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The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions of teachers toward national reform in education according to the reform stage (Initiation, Implementation or Institutionalization) attained in their school. The study aim to examined: How do teachers perceive the current reform?; Is there a correlation between teachers' perceptions and reform stage?; To what extent are teachers' perceptions affected by school's mechanisms and school's readiness?

The research methodology is quantitative. Teachers (N = 288) completed a written questionnaire. One-way ANOVA was used to investigate teachers' perceptions of the reform and its contributions to school effectiveness and to teachers' working conditions according to reform stage, while controlling for managerial position, teaching experience and school level. Multivariate modeling was used to examine the relationships between the variables.

Teachers' overall attitudes toward the changes associated with the education reform lay between moderately negative and neutral. Reform was perceived to have made a greater contribution to school effectiveness than to teacher working conditions. School readiness for reform and the presence of school mechanisms supporting reform explained much (41%) of the variance in teachers' attitudes. Teachers holding leadership roles and those whose schools were in the Institutionalization stage exhibited more positive attitudes toward the reform and perceived it as having improved their working conditions to a greater extent than those without leadership roles or whose schools were in the Initiation or Implementation stages, respectively.

Teachers' attitudes toward reform have not previously been examined in the context of reform stage.

The purpose of this paper is to compare measures of socio-economic status (Index of Community Socio-educational Advantage values (ICSEA)), school performance, school funding and school readiness in terms of their impact on student performance. In this respect, the paper tests the proposition – given research that suggests the teacher is the important ingredient in improved student learning performance – that a school principal who has strategical worked to “ready” their teachers for a whole of school teaching improvement agenda will generate increased student learning results than those who have not and further this improvement will occur irrespective of the circumstance of the socio-economic circumstance of the school.

In total, 22 Government schools from a single school district in Australia participated in the study, after having been involved in a system sponsored “teaching improvement program”. A survey, consisting of 30 seven-point Likert-style scale items, was administered to all teachers and school leaders in the school district. The survey was designed to rate levels of staff perceived alignment, capability and engagement to the programme as it was implemented by the Head in each school. The information regarding each school’s ICSEA value, funding per student and student learning performance, was obtained from the database provided by the relevant authority (ACARA). All statistical analysis was completed using SPSS Version 22.

The findings of this study indicate that high levels of organisational readiness, as defined by the alignment, capability and engagement (ACE) approach, are associated with effective teaching and improvement in student outcomes. In turn, the authors interpret this to mean that the internal organisation of a school has important effects on student achievement that are independent to external factors such as school funding or even the socio-educational positioning of the school.

The findings of this study indicate that high levels of organisational readiness, as defined by the ACE approach, are associated with effective teaching and improvement in student outcomes. The implications are that the ACE provides a framework for what the school leader needs to focus on when whole of school teaching improvement is the goal. The study did not investigate what the school leader did in each school to ready their staff.

These findings indicate the importance of leadership in a school and provide an insight into what the school leader needs to focus on when whole of school teaching improvement is the intended goal. This focus can thus be understood as the leader working to ensure all staff members are ACE to the improvement agenda.

The improvement of educational outcomes is a global goal of governments. In this respect, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) school systems in particular have linked education system performance and international competitiveness in ways that place pressure on the “black box” of individual schools. Reports, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment and local testing regimes testify that governments and communities are interested in the academic performance of students within and across schooling systems. The benefits of high performing schools contribute to the standard of living of citizens and the well-being of a society more generally. This paper investigates propositions that focus the work of the school leader to achieving such inherent goals.

The paper introduces the concept of school readiness. The premise is considered important to the current research because it represents the ability of schools to participate in reform agendas that are characteristic of government policy positions. The “school readiness” approach lies outside the education literature, motivated by the idea that the literature on turning around failing organisations in sectors outside of education provides clear guidelines for reforming schools. The implications for turnaround leadership are particularly encouraging and important particular organisational factors, in common with sectors outside of education, are of significant importance in enhancing teacher motivation, teacher learning and consequential improvements in student outcomes. This paper seeks to add empirical evidence in support of these approaches by adopting what the authors refer as organisational “readiness” for reform developed by Schiemann (2014).

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain how two urban principals, in high schools that feature comprehensive college-and-career readiness practices, utilize distributed leadership to facilitate their implementation.

This study employed qualitative methods. Drawing upon semi-structured interview data, observational data gathered as part of site visits, and internal and electronic documents, case descriptions were developed of each school, focusing on principals’ activities in support of career pathways.

The principals contributed significantly to their schools’ college-and-career readiness reforms and programming. Although their approaches were distinct, six common themes were identified: facilitating processes to form a shared vision, developing relational trust, a focus on learning, successful partnerships, conducive structures, and developing leadership skills and capacity. The principals described utilizing distributed leadership approaches – including practices, structures, and tools – to support these reforms.

This study represents the initial phase of a multi-year research project investigating the implementation of college-and-career pathways in urban communities. Prior research has overlooked the important role of principals in leading and facilitating these reforms, and this study contributes to the literature because it focuses on principals’ contributions in supporting college-and-career readiness. Additionally, in both cases, substantive, regular leadership contributions were made by business representatives external to the organization.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of readiness of the public sector in Qatar to adopt International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), based on the innovation diffusion theory. The responses of accountants (preparers) and auditors employed in the public sector are explored in this regard, and challenges faced in IPSAS implementation are highlighted.

A primary research approach was adopted using a questionnaire that yielded 101 responses. Five dimensions are focused on: relative advantage, top management support, satisfaction with the current accounting system, barriers to adopting IPSAS, and attitudes towards innovation.

Relative advantage, barriers to adopting IPSAS and satisfaction with the current system were found to be the most significant. The influence of these variables appears to promote or hinder the implementation of IPSAS in the public sector of Qatar and, perhaps, the wider region.

Even if professionals understand the potential benefits of adopting IPSAS, they are unlikely to advance such adoption without upper echelon-sanctioned cost-benefit analyses and approval. Hence, policymakers should consider the need for a top-down shift in the way IPSASs are viewed and promoted to enable their successful implementation in the public sector.

The positive association between satisfaction with current systems and the level of IPSAS implementation suggests that respondents view the usefulness and ease of use of their current systems as a primary reason to adopt IPSAS as an ‘upgrade’.

This study advances the understanding of the pre-transition process by drawing on innovation theory, which reveals determinants of IPSAS implementation in the case of Qatar. This study adds to prior studies on government accounting in developing nations.

The Health Service Executive in Ireland seeks to further develop healthcare in the community. It has identified that this reform requires developing leadership amongst the staff. This study aims to identify what kind of leadership staff in community healthcare observe in practice and their leadership preferences. The core objective has been to identify the readiness of the organisation to implement the adopted national policy of integrated community care reform in terms of leadership development.

An online cross-sectional survey was conducted using the Organisational Cultural Assessment Instrument, based on the Competing Values Framework. This tool identifies four overarching leadership types: Clan (Collaborative), Adhocracy (Creative), Market (Competitive) and Hierarchy (Controlling). Participants (n = 445) were a representative sample of regional community health care employees. They were asked to identify presently observed leadership and preferred leadership in practice. The statistical analysis emphasised a comparison of observed and preferred leadership types.

Participants reported the current prevailing leadership type as Market (M = 34.38, SD = 6.22) and Hierarchical (M = 34.38, SD = 22.62), whilst the preferred or future style was overwhelmingly Clan (M = 40.38, SD = 18.08). Differences were significant (all p’s < 0.001). The overall outcome indicates a predominance of controlling and competitive leadership and a lack of collaborative leadership to implement the planned reform.

During reform in healthcare, leadership in practice must be aligned to the reform strategy, demonstrating collaboration, flexibility and support for innovation. This unique study demonstrates the importance of examining leadership type and competencies to indicate readiness to deliver national community health care reform.

Nonaka (1990) makes the distinction between generic knowledge that can be applied in many similar contexts, and local knowledge that can be best applied in a specific local context. Israel (1987) and Fukuyama (2004) point out that “high specificity” tasks (i.e. with clear objectives, and using well-defined technologies) with low transaction volume are more likely to be performed successfully by organizations across a wide range of cultural contexts. In this spirit, Friedman (2005, pp. 313–323) observes that countries can benefit from the “flat world” through a combination of “reform wholesale” and “reform retail”. The former entails market-centered reforms such as privatization, deregulation, reducing trade barriers, and adopting flexible labor laws. A handful of leaders in each country have pushed through such reforms in a wide range of cultural contexts including the developed OECD countries, plus many others such as Brazil, India, Mexico, Russia, China, and other East Asian “tiger” economies. The latter entails upgrading infrastructure, regulatory institutions, and education and health standards. Unlike the former, the latter reforms cannot be instituted by a handful of leaders, but require broad changes at many levels of society. Although the end results in countries successful at “reform retail” have many similarities (e.g. healthy, well-educated citizens) the steps toward achieving the results are very different, depending on culture and other contextual factors.

The purpose of this paper is to examine data use practices within a cross-sector initiative involving high school career academies. It discerns how partners used data to assess the public value of academies and address equity concerns.

A case study methodology was applied to examine cross-sector activities supporting the district’s career academy reform. Data were collected through interviews, observations and document analysis. Datnow and Park’s (2018) conceptual framework involving key equity dimensions guided the analysis.

Partners used data for both accountability and continuous improvement. Educators were required to document student growth for state accountability purposes, while providing evidence of the public value of the academies to the community. Data use for continuous improvement included identifying annual goals to improve academy performance. There was a lack of a district-wide focus on equity, with educators taking a passive approach to academy and career pathway selections by student subgroups.

The findings provide insights into data use practices school and district leaders can implement to ensure equitable student participation in career academies and appropriate data use within cross-sector collaborations.

Students who are traditionally underrepresented in career fields, including students of color and females, need intentional efforts to encourage their participation in high-skill, high-wage career fields.

This study identifies critical issues involved with data use for equity when promoting education-centered cross-sector collaboration, while also highlighting existing tensions between data use for accountability and continuous improvement.

The study examines how teachers and school administrative staff perceive external and internal barriers to the implementation of technologies into the teaching process and how teachers and school administrative staff technology readiness is related to these perceptions. These data were used for discussion and construction of an explanatory model.

The data from 8,188 Russian respondents who took the survey just before the first massive lockdown announcement due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) was used. First, descriptive statistics were shown for two groups: teachers and administrative staff. Second, confirmatory factor analysis was applied to construct external and internal barriers scales. These scales were then used as dependent in a series of regressions with the technology readiness index (TRI) and the respondent role in schools as independent variables.

Results showed that administrative staff compared to teachers were more likely to select internal barriers related to teachers, while teachers were more likely to choose external obstacles. The technology optimism scale was negative, and negative attitudes toward technologies were positively related to both barriers.

The originality of the study lies in determining the relationship between the technology readiness and choosing barriers perception as well as comparing the sense of responsibility for the introduction of technologies in schools experienced by teachers and administrators.

In this paper an analysis is made of significant accounting and budgetary reforms that have recently been introduced within the framework of a broader reform called New Public Management. These reforms have led to the adoption of the accrual basis in accounting in many developed countries (i.e. the effects of transactions or events are recognized when they take place, irrespective of the moment when cash is paid or received). However, in 2003 it has only been adopted in budgeting by three of them: New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom. In this paper the international situation is analyzed with a view to the future adoption of the accrual basis in budgeting.