Suggestions for making the academic planning process at the higher education level more productive include being realistic about what can be accomplished; carefully reviewing past planning efforts; preparing others for change; structuring change over time; and tailoring the model to the circumstances of the changes to be made. Substantive…

The Council of Chief State School Officers' "Accommodations Manual: How to Select, Administer, and Evaluate the Use of Accommodations for Instruction and Assessment of Students with Disabilities" was first developed to establish guidelines for states to use for the selection, administration, and evaluation of accommodations for…

This book brings together essays written by higher education professionals that provide practical and theoretical advice on the academic, financial, administrative, legal, personnel, and student aspects of college mergers. Together, the contributors set forth an action plan for those involved in planning and implementing such mergers, and outline…

This handbook for institutional researchers focuses on describing methods and techniques for conducting and merging external and internal analyses in order to produce an expanded vision of alternative future environments. Such vision is needed for the formulation of strategic long-range plans. Section 1 begins with a discussion of how an internal…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) guarantees rights and services for children and youth with special needs. This Q&A brief provides basic information about IDEA and specific ways the law applies to homeless and highly mobile students with special needs. In addition, the brief provides strategies recommended by homeless…

Switching from multiple lunch periods to one lunch period for the nearly 2,000 students at James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, has contributed more to a positive school climate than any other single factor in the eight years since the school opened. This article presents how Blake has come up with the single 50-minute lunch…

"The Learning Principal" is an eight-page newsletter published eight times a year. It focuses on the important and unique work of school principals. This issue includes: (1) Efficacy Can Overcome Classroom Barriers (Valerie von Frank); (2) Q & A: Leadership, Learning Communities Change School Culture (Valerie von Frank); (3) Focus on NSDC's…

It has become increasingly difficult for school administrators and boards of education to obtain funds for meeting educational community needs and for overcoming obstacles to providing high quality education. This book provides the theoretical basis for developing specific strategies for resolving school bond issues and practical information on…

This handbook was designed to accompany a three-day workshop for senior administrators in higher education on proactive management techniques in higher education. Proactive management allows for anticipating change and managing uncertainty in place of crisis management or reactive actions. The workshop covered: (1) strategic thinking; (2)…

Individual schools should have committees to help establish long- and short-range school improvement plans utilizing information supplied by the school principal. Identification and achievement of specific objectives are the goals. (MLF)

South Carolina has enacted a comprehensive act that contains more than 40 new programs and a comparable number of improvements in existing programs. Cites 26 elementary school reforms that will be phased in by 1989. (MLF)

This guide provides examples of good practice in strategic planning within higher education, particularly as it applies to Northern Ireland. Examples are drawn from the experiences of 13 case study universities and colleges. Sections of the report include a summary; an introduction and overview of the strategic planning process; and a discussion…

A study compared enrollment patterns at 140 colleges and universities five years before and five years after they changed their names, predicting that the strategy of changing the institution's name would positively influence enrollment. Results indicate that on average, the strategic name change did not affect enrollment, and only 7% of…

While many colleges and universities have undertaken organizational change, many also have failed to produce such change. One reason may be that the failed planning processes have been overly rational, quantitative, and linear, neglecting intuition, artfulness, and sudden social and human shifts. Chaos theory, which describes systems and…

Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis is the first public institution to implement Responsibility Center Management (RCM), a comprehensive decentralized, incentive-base financial management system. RCM has strengthened academic planning, budget management, general accountability, and multiyear fiscal planning. Organizational…