The purpose of this grounded theory qualitative study is to explore the extent to which the selected elementary principals from a large urban district in the northeast region of the United States, referred to as the Metropolis School District, perceive their roles in promoting collaboration and connecting related services to the instructional programs for students with moderate to severe disabilities. Participants for the study were purposefully selected based on their student population and evidence of collaborative teaming in their school organizations. Principals who have elementary school sites, and those who received a score between 4.00 and 4.99 in the Collaborative Teachers domain of the school survey were asked to participate in this study. Scores in the domain of Collaborative Teachers were consulted for the selection of the participants, as they indicated on the existence of collaborative practices in those schools as reported by the teachers. With the high ratings in the domain of collaboration, the researcher focused on leadership practices that supported teachers’ collaborative efforts. This study analyzed participants’ perceptions and described their practical approaches in developing transdisciplinary teams and promoting collaborative inter-professional environment in schools for students with multiple disabilities. This research study was guided by the following questions related to the Principals’ perceptions on promotion of collaboration, formation, support and accountability of transdisciplinary teaming process between special education teachers and related service providers who educate students with multiple disabilities in a special education. 1. To what extent do principals view their role in promoting collaboration within related services and instructional teacher teams? 2. What do principals perceive as their role in formation of related services and instructional teacher teams? 3. What do principals perceive their roles to be in supporting inter-professional teams and the challenges they encounter while managing the teams? 4. To what extent do principals hold transdisciplinary/inter-professional teams accountable to ensure their effectiveness? Out of the 19 principals who fit into the outlined criteria, seventeen participants (89%) volunteered to participate in the study. The researcher developed open-ended questions around the four research questions. During semi-structured interviews, participants were provided with an opportunity to elaborate on the concepts, offer explanations, share their experiences and views about the topic.

The mission of the International Journal of Educational Reform (IJER) is to keep readers up-to-date with worldwide developments in education reform by providing scholarly information and practical analysis from recognized international authorities. As the only peer-reviewed scholarly publication that combines authors’ voices without regard for the political affiliations perspectives, or research methodologies, IJER provides readers with a balanced view of all sides of the political and educational mainstream. To this end, IJER includes, but is not limited to, inquiry based and opinion pieces on developments in such areas as policy, administration, curriculum, instruction, law, and research. IJER should thus be of interest to professional educators with decision-making roles and policymakers at all levels turn since it provides a broad-based conversation between and among policymakers, practitioners, and academicians about reform goals, objectives, and methods for success throughout the world. Readers can call on IJER to learn from an international group of reform implementers by discovering what they can do that has actually worked. IJER can also help readers to understand the pitfalls of current reforms in order to avoid making similar mistakes. Finally, it is the mission of IJER to help readers to learn about key issues in school reform from movers and shakers who help to study and shape the power base directing educational reform in the U.S. and the world.

Learning to Lead examines the dilemmas principals face in engaging teachers in shared leadership. The text makes a contribution to the field of educational leadership, administration, and leader preparation through cases and the description of professional development initiatives to prepare pre-service principals and administrators for shared leadership. Authors from the United States, England, and Australia present a broad brushstroke of principals sharing leadership through original field-based research, set within a theoretical framework of democratic schooling. to explore the importance of principals sharing and distributing leadership. Until recently, most of the focus has been on teachers and collaborative leadership building. through real-life single and multiple case studies, the text addresses how principals and their staff's struggle with the challenge of shared leadership, and how they attain some of the promise leading to teacher growth and development, as well as to higher levels of student learning. the cases in the text provide pre-service principals and administrators with excellent examples of the real-life applications of various theoretical concepts. a variety of models and approaches of shared and distributed leadership are presented in school, district, and regional contexts, allowing students to see the commonalties that these settings share, as well as the differences between them. impact that those strategies have on teachers, school culture, and learning opportunities for students. Examples of preparation programs and the support that teachers want, if shared leadership is to be effectively implemented to meet student needs, provide future principals with the tools and insight that they need to be successful.