The essays presented in this book are chiefly revisions of papers which were presented at the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement held in 2006.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material / Tony Townsend and Ira Bogotch -- What are the Essential Leadership Questions in a Rapidly Changing World? / Ira Bogotch and Tony Townsend -- What is Leadership? / John MacBeath -- What is School Culture? / Sharmistha Das -- What is Successful Leadership? / Lejf Moos , John Krejsler and Klaus Kasper Kofod -- Leading Schools in Poor Communities: What do we Know? / Alma Harris and Pat Thomson -- Rebuilding New Orleans Public Schools: The Case of Algiers Charter School Association / Ira Bogotch , Luis Miron and Gert Biesta -- What is Cultural Competence? / Charles Dukes and Kavin Ming -- Leadership Moments: How to Lead / John MacBeath -- School Culture: Does it Matter? / Sharmistha Das -- How Distributed Leadership Emerges Within Danish Schools - Experiences With New Systems of Governance / Lejf Moos , John Krejsler and Klaus Kasper Koford -- Leading Schools in Poor Communities: How do we Know? / Alma Harris and Pat Thomson -- The Possibilities for Educational Research and Activism in Post-Katrina New Orleans / Ira Bogotch and Luis Miron -- Fostering Cultural Competence through School-Based Routines / Charles Dukes and Kavin Ming -- Conclusion: ‘What’ + ‘How’ equals ‘Whow’ / Tony Townsend and Ira Bogotch -- The Editors and The Authors / Tony Townsend and Ira Bogotch -- Index / Tony Townsend and Ira Bogotch.

\'For the authors in this book, there can be no valid excuses for ignorance in any aspect of education as theory/practice. That is: - If we come to learn that all educational problems involve knowledge of complex systems and processes, then quick, simple solutions should not be an educator’s first or only expedient option. - If all education requires a measure of cultural and contextual understandings, then uniform, standardized programs and lessons will not meet the needs of all children or communities. - If educational change takes time and strenuous efforts to take hold, then why do we abandon and restart reforms efforts year after year? - If educational practices are best performed by those closest to the problems, then why do we not prepare and continuously develop teachers and administrators to grow intellectually and politically to make wise decisions? - If who a person is culturally and intellectually shapes who they are as educators, then why are our recruitment, selection, induction, and retention policies not influenced by this assumption? - If today’s best practices have not taken careful note of successes in the past, then how do we validly measure best practices in use today? - If one-time, standardized test scores are not adequate measures of a person’s worth, a teacher’s competency, or a school’s value to its community, then why do our policies and practices say otherwise? Unfortunately, our ignorance of the “what” and the “how” of education and educational leadership has persisted across contexts and history. Why? This book provides both theoretical and practical answers to these elusive and problematic issues.