Effective principal leadership practices improve school organization, teaching, and student achievement outcomes. These practices include framing and communicating a school's goals and mission, creating shared expectations of high performance, clarifying roles and objectives, and promoting professional development. However, research demonstrates that teachers tend to rate principals lower on important leadership practices than principals rate themselves, and this mismatch in perception could have negative consequences. Numerous studies in the fields of human resources and organizational management reveal that leader self-awareness-when leader self-perception is in agreement with what subordinates perceive-is directly related to leadership effectiveness. The degree to which leaders rate themselves more highly than do subordinates correlates with diminished organizational outcomes, including reduced subordinate job satisfaction and productivity. Specific to education, negative teacher perception of school leadership correlates with teacher burnout and reduced teacher collaboration. We used data from the RAND Corporation's web-based American Educator Panels to gather nationally representative evidence of whether perceptions of school leadership practices vary by educator position. We find that principals almost universally rate themselves as effective, but a minority of teachers disagree.

This quantitative case study examined teacher perceptions within one rural, public East Tennessee school district of principal leadership styles based upon Kouzes and Posner's five domains: challenge the process, enable others to act, encourage the heart, inspire a shared vision, and model the way to determine if a dominate domain existed within teacher perception of the principal's leadership style. Principals who understand the effectiveness and impact that different leadership styles have upon the school environment, specifically teacher perceptions, generally identify with a particular style allowing the creation of a positive educational environment (Rowland, 2008). Teacher understanding of principals' leadership styles increased self-awareness and job satisfaction the teacher achieved. Effectively decreasing the chances of teacher burnout and job-related stress (Meador, 2016).

With high stakes testing required through No Child Left Behind (2002), school leaders seek to improve leadership practices. As school leadership impacts teachers’ instructional practices and student learning, an examination of effective leadership characteristics and behaviors may provide insight toward one’s leadership style. The purpose of this study is to investigate teachers’ perceptions of effective school leadership. This study will identify and describe teachers’ perceptions of characteristics and behaviors associated with effective school leaders. Nine middle school teachers in two rural school settings participated in this basic qualitative study. Data sources include two semi-structured interview sessions with each teacher participant and a review of the Court County School Board Policy Manual. Through this basic qualitative study, perceptions offer insight to school leaders. Major themes include relationships, participatory decision-making, and professionalism as necessary characteristics and behaviors of an effective school leader. Recommendations provide school leaders with valuable information regarding similarities and difference among teacher perceptions of effective school leadership and leadership practices employed.

The Handbook of Leadership and Administration for Special Education brings together research informing practice in leading special education from preschool through transition into postsecondary settings. The second edition of this comprehensive handbook has been fully updated to provide coverage of disability policy, historical roots, policy and legal perspectives, as well as effective, collaborative, and instructional leadership practices that support the administration of special education. It can be used as a reference volume for scholars, administrators, practitioners, and policy makers, as well as a textbook for graduate courses related to the administration of special education.

In 1988, the Chicago public school system decentralized, granting parents and communities significant resources and authority to reform their schools in dramatic ways. To track the effects of this bold experiment, the authors of Organizing Schools for Improvement collected a wealth of data on elementary schools in Chicago. Over a seven-year period they identified one hundred elementary schools that had substantially improved—and one hundred that had not. What did the successful schools do to accelerate student learning? The authors of this illuminating book identify a comprehensive set of practices and conditions that were key factors for improvement, including school leadership, the professional capacity of the faculty and staff, and a student-centered learning climate. In addition, they analyze the impact of social dynamics, including crime, critically examining the inextricable link between schools and their communities. Putting their data onto a more human scale, they also chronicle the stories of two neighboring schools with very different trajectories. The lessons gleaned from this groundbreaking study will be invaluable for anyone involved with urban education.

It is important for school leaders to understand how students who identify as belonging to specific races, ethnicities, or cultures experience school climate. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the perceptions of school leaders on their culturally responsive leadership (CRSL) practices and discipline actions. This study focused on the perceptions of 142 school leaders (Principals and Superintendents) who work in public schools in New York State. The sample consisted of school building and district leaders who work in elementary, middle, and high school settings in urban, suburban, and rural communities. The study was conducted utilizing the Culturally Responsive School Leader (CRSL) Survey, an anonymous self-reporting school building and district leader online survey, to gather information about principal and superintendents' perceptions of their CRSL practices and discipline actions in their schools and districts. This study addressed the need identified by Voight (2013) stating WestEd's research findings suggests that addressing school-climate issues, including the gaps in how different student groups experience school climate, may be an important and complementary strategy for reducing achievement gaps. Furthermore, that nurturing school environments that are safer and supportive for all students, and make all students feel part of a larger community, is an important step toward education equity and a promising step in the direction of closing the racial/ethnic school climate gap.The findings revealed that there was a statistically significant relationship between the role of the school leader (principal or superintendent) and their perceptions of their CRSL practices and discipline actions. Findings were further explained and supported by principals and superintendents' comments on the challenges of implementing CRSL practices and discipline actions in their schools or districts through the open-ended response on the CRSL perception survey. Ultimately, the study serves as a resource to assist the K-12 education leadership community identify where they are on the CRSL practices and discipline actions continuum to follow actionable steps to utilize as a guide to implement in schools district wide as they work towards transformational leadership.

`This is a book packed with ideas and insights. It is informed by evidence from school leaders and provides a valuable overview of many important theories and research findings. A strength of the book is the way it pulls together empirical research the authors have conducted over the last 20 years. Such a long term view offers a new and needed long term perspective on school leadership and enables the authors to show how trends in leaders′ careers, thinking and practice have emerged and unfolded. Researchers and practitioners alike will find something of value in this book′ - Professor Geoff Southworth, Director of Research, National College for School Leadership ′[A]n excellent, well-written, extensively referenced, empirically based contribution to school leadership thinking... Earley and Weindling offer valuable insights for all of us: serving headteachers/principles, advisory and distinct-wide policy makers and aspiring headteachers′ - Journal of Educational Administration By giving a detailed picture of the rapidly developing field of educational leadership, this book focuses on how to become a more effective manager and on understanding the vital importance of the manager′s role in school improvement. Written in a clear and readable style, it contains an extensive exploration of leadership models and management strategies and is based on the latest research. The text is supplemented with case studies of leadership in action. Understanding School Leadership is indispensable reading for those who have a managerial role within their school and for students of educational management.