This critical in-depth interview study examined four Black women principals’ perceptions, descriptions, and enactments of school leadership as it relates to their intersectional identities as being both Black and women. The tenets of Black feminist epistemology and the theory of intersectionality form the conceptual framework of this study. Research demonstrates that Black women leaders’ multiplicative identity as Black and women influences their experiences and perceptions of leadership. The principals’ perceptions of school leadership developed into several categories and two themes: student-centered leadership and perceptions of racial stereotypes and deconstructing perceptions about Black women.

Principals are responsible for planning school improvement efforts at the school level to leverage increases in student achievement. Recent research underscores how principals engage in satisficing behaviors that result in low-quality school improvement plans (SIPs). To disrupt compliance-based planning practices and produce high-quality SIPs, some districts have shifted from yearlong planning to short-cycle planning. Districts need to establish a coherent understanding of improvement planning to motivate and sustain new principal planning practices. Through the coherence framework, this qualitative study explored one large urban district's shift from yearlong planning processes to short-cycle planning processes to understand principals’ perspectives on improvement planning and the potential shift to short-cycle planning. Researchers examined eight principals’ short-cycle plans. Principals who participated in a two-year partnership with a University System Leadership Program (USLP) for school-level support for school improvement were interviewed. Principal interviews, USLP site lead feedback, and principal supervisors’ interview data to triangulate the short-cycle plans. Data analysis revealed the existence of a perverse coherence that impeded principals’ shift to short-cycle planning. Findings suggest that districts examine their internal practices and processes influencing principals’ improvement planning practices and attend to principals’ understanding and practice of improvement planning by providing continuous professional learning and feedback.

PurposeSchool improvement planning has been a central part of school improvement initiatives for decades. Evidence suggests, however, that traditional planning processes are regularly superficial. In the USA, some principals have begun developing short-cycle planning designed to encourage school leadership teams and staff to develop, monitor and adjust plans throughout the academic year.Design/methodology/approachIn this study of eight schools in one urban district, the authors analyzed multiple rounds of short-cycle improvement plans and principal interview data to assess the progress schools made implementing plans over the course of a semester, the ways in which plans were monitored and adjusted and the extent to which principals embraced short-cycle planning.FindingsThe authors found that many tasks from first semester plans were completed, which informed the development of plans for the second semester. Observational data were primarily used to monitor plan completion, although principals engaged in monitoring but relied on their leadership team to do so. Principals reported regular engagement with plans throughout semester, but plans were seldom adjusted within a semester.Originality/valueThe findings suggest that short-cycle planning is potentially a viable alternative to traditional annual planning as principals communicated being more engaged and adaptive. Still, the evidence also indicated that old habits might be hard to break as school leaders did not monitor and adjust plans frequently enough to guide improvement efforts in relative “real time.”

Laurence Ralph’s (2014) Renegade Dreams presents a glimpse into the lived experience of Chicago’s gang members. The author details that through various forms of injury people living in urban poverty hold dreams that motivate them through survival. This book review aims to provide an overview of Ralph’s work while offering intriguing reflections.