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Leadership is a key commodity in twenty‐first century organizations. This is especially true for school organizations. This paper aims to respond to six questions about head teachers and leadership of basic schools.

Head teachers responded to survey items about proficiencies required for effective leadership and those demonstrated in practice. The Greater Accra region of Ghana was the setting and head teachers constituted the sample. A survey with a unique identifier was distributed to head teachers at their schools. Analysis was conducted using SPSS and output was translated into frequencies and percentages.

A premise of the research was that heads of basic schools lacked leadership proficiencies because of the absence of school leadership preparation programs. Heads of basic schools lack professional preparation in leadership, and practice management and administrative behaviors rather than leadership.

Ghana has implemented several reforms with the intent of developing a quality education system; however, there has not been a focus on leadership. The literature is clear about the vital role head teachers have in effective schools and student achievement. This research calls attention to the leadership needs of head teachers in the Ghana education system.

This research reveals that Ghana faces a leadership challenge related to head teachers' professional development. The results are an alert to policy makers to institute educational reform that addresses head teachers' leadership in basic schools.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the independent effects of principal background, training and experience as well as teacher academic qualifications on school proficiency growth through time.

The authors analyzed the entire population of all elementary and middle schools in the state of Illinois, n=3,154 schools, from 2000 to 2001 through 2005-2006 using growth mixture modeling. The authors examined growth at the school level in the percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards on the Illinois Standard Achievement Test, analyzing separate models for Chicago and non-Chicago schools.

The results suggest that there are two statistically significantly different latent school proficiency trajectory subgroups through the six-year time period, one high and one low, for both Chicago and non-Chicago schools. In addition, the models suggest that teacher academic qualifications, principal training, principal experience as a principal and an assistant principal, and experience of the principal as a teacher previously in their schools are significantly related to school proficiency growth over time, dependent upon school context.

Recent studies on the independent effects of principal experience, training and teacher academic qualifications have shown inconsistent results on school achievement growth. The authors demonstrate that principal training and background may have an effect on school-level proficiency score growth.

This study is one of the first to examine statistically different proficiency growth trajectories using an entire state-wide data set over a long-term, six-year timeframe.

The purpose of this study was to identify the headship instructional leadership proficiencies, and how they influenced academic performance in high and low performing rural primary schools of Kweneng region.

Qualitative approach, using a multi-cross case study analysis was used. Data were collected through an in-depth, semi-structured and focus group interviews, observations and document analysis. Purposive sampling methods were used, and the study drew data from 56 participants. These were 4 school heads, 4 deputy school heads, 4 heads of department, 8 senior teachers, 12 teachers and 24 learners.

The cross-analysis case study findings revealed that high-performing rural primary schools involved their staff and stakeholders in crafting and implementation of the school vision, mission, values and strategic plans. This approach helped them in monitoring school and classroom instructions; hence, resulting in improved academic performance. On the contrary, low-performing schools paid lip service to “involvement” approach.

The implication for further study is that any future study can consolidate and expand the findings of this research by focusing on Botswana's rural secondary schools.

The implication of this study is that the ability of an excellent school head with instructional leadership proficiencies can change a low-performing rural primary school into a high-performing rural primary school. Therefore, schools heads who have instructional leadership proficiencies can be placed in low-performing schools for transformation.

Moreover, the social implication is that school heads from low-performing schools should benchmark instructional leadership proficiencies from high-performing schools.

The written case study narratives were given to participants for approval to find out if what was written was what they said. After their approval, the research supervisors validated them to check for biases and exaggerations.

This paper is an analysis of the English-language proficiency and labor market earnings of adult male Soviet Jewish immigrants to the United States from 1965 to 2000, using the 2000 Census of Population. Comparisons are made to similar analyses using the 1980 and 1990 Censuses. A consistent finding is that recently arrived Soviet Jewish immigrants have lower levels of English proficiency and earnings than other immigrants, other variables being the same. However, they have a steeper improvement in both proficiency and earnings with duration in the United States and the differences from the other European immigrants disappear after a few years. The Soviet Jewish immigrants have both a higher level of schooling and a larger effect of schooling on earnings than other immigrants, even other European immigrants.

The lower initial English proficiency and earnings, the steeper improvement with duration, and the rapid attainment of parity is consistent with the “refugee” nature of their migration, as distinct from being purely economic migrants. That the same pattern exists across three censuses suggests that the low English proficiency and earnings of those recently arrived in the 2000 Census data reflects a refugee assimilation process, and not a decline in the unmeasured dimensions of the earnings potential of recent cohorts of Soviet Jewish immigrants. The very high level of schooling and the larger effect of schooling on earnings among Soviet Jewish immigrants are similar to the patterns found among Jews born in the United States.

Soviet Jewish immigrants appear to have made a very successful linguistic and labor market adjustment, regardless of their period of entry into the United States.

The No Child Left Behind Act (2002) and Race to the Top (2009) led to the highest rate of standardized-state testing in the history of the United States of America. As a result, the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015) aims to reevaluate standardized-state testing. Previous research has assessed its impact on schools, educators, and students; yet, youth’s voices are almost absent. Therefore, this qualitative analysis examines how youth of color perceive and experience standardized-state testing.

Seventy-three youth participated in a semistructured interview during the summer of 2015. The sample consists of 34 girls and 39 boys, 13–18 years of age, of African American, Latino/a, Jamaican American, multiracial/ethnic, and other descent. It includes 6–12th graders who attended 61 inter-district and intra-district schools during the 2014–2015 academic year in a Northeastern metropolitan area in the United States that is undergoing a racial/ethnic integration reform.

Youth experienced testing overload under conflicting adult authorities and within an academically stratified peer culture on an ever-shifting policy terrain. While the parent-adult authority remained in the periphery, the state-adult authority intrusively interrupted the teacher-student power dynamics and the disempowered teacher-adult authority held youth accountable through the “attentiveness” rhetoric. However, youth’s perspectives and lived experiences varied across grade levels, school modalities, and school-geographical locations.

In this adult-dominated society, the market approach to education reform ultimately placed the burden of teacher and school evaluation on youth. Most importantly, youth received variegated messages from their conflicting adult authorities that threatened their academic journeys.

Schools in resource challenged communities require principal approaches that break patterns of low expectations and low student achievement. This study identifies Alabama’s “outlier” schools that have been consistently successful in attaining higher student outcomes than their neighboring schools despite their similar community conditions. Then, it describes the perspectives and practices of principals leading these outlier schools. The purpose of this paper is to discuss findings on principal leadership in five of Alabama's outlier schools.

In a sequential, explanatory mixed-methods design, the authors first use state administrative data to identify which Alabama schools had better results than their peers as evidenced by standardized testing between 2016 and 2020. Then, through semi-structured interviews, they examine the beliefs and approaches of five principals who are currently leading an outlier school. The frame of contextual leadership provides a deeper understanding of how these principals navigate successful schools in the midst of challenging community influences.

The evidence demonstrated that (1) community factors of low education, high unemployment, single-parent households and generational poverty are associated with considerably lower levels of student growth and achievement; (2) measured school and community factors do not explain student growth and achievement in these outlier schools; (3) outlier principals have a realistic view of their community’s challenges but focus on supporting students through a context sensitive, relational approach that emphasizes assets over limitations.

While research has attended to leadership in turnaround schools and effective schools, there is little literature on principals leading in positive outlier schools. This study contributes to the literature on school leadership in resource challenged contexts by identifying high performing, resource challenged schools and then showing the perspectives and practices of principals who lead in schools that have consistently achieved better than expected student outcomes. It extends the construct of “outlier leadership” in education and connects it to contextual leadership in schools.

This study aims to better understand how students’ academic strains and multilevel strengths relate to their math achievement, with a particular emphasis on underrepresented students of color and girls given the need to broaden science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) participation for these groups.

National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 data was used for a historical examination of the various student academic strains and multilevel strengths that relate to math achievement in high school. T-tests and chi-square tests were conducted to examine differences in strains and strengths across policy-relevant student subgroups. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was used to examine how students’ strains and strengths related to their math achievement and the relative importance of each of these factors.

The findings suggest that both the academic strains and multilevel strengths that students’ experience in middle school are related to their high school math achievement and the prevalence of these factors varies across different policy-relevant student subgroups. Furthermore, the relative importance of these factors on achievement differs.

Studies which focus on either students’ academic challenges or their adaptive strengths fall short of a more nuanced discussion about how both factors relate to math outcomes. This study addresses this limitation and emphasizes that stakeholders who are interested in STEM diversity should consider holistic strategies for alleviating gender and racial/ethnic discrepancies in secondary math achievement.

The purpose of this paper is to compare two years of results for one state’s performance-based assessments for principal licensure Performance Assessment for Leaders (PAL). This includes the field trial (2014–2015) and first year of statewide implementation (2015–2016) when passing score requirements and fees were added. Survey results on candidates’ career aspirations provide concurrent validation.

Two years of PAL submissions (n=569 candidates) were scored by trained, certified scorers. Task and total score results were compared by year, preparation pathway and gender. Online feedback survey results on career aspirations for (n=146 candidates) were compared by year.

The results show that PAL assessments measure independent dimensions of leadership, differentiate candidates on leadership knowledge and skills, and confirm PAL’s internal validity. Implementation year scores were higher than field trial scores, and preparation program candidates scored better than non-program candidates did. Candidate career aspirations were stronger in the implementation year than during the field trial.

The study is limited to one state’s candidates, but findings are generalizable based on the wide range among candidates’ districts (demographically and economically).

The results are promising for the leadership preparation and assessment field, demonstrating the effectiveness of performance assessment for authentic evaluation of leadership candidates’ knowledge and skill and overall readiness for initial leadership work.

This is the first large scale performance assessment for aspiring leaders designed for state licensure decisions. It is being replicated in another state and shown promise for both formative and summative leadership assessment.

This chapter provides the reader with a framework for understanding the needs of students that have concurrent needs as English Language Learners and Emotionally Behavioral Disturbed. Issues related to effective assessment practices, service delivery, and appropriate intervention are discussed.

Although superintendency has long been considered a high‐conflict role, little is known about the way decentralization initiatives are perceived by superintendents and how they influence their coping strategies, especially when confronting role conflict following the introduction of school‐based management (SBM) in centralized educational systems. Data collected in a set of in‐depth interviews conducted with school superintendents provide evidence for a role conflict that they experience following the introduction of SBM. It is evident that superintendents tend to employ rationalization and resistance as two major coping strategies with these newly created circumstances, in an attempt to restore the relevancy and the professional status of their role. Based on the findings, it is argued that superintendents are more likely to adopt a destructive rather than constructive problem‐focused coping strategy and may therefore, prove to be restraining factors and obstacles for the implementation of SBM in a centralized educational system.