A volume in International Research on School Leadership Series Editors Alan R. Shoho and Bruce G. Barnett, University of Texas at San Antonio Our fourth book in the International Research on School Leadership series focuses on school leadership in an era of high stakes accountability. Fueled by sweeping federal education accountability reforms, such as the United States' No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Race to the Top (R2T) and Australia's Performance Measurement and Reporting Taskforce, school systems around the world are being forced to increase academic standards, participate in high-stakes testing, and raise evaluation standards for teachers and principals. These results-driven reforms are intended to hold educators "accountable for student learning and accountable to the public" (Anderson, 2005, p. 2, emphasis in original). While policymakers and the public debate the merits of student achievement accountability measures, P-12 educational leaders do not have the luxury to wait for clear guidance and resources to improve their schools and operating systems. Instead, successful leaders must balance the need to create learning communities, manage the organizational climate, and encourage community involvement with the consequences testing has on teacher morale and public scrutiny. The chapters in this volume clearly indicate that as school leaders attend to these potentially competing forces, this affects their problem-solving strategies, ability to facilitate change, and encourage community involvement. We were delighted with the responses from colleagues around the world who were eager to share their research dealing with how leaders are functioning effectively within a high-accountability environment. The nine chapters in this volume provide empirical evidence of the strategies school leaders use to cope with problems and negotiate external demands while improving student performance. In particular, the voices and actions of principals, superintendents, and school board members are captured in a blend of quantitative and qualitative studies. The breadth of studies is impressive, ranging from case studies of individual principals to cross-district comparisons to national data from the National Center for Education Statistics. To highlight important findings, we have organized the book into five sections. The first section (Chapters 2, 3, and 4) highlights the problem-solving strategies used by principals and superintendents when pressured to turn around low-performing schools. In the second section (Chapters 5 and 6), attention is devoted to ways in which school leaders act as "buffers" by reducing the impact of external demands within their local school contexts. Next, Chapters 7 and 8 explore creative ways in which financial analyses can be used to assess the cost effectiveness of programs and services. Chapters 9 and 10 examine how principals enact their instructional leadership roles in managing curriculum reforms and evaluating teachers. Finally, in the last section (Chapter 11), Kenneth Leithwood synthesizes the major themes and ideas emerging across these chapters, paying particular attention to practical issues influencing school leaders in this era of school reform and accountability as well as promising areas for future research.

Transnational higher education was triggered largely by the marketization of higher education, which itself manifests in such characteristics as academic rankings, institutional branding, and an emphasis on managerialism. Recent advances in technology, and the global COVID-19 pandemic, have also driven a "virtual" internationalization of higher education, with universities expanding their digital footprints overseas, accelerating their distance education offerings, and exploring such innovations as virtual exchange programs. Global Perspectives on the Internationalization of Higher Education documents contemporary perspectives on the internationalization of higher education and considers its history throughout the years in order to understand potential future directions. Covering key topics such as student recruitment, institutional branding, and student mobility, this premier reference source is ideal for administrators, principals, researchers, academicians, practitioners, scholars, instructors, and students.

Education policy and policy making is shaped through the activities of a complex network of educators, educational leaders, researchers, community members, as well as government and non-government officials and organizations. Educational researchers are a critical player in this complex network and their investigations of various educational phenomena can answer questions relevant to the design and implementation of education policy for school improvement. Educational research, however, often has limited influence in larger policy conversations and decisions (Orland, 2009), and this is due to many factors. Educational researchers can provide an evidence-based starting place for discussions about school improvement with the complex network of stakeholders engaged in policy development and implementation, but they must be more intentionally and systematically thoughtful about the connections of their work to policy and policy making. Furthermore, researchers can increase the relevance of their work for policy through the careful design and framing of research in collaboration with end-users, and an awareness of its implications. In so doing, researchers can spur the interest and dissemination of their findings to wider audiences. This book offers resources for education researchers, faculty, and advanced graduate students interested in maximizing the relevance of their research on policy for school improvement. In achieving this purpose, the book is organized into three sections: 1) A primer for education policy making in the United States; 2) Designing research to maximize education policy relevance; and 3) Engaging users of research to communicate its relevance to policymakers. This book is primarily for education researchers, faculty, and advanced graduate students seeking to improve the visibility and impact of their research on school improvement, particularly in the realm of educational policy and policy making. While this book is a volume in the book series for the American Educational Research Association Special Interest Group, Leadership for School Improvement, the importance and usefulness of the topics covered span education research more broadly. Further, the content of this book serves as a comprehensive guide for how education researchers, in general, can better situate their work to influence policy. The book is intended to be utilized by university scholars, graduate students in research or policy courses, post-doctoral fellows, as well as research associates or directors in various organizations relevant to education such as research consulting groups, non-profits which serve education causes, teacher unions, state agencies or state-level educator organizations/ associations, and think tanks. Emerging or established researchers in any of these organizations who want to increase the relevance, significance and dissemination of their work into education policy will hopefully find this book useful.

As the sixth volume in the International Research on School Leadership series, the contributing authors in this volume consider the history, challenges, and opportunities of the field of research and practice in educational leadership and administration in schools and districts. Ten years after the work of Firestone and Riehl (2005) and their contributing authors, our aim with the present volume was to summarize and update the work of the field, and provide a space to consider the multiple futures of educationalleadership in schools and districts, as both challenges and opportunities. The first decade of the twenty?first century brought significant critiques, challenges, and competition to the research and practice of training leaders and administrators of schools and districts around the world. Congruently, the field experienced significant growth and change, as multiple new sub?domains flourished and were founded. Thus, in this volume we were delighted to included excellent chapters from multiple authors that considered the duality of the challenges and opportunities of: The work of the field of educational leadership and administration research to date. The opportunities and challenges of new visions of leadership in traditional and non?traditional schools. The evolving state of research evidence in educational leadership and the increasing sophistication of multiple methodologies, including qualitative research, quantitative modeling, the ability to test theory, and the increasing opportunities brought on by the intersection of data, research, and practice. The preparation of educational leaders. And the emerging trends in the professional development of school leaders. The authors of the nine chapters in the present book volume took on this challenge of confronting the duality of not only including the past as we look to the future, but also the duality of the critique of the field in the midst of exciting and significant progress in our knowledge and understanding of leadership in schools. In the first section of the book (Chapters 2, 3 and 4), the authors examine the interplay of educational leadership research and theory as it relates to reform in schools, especially as it relates to serving historically underserved populations globally. In section 2 (Chapters 5 and 6), the authors highlight the importance of methodological considerations in school leadership research as a means to understand theory and practice as well as providing interesting avenues that point to multiple exciting future possibilities through relying on current innovations noted within the chapters. Section 3, (Chapters 7 and 8) examine the research and practice of school leadership preparation, especially as it relates to university?district partnerships and non?traditional school settings. And in the final chapter,(Chapter 9), our capstone contributor provides a means to link the present volume with the past writings on these topics, while also providing a lens to view the exciting possibilities and promises of the multiple futures of the field of educational leadership research and practice.

This study, by more than 130 contributors, assesses the moves to decentralize educational administration. The text contains overviews by individual authors, and joint papers forming dialogues between different academic contenders. It provides a survey of educational policies and planning, and an analysis of the changes in England and Wales. Curriculum control, privatization and leadership issues are also debated. This book is one of four volumes which consider the educational dilemmas facing governments, professional educators and practising administrators in the current educational climate. The issues are addressed from international and comparative perspectives.>

Recommender systems have shown to be successful in many domains where information overload exists. This success has motivated research on how to deploy recommender systems in educational scenarios to facilitate access to a wide spectrum of information. Tackling open issues in their deployment is gaining importance as lifelong learning becomes a necessity of the current knowledge-based society. Although Educational Recommender Systems (ERS) share the same key objectives as recommenders for e-commerce applications, there are some particularities that should be considered before directly applying existing solutions from those applications. Educational Recommender Systems and Technologies: Practices and Challenges aims to provide a comprehensive review of state-of-the-art practices for ERS, as well as the challenges to achieve their actual deployment. Discussing such topics as the state-of-the-art of ERS, methodologies to develop ERS, and architectures to support the recommendation process, this book covers researchers interested in recommendation strategies for educational scenarios and in evaluating the impact of recommendations in learning, as well as academics and practitioners in the area of technology enhanced learning.

Reflecting the World: A Guide to Incorporating Equity in Mathematics Teacher Education is a guide for mathematics teacher educators interested in incorporating equity concerns into their teaching. The book draws on the authors' research and experience integrating issues of equity, diversity, and social justice into their work as mathematics teacher educators of preservice and inservice preK?9 teachers. Reflecting the World includes both a framework for integrating issues of equity into mathematics teacher education courses and professional development and example lessons. The lessons are organized by content area and include guidance for using them effectively. Elementary and middle grades pre?service teachers are often uncomfortable with mathematics, uncertain about their ability to teach it, and unsure of how it connects to the real world. For many preservice teachers a focus on the real world-and in particular on issues of equity, diversity, and social justice-is more engaging than their past experiences with mathematics and can help lessen their mathematical anxieties. Reflecting the Worldi will assist teacher educators in designing and teaching mathematics content and methods courses in ways that support future teachers to see the relevance of mathematics to our world and in becoming critical, questioning citizens in an increasingly mathematical world. The book provides a set of tools for helping future teachers connect mathematics to the lives, interests, and political realities of an increasingly diverse student body, and in doing so it provides a meaningful answer to the question, "when will I ever use this?"

A successful administrator is one who applies suitable or appropriate leadership styles in various situations or contexts. It is crucial to investigate how effective administrators lead their organizations in challenging and difficult times, as well as promote the accomplishments of their organization. Predictive Models for School Leadership and Practices is an essential reference source that discusses academic administration as well as administrative effectiveness in achieving organizational goals. Featuring research on topics such as teacher collaboration, school crisis management, and ITC integration, this book is ideally designed for principals, researchers, academics, educational policymakers, and teachers seeking coverage on academic leadership and leadership models.

More students on the autism spectrum are taught in general education settings today than ever before, bringing an array of notable strengths and skills that add intriguing new dimensions to educational programs. But these students also present challenges that are broader, deeper, and more intractable than those of their typically developing peers. Because reaching and teaching students on the autism spectrum in an inclusive environment complicates the work of teachers, school and district administrators must be prepared to provide knowledgeable, mindful leadership. With warmth and wisdom informed by her experience as a school administrator, autism educator, clinician, and parent of a son on the spectrum, Barbara Boroson provides a holistic look at the challenges students on the spectrum face in the areas of anxiety, executive function, sensation, communication, socialization, engagement, and cognitive acquisition. You'll learn to decode the functional and behavioral manifestations of these challenges, and you'll gain practical and research-based preemptive, supportive, and responsive strategies. You will also find: Insight into the perspectives of parents and guardians, along with guidance on partnering with them in ways that acknowledge both their expertise and yours. Tips for modeling transparency and creative differentiation in order to set an inclusive tone throughout your school or district. Supplemental materials to help you engage and educate families and the entire school community about autism, inclusion, and best-practice policies. Decoding Autism and Leading the Way to Successful Inclusion empowers school and district leaders to ensure that students on the spectrum are welcome, supported, understood, and set up for success. It's an essential resource for any education leader committed to achieving a differentiated, equitable, and inclusive learning environment for all students in their care.

Equality and equity are often mischaracterized as interchangeable terms in public education. This may explain why efforts towards reform and restructure are often not met with any real measure of success. Equity, Equality, and Reform in Contemporary Public Education provides emerging research on the reformation of education curriculum to provide proportionate opportunities for marginalized students and support for student achievement in public education. While highlighting topics, such as achievement gaps, gender biases, and multicultural responsiveness, this book explores the theories and applications of different measures of reform to promote fairness among individual students. This book is an important resource for educators, professionals, school administrators, researchers, and practitioners in the field of education.

The global digital economy continues to demand the need for educated and highly trained professionals, requiring higher learning institutions to provide accessible technology-driven experience to prepare future leaders effectively. However, there are challenges involved in creating a robust curriculum and recruiting top-notch faculty all over the world while also meeting the academic criteria to offer effective academic programs and degrees to students. The Handbook of Research on Challenges and Opportunities in Launching a Technology-Driven International University is a pivotal reference source that provides empirical and theoretical research focused on the effective construction of technology-driven higher learning international universities. While highlighting topics such as accelerated and innovative curriculum, recruitment of international faculty, on-campus development, and distance learning systems, this publication explores the financial and economic impacts of launching a university, and the methods of how to identify the appropriate locale for universities and/or branch campuses that will ideally complement the local interest of business sectors within the selected location. This book is ideally designed for entrepreneurs, practitioners, academicians, administrators, government officials, researchers, and consultants.