Soup du Jour and So Much More: A Model for School Leader Preparation

Where to go in principal preparation programs is the question that has surfaced and resurfaced for over 20 years. This question paired with the current political climate that demands strong educational accountability has created a powerful impetus to change, modify, or redesign principal preparation programs

Personality, preferred leadership style and principal preparation

This study identifies the preferred leadership styles of students enrolled in principal preparation programs and compares the styles identified by traditional public school teachers and charter school teachers who seek principal certification. Participative leadership and Goal Oriented leadership were identified as the predominant styles. Seventy-five per cent of teachers of traditional public schools identified one of these styles and 81% of teachers from charter schools identified one of these styles indicating both groups have similar preferred styles. Surprisingly, few of the participants in either group of the study were aligned with Visionary Leadership or Change Leadership. Although people have a preferred leadership style based on personality traits, it is possible to learn the skills needed for other leadership styles. The results of this study indicate emphasis should be placed on developing visionary leadership skills and change leadership skills. Hoyle (2007) emphasized the importance of understanding why some of our educational leadership program graduates fail to be successful in the field. While it is important to realize that school leaders must have good managerial skills as well as good leadership skills this research indicates students come to leadership preparation programs with a predisposition to learn management skills. Based on this research, it may be that educational leadership programs are not recognizing the need to provide specific learning approaches that lead to the development of transformational leader

None of Us Are as Smart as All of Us: Site Based Decision Making

In recent years, the educational system in the United States has been evolving from a largely centralized decision-making structure to a more decentralized one. This shift to school-based management requires fundamental changes to the organizational structure of the district as well as the roles within the organization. From administrators to parents, school based management demands a change in the status quo (Cotton, 1991). It involves shifting decision making from the central office administrators to that of local schools (Henkin, Cistone and Dee, 1999)

None of Us Are as Smart as All of Us: Site Based Decision Making

The old Japanese Proverb states,” None of us are as smart as all of us.” In recent years, the educational system in the United States has been evolving from a largely centralized decision-making structure to a more decentralized one. This shift to school-based management requires fundamental changes to the organizational structure of the district as well as the roles within the organization. From administrators to parents, school based management demands a change in the status quo (Cotton, 1991). It involves shifting decision making from the central office administrators to that of local schools (Henkin, Cistone and Dee, 1999)

Developing a collaborative culture in online learning

Collaboration is identified as an essential skill for educational leaders in K-12 institutions. As programs for principal preparation move to the online environment, it is essential to develop ways to encourage and facilitate collaboration and cooperation. We will discuss several ways to incorporate collaborative processes in online learning as leaders seek meaningful feedback from peers, problem solve in case study discussions and work through decision making as a collaborative activity

Effective School Research: Teachers\u27 and Administrators Perceptions of Its Existence on Campus

Effective school research focuses school improvement on the variables that are within the control of educators and have the greatest potential to impact student achievement: 1) instructional leadership, 2) instructional personnel, 3) instructional environment, and 4) instructional programming. In an era of high accountability with many initiatives being proposed for school reform, effective school research continues to provide valuable research-based information to the school principal, superintendent and larger educational community. By examining the school in relation to this research-based information, educational leaders are informed about factors that promote student achievement. This study surveyed teachers and administrators on eight middle school campuses in East Texas public schools serving students in grades 6-8. Surveying teachers and administrators about the perceived presence or absence of effective school research indicators serve as an impetus to engage in dialogue about school improvement as results suggest teachers and administrators who perceived effective school research variables on their campuses were more likely to receive Exemplary or Recognized ratings from the Texas Education Agency

Developing a Collaborative Culture in on-Line Learning

Collaboration is identified as an essential skill for educational leaders in K-12 institutions. As programs for principal preparation move to the online environment, it is essential to develop ways to encourage and facilitate collaboration and cooperation. We will discuss several ways to incorporate collaborative processes in online learning as leaders seek meaningful feedback from peers, problem solve in case study discussions and work through decision making as a collaborative activity

Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas

Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin