A Rural School’s Adaptations, Improvements, and Innovations During the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 prompted unprecedented disruptions to schools with challenges particularly severe for high-poverty remote rural schools. This case study recounts the story of a rural school that had participated in a research–practice partnership (RPP) multi-year improvement effort prior to the pandemic and documents the ways the RPP and the school-based improvement team worked to navigate pandemic-related disruptions. This case study provides educational leaders with insights into ways to surmount challenges and innovate especially during times of significant disruption and provides prompts to consider with regard to the use of RPP support and improvement science-based processes and tools.

Seen Yet Unseen: A Case of Human Trafficking at Harris High School

Although anyone can become a victim, commercial exploitation and human trafficking disproportionately affect women, girls, and communities of color within the United States. Despite its prevalence, misinformation and a widespread lack of understanding on this issue create barriers to identifying and supporting trafficking victims. School staff are critically positioned to both identify and support the needs of trafficked youth. This article offers a fact-based case example of human trafficking in a small town in New York State, including one principal’s challenges and opportunities in addressing human trafficking in her school. Programming and practice frameworks that utilize trauma-informed care, cultural and linguistic responsiveness, and human rights approaches are offered as strategies for engagement with this topic.

Quality Education or Defense of Accreditation? The Struggle of a University Professor Leading an Education Committee

This case illustrates Professor Saitoh’s struggles in a middle-management position leading an education committee called the Assurance of Learning (AOL) Committee at a business school in Japan. The committee assessed students’ learning outcomes and provided suggestions for curriculum improvement. The school was accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), and AOL played an important role in defending that accreditation. However, some faculty members shared dissatisfaction with AOL for various reasons. This case may provide practical and theoretical implications in developing potential middle-level leaders managing committees in higher education.

Do I Trust Sending My Kid Back to School?

A suburban elementary school experiences an emergency evacuation. This evacuation event reveals trust and safety concerns. Some parents, staff members, and children express safety concerns, and a key school staff member questions the judgment of another staff member during the emergency event, exacerbating existing tensions between the two. The principal must move the school community forward, while re-establishing trust and addressing safety concerns. Frameworks for repairing trust and trust in schools are considered.

Love, Hate, and Controversy in a School District: A Teacher Couple’s Messy Divorce

Teachers who are married to other teachers within a school district often experience their personal life events in full view of the school community. How should a principal respond when a math teacher wants to leave due to her divorce, knowing that math teachers are hard to find? Challenges in this case for campus principals and human resource administrators include (a) hiring high-quality teachers in a tight labor pool, (b) providing new teacher induction, and (c) evaluating and responding to performance issues of teachers during times of high emotional stress.

Building Emotionally Resilient Schools and Educators During Crises

This teaching case study illustrates the increasing need for school leaders to offer and foster adult social emotional learning (SEL) in schools, particularly in the context of crises. This scenario takes place in an urban high school that is representative of many other American schools. In particular, I examine the challenges educational leaders commonly face when they do not take SEL for adults into consideration prior to implementing SEL for students. This teaching case study aims at encouraging meaningful conversations about adult SEL, equity, and leadership in times of crisis. The hope is to better understand how school leaders can lead and embrace adult SEL during crises. I also pose questions designed to prepare prospective and current educational leaders for similar situations.

“They Don’t Know What They Need”: A Call for Critical Reflection in Community School Leadership to Address the Pervasive Creep of Deficit Perspectives

Washington Hunt is an urban community school attempting to balance the implementation of equity initiatives that meet the needs of minoritized students and families while preventing the adoption of deficit perspectives among school staff. The purpose of this case is to describe how “deficit-creep”—the subtle infusion of deficit-based perspectives from well-meaning administrators—can thwart sincere attempts at community building and social justice. This case study provides an opportunity for emerging leaders to use critical reflexivity to identify deficit-creep and shed light on the strengths and assets of the community it serves. Finally, this case provides students with an opportunity to grapple with how policy makers and school leaders make sense of inequity that is linked to classism and racism.

Cultural Proficiency: The Necessary Link to Family Engagement

Although family engagement is crucial to student and community outcomes, schools often alienate families who are not part of the dominant culture. As a result, school leaders need to become culturally proficient to systematically engage all families equitably regardless of their race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other cultural identifiers. This teaching case study raises issues related to cultural proficiency and family engagement. To help current and future educational leaders foster family engagement, I provide a cultural proficiency for family and community engagement framework. I also pose questions designed to trigger conversations and find practical solutions related to equitable family engagement.

Presidential Influence: How a University President Handles Crisis and Cultivates Campus Culture for an Online Learning Community

The President of Southern Plains University is dealing with coronavirus disease 2019 on-campus that has forced the university to move most of its courses online. Alongside this issue, the country is in a state of social unrest as multiple unarmed African American citizens were killed by local police and White citizens. During these divisive times, university constituents have expressed that the virtual learning environment has failed to provide an adequately safe online learning community for the diverse student population. In response to racially insensitive comments that were made in online courses, a frustrated faculty, and ongoing challenges due to the pandemic and the fight for racial justice, this university president looks to reassure constituents by cultivating an online culture that values diversity and inclusion.

Of School Boards and Superintendents

A beloved, respected, and highly accomplished superintendent in a rural, high-risk district, Mr. Carroll, is confronted with dissident board members for the first time in his 7-year tenure. Two newly elected members have strained relationships between current board members and are calling for his resignation based upon what they perceive as low SAT scores, the excessive amount of Carroll’s salary, and the district’s focus on academic growth, rather than achievement, of students. Despite mediation from the state aimed at easing tensions on both sides, the issue reaches a boiling point at a board meeting.