In this national survey of public school superintendents, respondents indicated the “best” and the most read from a list of 34 periodicals in education leadership. Their top choices for both highest quality and most read were, in order, Educational Leadership, Phi Delta Kappan, School Administrator, and American School Board Journal. Their primary criterion for selecting these journals was practical utility, not refereed scholarship. Therefore, professors who conduct research and publish it solely in journals perceived as unfamiliar to practitioners are, at least in the field of education leadership, missing a broader audience and direct influence on practice. Additionally, other education periodicals were not ranked often, but at least one periodical outside of education—Newsweek—ranked second only to Educational Leadership, among the responding superintendents for actual usage.
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