Using the collective leadership framework, this study examines (a) how principals perceive their own influence and that of other key stakeholders in various school decisions and (b) how principals' perceived influences of other stakeholders are associated with their own influence. Research Method/Approach: This study uses the nationally representative database of public school principals from the 2007 to 2008 School and Staffing Survey. A series of ordinary least squares regression models were estimated to examine how principals' perceptions of decision influence were associated with principal characteristics, school contextual factors, and influences of other stakeholders. Findings: Among all the stakeholders, principals perceived themselves to have the greatest influence in school decisions in almost all key decision areas, while other stakeholders also exerted significant influences to different extents. Depending on the decision area, principals viewed other stakeholders' influence as either supporting or inhibiting their own influence. For example, principals perceived influences from teachers and school districts as high and supportive. On the other

Purpose: During the past two decades, principal turnover issues have raised nationwide concerns about leadership stability and student performance. With national data from National Center for Education Statistics, this study examines how principal working conditions influence the probability of different types of principal turnover (mover, promoted, demoted, leaver, and retired). Research Method: This study utilizes data from 2011 to 2012 Schools and Staffing Survey and 2012-2013 Principal Follow-up Survey, and performs multinomial logistic regressions with region fixed effects to examine how principal working conditions are associated with principal turnover, while controlling for principal characteristics and school context. Findings: This study finds that principals with beneficial job contracts, tenure system, and higher salary were less likely to transition. Additionally, positive disciplinary environment lowered the odds of principals moving to another school, especially in schools with high concentrations of students of color. Moreover, more influences on determining teacher professional development and budgeting were associated with lower odds of principals leaving education, but more influence on setting performance standards showed the opposite direction. Implications: This study could assist policy makers in providing positive working conditions to support and retain principals for long-term school improvement. Moreover, school districts could facilitate building positive school disciplinary environment to lower principal turnover in underserved schools.

Previous research on curriculum-based measurement of oral reading fluency (CBM ORF) found high levels of variability around the estimates of students’ fluency; however, little research has studied the issue of variability specifically with well-designed passage sets and a sample of students who scored below benchmark for the purpose of progress monitoring. We examined the variability in oral reading fluency score slopes due to passage and student characteristics using DIBELS Next progress monitoring passages over 4 weeks using a hierarchical linear growth model. Participants included second-, third-, and fourth-grade students identified as at risk for reading difficulties. The results showed an average growth rate of approximately 1 correctly read word per minute per week, with considerably lower variability than shown in previous research with less controlled passage sets and/or higher performing student samples. Implications for practice are discussed, including procedural recommendations for administrators and teachers.

This article proposes an optimal control method for the natural ventilation in buildings with large depth. Through designing control strategy, constructing building model, simulating the performance of natural ventilation under different control strategies, the optimal positions of the natural ventilation opening at different floors are decided to achieve the maximum free cooling and minimum cooling consumptions while ensuring the indoor air quality healthy. By using simulation, the cooling energy consumptions at three typical climate conditions, i.e. cool day, warm day, and moderate day, are simulated under two different control strategies, i.e. the proposed optimal control and traditional on/off control of natural ventilation opening. Based on the simulated energy consumptions at the three typical climate conditions, the annual total cooling energy consumptions are estimated. The annual total energy consumptions of optimal control can save cooling energy by 43.5% compared with the traditional on/off control, which shows the energy saving potential and the application prospective of the proposed optimal control method.

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