Veteran educators Seifert and Vornberg utilize the six standards created by the Interstate School Leaders Consortium (ISLLIC) and used in developing and redesigning preparation programs and state certification examinations to discuss those issues faced by practicing elementary and secondary school principals. Each chapter begins with a short case study emanating from a fictitious school district and culminates with student activities that address the concepts discussed in the chapter. Questions and activities follow and provide the reader with an opportunity to apply the concepts discussed. This design makes it an ideal text for use with principal certification programs offered by higher education units and other alternative certification programs. The practice of the principalship is viewed by the authors as a systematic process that addresses the operation of a school as a set of interrelated parts and skills that work together to create a self-correcting model of student learning, teaching, and stakeholder participation. An instructor's manual is available as a separate publication.

The quality and success of schools depend upon school leadership. Increasingly, in many countries worldwide, this belief has led to designing and implementing appropriate training and development programs for educational leaders. In an international comparative research project, current school leader training and development programs in fifteen countries across Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America are analyzed, compared, and discussed. Preparing School Leaders for the 21st Century provides insights and constructive ideas, for those planning and carrying out school leadership development in different countries and those conducting research in this field. * Part one in the book reflects on roles, tasks, competences, and conceptions of school leadership, exploring the changing context in which school leaders find themselves, focusing on the new demands on the school leaders and suitable leadership theories. * Part two provides a comparative discussion of the various leadership development models, identifying similarities and differences, based on a set of criteria selected and going beyond a mere juxtaposition. In describing common issues and challenges, it also looks for common solutions, and considers what the different countries might be able to learn from each other, and successfully transfer. * Part three identifies current international trends deduced from these programs. Nineteen recommendations for designing future programs are outlined, and instructive examples of best and promising practice are given. * Part four comprises well structured country reports, which provide information about the education system and school system of those countries, about recent changes and their impact on school leadership, about the overall school leader training and development approach.

This resource is the most important book in years focusing on the preparation and development of school leaders. Comprehensive in scope and extremely readable, Skills for Successful 21st Century School Leaders provides a complete overview of the knowledge base and skills for successful school leaders. The publication is based on the standards recently developed by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLe, the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA), the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), and state education agencies.

Addressing the six standards created by the Interstate School Leaders Consortium (ISLLIe, Seifert and Vornberg employ case studies to discuss those issues faced by practicing elementary and secondary principals. Each chapter concludes with student activities that address the concepts discussed in the chapter. An instructor's manual is also available as a separate purchase.

Democracy, Chaos, and the New School Order takes an investigative look at these various theories. Author Spencer Maxcy challenges competing and contradictory views of educational organization and social change. He contends that current educational reform is incomplete and ill-suited to democratic nations because it lacks inspiration, moral purpose, and heart.

"Grounded in ISLLC and NCATE standards, this book offers comprehensive, research-based information; concrete program ideas; and numerous Internet sites for additional help in creating and sustaining family and community engagement. It presents strategies for involving people - individually and collectively - in agencies, businesses, and organizations to mobilize the resources of the entire community. Diverse Partnerships for Student Success will assist educational and community leaders in developing, implementing, and sustaining a comprehensive partnership system that helps all children succeed academically."--BOOK JACKET.

Almost a decade ago, a national commission formally announced a time of crisis in American education. Since then, Americans have been engaged in a debate about the purpose and organization of tomorrow's schools. While the early reform reports were silent on the preparation of school administrators, recent reports have focused on the failure to turn out well-prepared administrators. The National Commission on Excellence in Educational Administration (1987) and the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (1989) called for sweeping changes in the recruitment, preparation, regulation, and evaluation of school administrators. It was argued that raising standards for admission to educational administration programs, more courses, adding more rigor to existing courses, tighter certification requirements, competency-based licensing, and supervised school-site internships would address the concerns raised by practitioners and numerous other critics. Educational reforms directed toward raising the quality of our schools require administrators who are collaborative, dynamic, and innovative problem solvers; administrators who can guide the educational enterprise to higher achievement, provide individuals with aspirations and dreams, and critically inculturate the young into a political democracy.

This text examines what actually happens, as well as what ought to happen, in the quest for best practice in education. It investigates the experiences of educators and teachers, in their continuous quest to improve the quality of learning and teaching provision. It provides case studies from a range of different educational settings in the UK and Australia which reveal how educational leaders and practitioners are handling new priorities and programmes for change in the late 1990s.