This volume examines the procedures that school boards follow in selecting principals and their deputies, and analyzes how leadership change affects a school’s teaching and administration staff. It advocates a more inclusive approach to leadership succession.

Contributors to this volume examine structures and processes that school boards have in place directly relating to the process of principal or vice-principal succession. As well, they consider the effect that these structures and processes have upon staff and administrators themselves. These contributors investigate policies, procedures and practices that school boards employ in terms of leadership succession, and explore implications of these constructs for the sustainability of school improvement. This volume presents an overview of the process of principal or vice-principal succession, descriptions of school district practices surrounding this process and discussions regarding how succession procedures affect individuals and groups of individuals. This volume also highlights those board policies that incorporate practices used to develop models that support and allow administrators to succeed. It articulates how school leaders and staff members deal with change and improvement efforts in successive schools, as well as how board policies and practices support principals and vice-principals at any stage in the succession process. This volume is useful as a reference guide relating to transfer and rotation procedures in school systems across the nation.

Introduction: Principals in Succession - Transfer and Rotation in Educational Administration; Robert E. White and Karyn Cooper.- Prologue: The Construction of the Principalship - Institutional Ethnography and Principal Selection and Succession; Alison Griffith.- 1. Succeeding Leaders - Supply and Demand; Andy Hargreaves and Dean Fink .- 2. The School District and the Development of Trust in New Principals - Policies and actions that influence succession; Robert B. Macmillan, Matthew J. Meyer, Shawn Northfield and Michael Foley.- 3. Planning for Succession - Considerations and Implications for Educational Policy; Robert E. White and Karyn Cooper.- 4. Principal Turnover and the Impact on Teacher-Principal Relationships - Mitigating Emerging Values Issues; Matthew J. Meyer, Robert B. Macmillan, Shawn Northfield and Michael Foley.- 5. Survive and Thrive - Leadership Distribution as a Strategy for Frequent Principal Turnover; Blair Mascall, Shawn Moore, Doris Jantzi, Kevin Walker and Robin Sacks.- 6. Trust during Transition - Strategic Leadership and Trust Development during Principal Succession; Shawn Northfield, Robert B. Macmillan and Matthew J. Meyer.- 7. The Effects of Cultural Contexts on Leadership Succession - Participation of Women and People of “Difference” in Educational Administration.- Epilogue: Contextualizing Principal Succession - Reflections on Principal Succession and Rotation in Western Countries; Izhar Oplatka.- About the Contributors.- Index.