Finding, Preparing, and Supporting School Leaders: Critical Issues, Useful Solutions

With dwindling funds and resources, tougher state and federal standards, and fatigue from more regulations and testing, many school administrators are giving up _or 'crashing' and leaving their posts. This book examines the process of preparing, encouraging, and retaining quality leaders at the school and district levels. Beginning with a chapter outlining six steps of critical organizational supports, subsequent chapters address factors in preparing administrator candidates effectively; improving novice teacher retention through principal support and mentoring; utilizing more fully mid-career teachers who come to schools having worked outside of education; the role of isolation in new principals' sense of efficacy; research findings about assistant superintendents about job satisfaction, efficacy, and ambitions for promotion; and finally, contemporary leadership challenges existing at the superintendent level. Concluding with thoughts about administrator accountability, the various chapters offer contemporary views on the preparation, utilization, and retention of school administrators throughout the life cycle. The chapters provide needed insight into what should and must be done to grow the best leaders for U.S. schools.

Sharon C. Conley, Ph.D. is professor of education in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at University of California, Santa Barbara. Her latest articles include: 'Organizational Routines in Flux: A Case Study of Change in Recording and Monitoring Student Attendance' with Ernestine K. Enomoto in Education and Urban Society and 'Teacher Role Stress, Satisfaction, Commitment and Intentions to Leave: A Structural Model' in Psychological Reports. Bruce S. Cooper, Ph.D. is professor of educational leadership and policy at Fordham University Graduate School of Education in New York City. His latest books as editor and author include: Handbook on Education Politics and Policy with James Cibulka and Lance Fusarelli (Routledge Press) and The Rising State: How State Power is Transforming our Nation's Schools (SUNY Press) with Bonnie Fusarelli. He is former president of the Politics of Education and a recent recipient of the Jay D. Scribner Award for Mentoring from the University Council of Education Administration.