ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a complex, real-life, accessible case study in expecting the best to provoke and stimulate conversation around practical problems and alternative solutions that confront educational leaders today. These cases cover a wide range of topics, including: teacher evaluations, educational reforms, school safety, cultural differences, undocumented students, and social media. Each case study has three alternative responses written by experienced educational administrators and academics. The respondents were asked to identify the primary problem, along with secondary problems, and to provide a strategy that will address the problems identified. The primary problem facing Susan Jacobs, the superintendent of schools, is providing services to 500 new students who are refugees from Somali, Burma and Ethiopia when school is opening in less than one month. The district has had no advance notice of their arrival, so it has not budgeted money for the services these children will need from the public school system.
