Parents love choices. Proliferating brands, color palettes, communication media, and electronic options are only a few of the manifestations of our collective desire to be in charge of our choices. Not surprisingly, board members now face a significant increase in demands for school choice. Some of this increase in demand is fueled by federal funding incentives for charter schools; the recent $4 billion Race to the Top program gave preference to states with the least restrictive charter of states permit parents to choose schools outside traditional attendance boundaries, and a few are permitting vouchers.

One demands evidence before embracing change, while the other resists it at all cost. Here’s why you should listen to the skeptics and avoid the cynics when making crucial decisions

The desire for school change is great, but much of the advice on how to lead for change is profoundly frustrating.  Follow these five ‘shifts’ to see change for the better.

This Colorado school starts early and follows students through college, extending the traditional K-12 reach of public schools in this high-poverty, high-minority community

School board members are for the most part community volunteers who don’t have extensive time to become governance experts. These shortcuts can help accelerate board expertise.

Making decisions based on data is a popular trend, but make sure the facts are real and not simply strongly held opinions masquerading as reality.

Budget cuts are forcing writing out of the classroom, but it remains the foundation of strong literacy and achievement.  Is it a focus in your district?

Board members must separate fact from fiction when trying to figure out the real expectations their community has for the school district and from public education as a whole.

Evaluting your superintendent is important, but rankings are often ambiguous or politicized. How can you make superintendent assessments a valuable tool for change?

Although Social Security funds are in decline and no solution is evident, few politicians have the temerity to try to change the system. Why? Because Social Security is the third rail in politics: if you touch it, you’ll die. The field of education has an issue that is equally as lethal: grading.…

Who could possibly be against teaching social responsibility? Quite a few people, it turns out—as anyone who survived the controversy in the 1980s and early 1990s over outcomes-based education (OBE) can attest. A look back at that abandoned effort offers three lessons for those who advocate teaching values and civic virtue.

There's no doubt that Web 2.0—the social and technological phenomenon that enables users to generate content, interact, and share information across borders—can be a force for good in the world of education…

You need to make data-driven decisions!” intoned the workshop leader.  I doubt that any of the teachers and administrators in the audience intended to make “ignorance-driven” decisions. In fact, few school leaders are experiencing a shortage of data.

As education leaders strive to promote excellence for all students, they confront sharply contrasting schools of thought about the best way to close achievement gaps between students of different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds…

To motivate students to come to class, many schools have implemented tough attendance policies, typically stipulating that students will receive no credit for homework or tests that they miss because of unexcused absences. The problem is that these get-tough mandates are counterproductive and do little to reduce tardiness and truancy…

While the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is stalled in Congress, school leaders have a perfect opportunity to seize the initiative. Without waiting for permission from any governmental authority, we can create new models of educational accountability that are more constructive and meaningful than those now in place…

It's not hard to find examples of short-term success in high-poverty schools. Such cases have been documented in the recent work of Chenoweth (2007) and in my own studies of 90/90/90 schools™—those with 90 percent poverty, 90 percent minority enrollment, and 90 percent of students meeting or exceeding academic standards (Reeves, 2004).  Earlier studies by Edmonds (1979), Carter (1999), and Haycock (1999) also identified schools that were succeeding despite the fact that they enrolled large numbers of students in poverty…

teacher leadership is a concept that extends far beyond a slogan and has become an integral part of education reform. It is no coincidence that award-winning school districts have made teacher leadership a key part of their strategies for continued success…

Several weeks ago, I traveled to rural Zambia to dedicate a school that my colleagues and I had built there.1 Amidst the celebration of a facility that will serve more than 550 students in grades 1–9, I learned some leadership lessons…

Leaders set priorities. With multiple demands on limited school resources and classroom time, an essential job of every school leader is allocating resources to produce the greatest student success. In some schools—often those serving large proportions of poor and minority students—the imperative to raise test scores in literacy and math has led administrators to sacrifice seemingly nonrelated subjects, such as music and art…

Consider the following laments that I have heard recently from school leaders: “We can't change the grading policy—it's part of our culture.” “Public displays of data won't work here—the culture won't allow it.” “The parents just don't understand—you can't change the culture by passing a law.” Each of these statements includes the word culture, but the meaning of the term ranges from policies and procedures to personal preferences to deeply embedded belief systems…

School leaders are often held accountable for things beyond their control.  The skills that students bring to kindergarten; the education attainment of families in the community; the local tax base; the pool of available teacher candidates—all these factors affect student achievement.  Because complaining about things outside our control is an ineffective leadership strategy, it is more productive to focus on the key factors that we can directly influence.