General Instructions
All cases will be subject to blind, peer review by the Editorial Board of JCEL. As is customary in most scholarly publications, authors should be prepared to work with the editorial staff in revising manuscripts in accordance with editorial policy.

 Cases are reviewed with the following criteria in mind:

• Focuses on pertinent and timely issues of educational leadership.
• Relevant to graduate students preparing for educational leadership roles and for educational professionals currently in these roles.
• Useful in graduate teaching environments.
• Presents a practical and realistic problem that requires the integration of knowledge within and/or across disciplines.
• Stimulates self-directed learning by encouraging students to generate questions and access new knowledge.
• Provides the description of a problem that can sustain student discussion of alternative solutions.
• Describes the context in a rich fashion, including the individuals in the case.
• Encourages the clarification of personal and professional values and beliefs.
• Authenticates the connection of theory to practice.
• Includes teaching notes that facilitate the use of the case for leadership development.
• Is clearly written with specific objectives.

Manuscript Submissions
Authors should submit manuscripts electronically in Microsoft Word or WordPerfect formats by email or diskette.  All figures must be submitted as GIF or JPEG images in final form.  Manuscripts should include a cover sheet with the title, author's name, address and email address.   Ordinarily manuscripts should be between 1200-2000 words, exclusive of teaching notes.

Manuscripts to be considered for publication should be sent to:

Michael E. Dantley, Editor
UCEA Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership
Miami University
Department of Educational Leadership
Oxford, OH 45056
dantleme@muohio.edu

Preparation of Manuscripts
All cases should include the following:

• Title
• Author Information Author's name and institutional affiliation
• Abstract  A short 100 word abstract describing the topic(s) of the case and a brief synopsis of the case.
• Text  Sections should be typed in Times Roman font (12 pt) with page numbers centered at the bottom of the page.
• Teaching Notes All cases should include a one (1) page "Teaching Notes" that outlines how the material might be used in professional preparation programs for educational leaders. Within the "Teaching Note," authors should repeat the abstract describing the topic(s) of the case and a brief synopsis of the case.
• References References should follow the style in the fourth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.
• Biographical Statement  Authors should  provide a brief (2-3 sentence) biographical statement.
• ERIC Descriptors Three (3) ERIC descriptors suitable for searching should be identified.

• TablesTables should be used only when they can present information more effectively than in running text. Care should be taken to insure that tables can be effectively presented in html, since articles will be in both html and adobe acrobat (pdf).
• Illustrations  Figures should be numbered in series. Symbols (open or closed circles, triangles, squares) and lettering must be clear when rendered in GIF or JPEG format. Please review all figures after converting to GIF or JPEG format to insure that they are readable.
• Line drawings and graphs Original line drawings and graphs should be submitted as GIF or JPEG files.
• Photographs  Photographs should be submitted as GIF or JPEG files.

Page Layout
The page layout should follow the example below.
**Note  Because excessive formatting can significantly delay conversion of a manuscript to the html and pdf formats in which the cases are electronically published, use of additional enhancements (headers, footers, automatic outlines, underlines, etc.)  is discouraged unless these features are necessary to the content of the document . Authors with questions about formatting may contact Michael Dantley,  dantleme@muohio.edu
 

Page Layout Example

Title

Author
Affiliation

 Abstract

This case was developed for use in a course on learning-centered leadership with a focus on supervision.   Varied data are presented about the school, the district, the students, and the community.  Students must analyze the data, identify inconsistencies...
 

Case Narrative

At a district meeting for principals and assistant principals this week, the Superintendent shared the current testing report.  Highlights for RRMS are summarized below.

Writing test results - grades 6 and 8
State writing tests are scored on a scale of 1 to 4, with 1 indicating no proficiency, and 4 indicating strong proficiency.  A score of 2.5 indicates acceptable performance.  At RRMS, 41.8% of sixth graders and 59.0% of eighth graders scored equal to or better than...
 

Teaching Notes

This case was developed for use in a course on learning-centered leadership with a focus on supervision.  Varied data are presented about the school, the district, the students, and the community.  Students must analyze the data, identify
inconsistencies, formulate additional questions and strategies for gaining additional information, and begin to develop a plan for working in a new leadership role to improve instruction and student performance.  In their responses to the case, students are able to demonstrate their ability to: ....
 

References

DuFour, R., & Eaker, R. (1998). Professional learning communities at work:  Best practices for enhancing student achievement.  Bloomington, IN:  National Education Service.

Glatthorn, A. A. (1997).  Differentiated supervision(2nd Ed).  Alexandria, VA:  Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
 

Biographical Statement

Lynn Bradshaw is Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at East Carolina University.  She brings to that role experience as a teacher, principal, state agency consultant, central office administrator and assistant superintendent in the areas of personnel, supervision, and human resource development. Dr. Bradshaw can be reached at edbradsh@eastnet.educ.ecu.edu
 

ERIC Descriptors

instructional leadership
instructional improvement
instructional effectiveness