ABSTRACT
The day-to-day life of a school administrator allows little or no time for reflection, for putting things in perspective. In the past few years, the daily and weekly schedule of school administrators has become longer and denser. Although still required to deal with parental complaints, student discipline problems, leaky roofs, budget overruns, reports for the state and local school boards, and arguments over faculty parking spaces, school administrators are also expected to take charge of the whole school improvement effort. That means bringing teachers’ lesson plans into conformity to curriculum standards, initiating and supporting appropriate staff development efforts to develop teachers’ capacities to bring all students to higher levels of achievement on state and district tests, as well as having teachers develop appropriate rubrics for student assessment and strategies for remediation programs for underachieving students (Strojny, 2002). Unfortunately, educators are swept up in the present policy and politics of national school reform, as well as the daily crises of the local school community, without realizing how larger cultural transitions are also at work underneath the surface of the messiness and conflict of everyday institutional life.
