Michelle D. Young

Telecommunication in the Classroom: Rhetoric versus Reality

Telecommunication exchange projects are currently marketed as curriculum supplements that conveniently satisfy three key K-12 educational reform objectives: better writing skills, enhanced multicultural awareness, and better job preparation for a rapidly expanding global economy. This paper analyzes the educational discourse surrounding telecommunication exchanges, and argues that much of the current research is contradictory, inconclusive, and possibly misleading. The paper also illustrates how the often overly optimistic claims about technology-based projects are problematic in light of the larger, exceedingly complex role of technology in society.

Flukes, Opportunities, and Planned Interventions: Factors Affecting Women's Decisions To Become School Administrators.

This article presents the results of an exploratory study of women in educational administration that focused on women’s decisions to enter educational administration. Findings suggest that the career aspirations of women who ultimately enter the field of educational administration are intricately related to their career commitments, positional goals, and leadership orientations. Furthermore, although women who go into administration may have personal characteristics that set them apart from women who do not, it also appears that at least three factors greatly affect women’s entrance into administration: their administrative role models, their exposure to transformative leadership styles, and the endorsements and/or support that they receive.

The Complexity of Substantive Reform: A Call for Interdependence among Key Stakeholders.

The field of educational leadership in the United States faces serious challenges in the 21st century, including the shortage of principals and superintendents, the growing demands of leadership positions, the struggle for adequate resources, the increasing trend to seek leaders from outside of education, and the content and effectiveness of school leadership preparation and professional development. Although each of these challenges could be viewed as a separate issue that warrants sustained and serious attention, it is also important to point out their interdependencies. The challenges facing educational leadership are complex and interconnected. This article explores the challenges facing educational leadership from the position of university educational leadership preparation. The authors look inward and outward, seeking to understand the complex factors and interconnections that support and detract from quality leadership preparation. Moreover, the authors explore contexts in terms of the factors that produce them and their interdependencies with other issues and contexts.

Handbook of research on the education of school leaders

List of Tables List of Figures Preface Acknowledgements Introduction: Exploring the Broad Terrain of Leadership Preparation in Education, Joseph Murphy, Michelle D. Young, Gary M. Crow and Rodney T. Ogawa 1. The Landscape of Scholarship on the Education of School Leaders, 1985-2006, Robert B. Kottkamp and Edith A. Rusch 2. An Historical Review of Research and Development Activities Pertaining to the Preparation of School Leaders, Martha M. McCarthy and Patrick B. Forsyth 3. The Context of University-Based Educational Leadership Preparation, Donald Lamagdeleine, Brendan D. Maxcy, Diana G. Pounder and Cynthia J. Reed 4. Research on Leadership Preparation in a Global Context, Jacky Lumby, Allan Walker, Miles Bryant, Tony Bush and Lars G. Bjork edited by Jacky Lumby and Miles Bryant 5. Candidates in Educational Leadership Graduate Programs, Tricia Browne-Ferrigno and Rodney Muth 6. Characteristics, Preparation, and Professional Development of Educational Leadership Faculty, Donald G. Hackmann, Scott C. Bauer, Nelda H. Cambron-McCabe and David M. Quinn 7. Curriculum in Leadership Preparation: Understanding Where We Have Been in Order to Know Where We Might Go, Karen F. Osterman and Madeline M. Hafner 8. Pedagogy, Dianne L. Taylor, Paula A. Cordeiro and Janet H. Chrispeels 9. The Use of Internships in Preparing School Leaders, Bruce G. Barnett, Michael A. Copland and Alan R. Shoho 10. The Design and Delivery of Leadership Preparation, Margaret Grogan, Paul V. Bredeson, Whitney H. Sherman, Stacey Preis and Danna M. Beaty 11. Student Assessment in Educational Leadership Preparation Programs: Looking at our Past, Examining our Present, and Framing our Future, Frances K. Kochan and Demetriss L. Locke 12. Program Evaluation in Leadership Preparation and Related Fields, Margaret Terry Orr with Margaret E. Barber 13. Comprehensive Leadership Development: A Portrait of Programs, Carolyn Kelley and James J. Shaw 14. Establishing Meaningful Leadership Mentoring in School Settings: Transcending Simplistic Rhetoric, Self-Congratulation, and Claims of Panacea, Steven Jay Gross Conclusion: Moving Forward on Research for Enriching the Education of School Leaders, Gary M. Crow, Michelle D. Young, Joseph Murphy and Rodney T. Ogawa Contributors Index

Multifocal Educational Policy Research: Toward a Method for Enhancing Traditional Educational Policy Studies

This article emerges from a perception of educational policy studies as restrained in its theoretical and methodological tools. It is argued that because most educational policy studies take place within a traditional rationalist frame, the findings of these studies do not provide a comprehensive understanding of the policy problems being researched and, thus, should not be used as the sole basis for making educational policy. In response to this problem, the author argues in favor of, describes a procedure for, and demonstrates the utility of using more than one theoretical frame in educational policy research. As a means of illustrating this process, traditional and critical theories and methods are used to examine and analyze the same issue: the relationship between parental involvement policy and the participation of Mexican-American mothers from a low-income community in their childrens education. This bitheoretical process, it is argued, reveals not only a fuller portrait but also the narrowness and constrictedness of each perspective when used alone.

Do Principal Preparation Programs Influence Student Achievement Through the Building of Teacher-Team Qualifications by the Principal? An Exploratory Analysis

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study is to explore how the characteristics of the principal preparation programs of newly hired elementary school principals might influence school achievement through the development of well-qualified teams of teachers by the school. Of primary interest is whether elementary school principals from preparation programs with certain types of characteristics are more or less likely to build teams of well-qualified teachers who, in turn, positively affect overall student achievement. A secondary purpose is to establish a relationship between the overall school-level qualifications of teams of teachers and school-level student achievement on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) to underscore the importance of the first relationship. Research Design: This quantitative study utilizes ordinary least squares regression to analyze seven extracts of data from the Texas Education Agency, merged together to create a data set that matched teachers, principals, school characteristics, and student achievement to individual schools. First, the authors establish the relationship between school-level teacher-team quality and school-level student outcomes on the TAKS. Second, they examine the relationship between principal preparation program characteristics and the measures of teacher-team quality after controlling for principal characteristics, school characteristics, and student achievement. Furthermore, because the authors hypothesize that principals cannot quickly alter the quality of teams of teachers in schools, they examine school achievement and teacher-team quality over four years.

Supporting Graduate Students of Color in Educational Administration Preparation Programs: Faculty Perspectives on Best Practices, Possibilities, and Problems

Overview: This article presents findings from a study that examined faculty perspectives on how individual faculty members and institutions support graduate students of color in educational administration preparation programs. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify strategies that faculty members and institutions employ to support graduate students of color. The authors were also interested in understanding challenges that face individuals and institutions as they seek to provide such support. Data Sources: Data were collected through a series of focus group sessions and from individual interviews conducted with a diverse sample of faculty members during a 3-year period. Findings: Findings suggested that effective support for graduate students of color in educational administration preparation programs entails proactive yet thoughtful, individual, and institutional work in four areas: (a) recognizing and engaging issues of race in educational administration preparation programs, (b) effective and race-sensitive mentorship, (c) creation and sustenance of multi-tiered and multi-purpose support networks, and (d) establishment of formal and informal support structures.

The intellectual landscape of critical policy analysis

What counts as critical policy analysis in education? Over the past 30 years, a tightening of national educational policies can be seen in the USA and across the globe. Over this same period of time, a growing number of educational policy scholars, dissatisfied with traditional frameworks, have used critical frameworks in their analyses. Their critical educational policy work has contributed to a unique intellectual landscape within education: critical policy analysis. This article presents a qualitative exploration of the critical policy analysis approach to educational policy studies. Participants included scholars known to utilize critical theoretical frameworks and methods in their research. Through a historical approach that makes use of oral history interviews with educational policy, we developed an understanding of the critical approach to policy studies, its appeal among critical education policy scholars, and the rationales driving its use.

Academic Drift, Institutional Production, and Professional Distribution of Graduate Degrees in Educational Leadership:

Purpose: This article sheds light on some basic questions about the distribution of educational leadership preparation degree programs among different types of institutions and the distribution of advanced degrees, by type, exploring change over time and the relationship to regional labor market estimates. Method: We used data from five major national data sets (Institutional Postsecondary Education Data System, Survey of Earned Doctorates, Schools and Staffing Survey, National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data, and Census data) to explore the production of graduate degrees in educational leadership by institutions of higher education and the distribution of graduate degrees across building level leaders in K-12 public education systems. We used two institutional classification systems— the Carnegie Classification and the U.S. News & World Report higher education classification—to group postsecondary institutions by resources and rank. The time period for our analysis is 1990 to 2003. Findings: On the production side, we found that the number of graduate degree programs and degrees granted in educational leadership increased considerably from 1993 to 2003, with masters degree programs increasing by 16% and the number of masters degrees granted increasing by 90%. Degree production shifted by institutional type, with the role of research universities in producing masters, specialist, and doctoral degrees declining dramatically and Comprehensive colleges and universities showing over a four-fold increase in the share. Degree production fluctuates widely among states, unrelated to school population estimates, suggesting areas for further research and policy analysis.

Infusing Gender and Diversity Issues into Educational Leadership Programs: Transformational Learning and Resistance.

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to consider the impact of incorporating a set of readings focused on issues of gender, diversity, leadership, and feminist thought into the curriculum of a statewide educational leadership doctoral program.Design/methodology/approach – Based data from open‐ended surveys, semi‐structured interviews, and reflection statements, the article presents a qualitative analysis of how students react to, learn from, and resist social justice‐oriented curricula and teaching strategies, particularly those related to gender issues.Findings – The analysis of the data collected in this research suggests that, after a year of exposure to readings and written assignments about gender and other diversity issues, few students had undergone significant transformations in their learning regarding gender issues. Moreover, it was found that many students demonstrated resistance to reading, reflecting on and discussing gender issues.Originality/value – Programs and professors that endeavor...