September 2010
Giving Students Meaningful Work
From kindergarten through grade 12, even the most reluctant student produces an enormous amount of schoolwork. How meaningful is that work? Does it deepen students' understanding, build essential skills, and reinforce long-term memory of core content knowledge? Or do students waste much of their time on busywork? This issue will explore how schools are ensuring that student work is meaningful and what teachers can learn from student work. We are looking for articles on project-based, experiential, and place-based assignments; internships and apprenticeships; the role of memorization; effective homework practices; assignments that create skillful writers; strategies to develop student responsibility; and the use of choice in schoolwork.
Deadline: April 1, 2010
October 2010
Interventions That Work
A wide range of cognitive, social, and emotional issues may set up roadblocks to school success. This issue will explore how schools can identify individual students' needs and respond with the right supports at the right time. Articles will deal with response to intervention; proactive classroom management; assessment systems that catch problems before students fall too far behind; and strategies that general education and special education teachers can share. We also welcome articles about specific programs that strengthen —alized students' connection to school and research-based interventions like tutoring and mentoring.
Deadline: May 3, 2010
November 2010
Closing Opportunity Gaps
For more than a decade, school reform has focused on closing achievement gaps for minority and economically disadvantaged students—primarily as measured by outcomes on standardized tests. But is it fair to demand equal education outcomes without demanding that students receive equal opportunities to succeed? This issue will look at what's happening at the federal, state, district, school, and classroom levels to address inequities in funding, curriculum access, facilities, preschool experiences, health care, and teacher quality. How are schools providing extended learning opportunities? What are the most effective approaches to dropout prevention? What role can vouchers and charter schools play? How can we close technology gaps? Get the best teachers to the students who need them most? What strategies help students with different readiness levels receive the support they need? And how can we ensure that boys and girls have equal opportunities for academic success?
Deadline: June 1, 2010
December 2010/January 2011
The Effective Educator
Research has shown that teacher quality is a significant factor in student achievement, but what does effective teaching look like? Must we push out some teachers, or is it the responsibility of leaders to help struggling teachers improve? This issue will consider how to define educator effectiveness and how to create conditions that enhance that effectiveness. What sort of preparation do prospective and beginning educators need? What professional development is best for more experienced educators, including those deemed ineffective? How can educators of different generations bring together the wisdom of experience and fresh new thinking? How can administrators best evaluate teachers? Additional topics may include performance pay; career educators; and teacher, principal and superintendent leadership.
Deadline: July 1, 2010
February 2011
Teaching Screenagers
Students of all ages learn visually and virtually from computers and handheld screens. This issue will discuss tools and approaches teachers can use to effectively reach digital learners. How can teachers encourage self-motivated learning? How do teachers' roles change when learning becomes screen-oriented? What practices capitalize on students' penchant for collaboration and social networking? How are classrooms incorporating learning that is visual, informal, interdisciplinary, and multimodal? How are schools handling such prickly issues as plagiarism, cyberbullying, and student-teacher online communication? How can schools promote media literacy? And how can schools narrow the technology gap between teachers and students?
Deadline: September 1, 2010
March 2011
What Students Need to Learn
The pressure to raise test scores and the looming possibility of national standards has educators asking difficult questions about what students need to learn. How do state and national assessments and standards play into curricular decisions? How do schools decide which subjects are essential, and how do they ensure that nontested subjects, such as the arts, foreign languages, and social studies, have a place? How can schools address the need to increase achievement in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and math)? This issue will address the standards movement, interdisciplinary learning, the question of curricular breadth or depth, the teaching of essential knowledge and skills, and the need for a well-rounded curriculum. We welcome international contributions and real-life stories of how schools and districts have reinvigorated their curriculums.
Deadline: October 1, 2010
April 2011
Safe Passages: The Transition Years
Certain years in school mark times when students move into a more challenging learning landscape. This issue looks at how teachers can support students at key turning points: the transition into the first year of formal schooling, into 4th grade, into middle school, and into high school. What practices or structural designs—such as looping, multiage classrooms, and K–8 schools—ease these transitions? How can educators keep the gains students make in preschool programs from fading as they enter elementary school? How can we help students manage the transition from learning to read to reading to learn? How can we meet adolescents' social needs as they move into middle school and keep them on track in the linchpin 9th grade year?
Deadline: November 1, 2010
May 2011
Schools, Families, Communities
This issue will look at how schools can best reach out to students' families and communities. What supports can schools provide to help maintain a healthy, safe environment for learning? How can schools encourage parents— including parents from minority and immigrant cultures—to take on meaningful roles in the school? How can we best guide parents to reinforce students' schoolwork at home? And how can schools make better use of the rich resources within their communities? We welcome articles on innovations like full-service schools, 24-hour schools, service learning, community-based projects, and partnerships among schools, local businesses, and universities.
Deadline: December 1, 2010
Guidelines for Writers
Educational Leadership, ASCD's flagship journal, is intended for everyone interested in preK–12 education issues, including curriculum, instruction, supervision, and leadership. Each issue contains articles written by educators for educators. We particularly look for articles that inspire improved teaching and learning.
Educational Leadership is known for its theme issues. The more appropriate an article is for a theme, the more likely we are to publish it. We also accept articles on non-theme-related topics if the subject is compelling and timely.
The EL editorial staff makes all decisions regarding publication. ASCD reserves the right to reject material, whether solicited or otherwise, if it lacks quality or timeliness. ASCD offers no remuneration for articles.
What We Look For
- Research-based solutions to current problems in education.
- Reasoned debate on controversial subjects.
- Opinion pieces that interweave experiences and ideas.
- Program descriptions (school, district, or state).
- Practical examples that illustrate key points.
- An emphasis on explaining and interpreting research results rather than on methodology.
- International contributions.
We are not looking for term papers or reviews of literature, and we rarely publish conventional research reports. We cannot review drafts and usually do not find query letters helpful; we prefer to read the manuscript. While your article is under review with us, we ask that you not submit it to another publication or post it on a Web site, even your own.
How to Prepare Your Manuscript
- Double-space all copy and leave generous —s.
- Number all pages.
- Indicate the number of words in the manuscript, including references and figures.
- Include your name, address, phone number, fax number, and e-mail address on the cover sheet.
We use the reference style outlined by the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Cite references in the text like this (Jones, 2000) and list them in a bibliography at the end of the article. Please do not use footnotes or endnotes for the references. For other matters of style, refer to The Chicago Manual of Style and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed.).
Authors bear full responsibility for the accuracy of citations, quotations, figures, and facts.
How to Submit Your Manuscript
If submitting by mail, send two copies of your manuscript. If you are submitting for a specific issue, the manuscript should be postmarked by the deadline date listed for that issue. You can expect to receive a postcard telling you that the manuscript has arrived; a letter from the editor should follow within eight weeks.
If submitting by e-mail, send your manuscript as an attachment to the e-mail message, preferably as a Word document. Please do not paste the text into the e-mail message. Use the subject line "Educational Leadership manuscript submission." You can expect an e-mail response verifying that we received your manuscript.
If you discover a small error after submitting your manuscript, please do not send a correction; we can correct errors in the editing process.
What Happens Next
If your manuscript makes it through our first round of reviews, it enters the pool of manuscripts on hand for a particular issue. When we assemble each issue, we review all manuscripts that fit that issue's theme, as well as any non-theme-related submissions. We consider many factors, such as the balance of perspectives, locations, grade levels, and topics. Some articles will be selected for the print issue, and others will be online only. You will be notified regarding whether your manuscript is selected for the issue.
If your manuscript is accepted, we will ask for an electronic version. All manuscript selections are tentative until we go to press.
How to Reach Us
Guidelines for writers of Educational Leadership are available at www.ascd.org/el. For a brochure describing the guidelines and themes, contact Lucy Robertson (lrobertson@ascd.org). Please submit manuscripts by mail to Marge Scherer, Editor in Chief, Educational Leadership, ASCD, 1703 N. Beauregard St. Alexandria, VA 22311-1714 or by e-mail to elsubmissions@ascd.org.
