NASSP Bulletin

The effective principal must be an ethical principal, according to this writer, who offers guidelines for ethical leadership.

Administrators make hundreds of decisions each year that affect the academic and ethical quality of their school. This writer offers 12 practical examples of such situations.

The biases principals hold can affect the quality of teacher evaluations. This writer provides five "commandments" designed to help principals develop a sound basis for professional ethics.

rightly ordered society, harmonious in its parts and organized for the common good, should be the aim of all educators, according to this writer, who argues that principals should think in terms of what should be good and just for students, parents, and education in a rightly ordered society and not be primarily motivated by oureaucratic dictate.

Special education students have special problems, and the principal may face difficult ethical dilemmas in dealing with them. These writers provide examples.

Five principals were asked by the editors to describe their personal response to an ethical dilemma. Those responses—to a wide range of difficult situations—appear below.

There are accepted values in our society that transcend specific creeds, and it is imperative that young people understand that those values and character traits—such as integrity—must be key components of serving the public and maintaining the public trust.

If we want our young people to possess the traits of character we most admire, we must teach them what those traits are, says this writer, a former Secretary of Education. We must not, he argues, permit disputes over political and theological matters to suffocate the obligation we have to instruct our young in the mportance of good character.

Shortly after the broadcast of "The Leadership Alliance" on PBS-TV, Bulletin editor Tom Koerner talked with Tom Peters, co-author of the best-selling In Search of Excellence, about the leadership role of principals in thousands of communities throughout the country.

Florida's intense attention to principal competencies has caused many people in management development to question and rethink their understanding of what competencies are and how they are acquired. The authors share their knowledge and beliefs about these competencies in this article.

Instructional leaders need a sturdy support system and a sound background in clinical supervision to be effective administrators. This writer also identifies three vital, basic tools of the trade.

Practitioners have long struggled to describe common characteristics of effective high schools. This study identified four factors that positively affect student performance in the secondary school.

Does tenure help or hurt education and educators? Teachers and administrators in Illinois have their doubts about the value of tenure in today's public school system.

Those who aspire to the principalship will find in this article an overview of the kinds of challenges, decision dilemmas, and experiences likely to face a new principal. Veteran principals may relive some memories of their first year.

Personnel evaluation as a major responsibility of school administrators has come of age in the last half of this decade. The authors offer 50 "propositions" of personnel evaluation that principals should be aware of.

Administrators who are also instructional leaders should expand their involvement in the instructional program to include special education. One way to do this is through participation in a multi-disciplinary assessment team.

On any given day, as many as 8 percent of a school's teachers are absent, requiring the services of a substitute teacher. With that substitute's cost averaging between $40 and $80 per day, school administrators cannot afford to ignore the magnitude and experience of the substitute teacher.