even ill-defined concept. The paper defines the subset of learning analytics that focuses on supporting the features and the processes of smart learning, under the term Smart Learning Analytics. This is followed by a brief discussion on the prospects and drawbacks of Smart Learning Analytics and their recent foundations and developments in the area of Video-Based Learning. Drawing from our experience with the recent international workshops in Smart Environments and Analytics in Video-Based Learning, we present the state-of-the-art developments as well as the four selected contributions. The paper further draws attention to the great potential and need for research in the area of Smart Learning Analytics

School Boards, Superintendents, and Students: Making Large Impacts

As we look to the many stakeholders in education and a variety of roles, this edition takes a look at school boards, superintendents, teachers\u27 evaluations as a major role of administrators. Additionally, one article showcases the factors that affect students\u27 decisions in an educational leadership doctoral program as they access a terminal degree in our field

Advancements for Principals

This edition has some clear presentations for the important principal role and how universities impact the new principals. Additionally, there is a paper on the assistant principals and their movement to the principal position. Our TCPEA Outstanding Graduate Research Exchange paper showcases middle school mathematics achievement for Asian students and parent involvement

Healthcare decision-making: past present and future, in light of a diagnosis of dementia

End-of-life care policy in the UK states that all people should identify their needs, priorities and preferences for end-of-life care in the form of advance care planning. Advance care planning in dementia is less well developed than in some other disease groups such as cancer and, arguably, may be more complex. A person with dementia may lose the capacity to make decisions associated with advance care planning early in the course of the disease, requiring more involvement of family carers. This study explores the 'lived' context to health care decision-making of dyads (the person with dementia and their carer) in respect of past, present and future healthcare decision-making

Filling in the Blanks

Whether you are a practitioner involved in public education, a researcher in higher education, a policymaker, a proponent of privatization, a homeschool advocate, a concerned parent, or just an anxious taxpayer, the one adjective around which we could probably build consensus to fill the blank is uncertain, for uncertain is most certainly an apt descriptor of these times. Issues remain unsettled; courses of action remain undetermined; fundamental beliefs remain unresolved; and, emotions remain uneased. Some see a future fraught with rancor and divisiveness, while others simultaneously swell with optimism at the possibilities that lie ahead: polar opposite views in a polarized world