The importance of school organization and its impact on teachers' commitment to staff development has been highlighted in recent research. In schools that are favorably disposed toward staff development, the norms of "collegiality" and "experimentation" prevail. Staff practices fundamental to the creation and maintenance of the…

Elementary schools are continuously growing in student population. The increase in student population requires innovative management practices aimed at uniting and furthering progress within school sites. While the increase in student enrollment coupled with growth in staff can be challenging, possibilities of seamless transitions of practice can…

The management principles set forth in this handbook encourage broad public and employee involvement. The first of three sections, "Management in Education," looks at the current state of the art, the potential benefits of sound management, and what school boards can do to encourage development of a true management process for their districts. The…

A profile of leadership behaviors that describes principals who successfully improve schools has emerged from effective schools literature and research of the corporate world. Instructional leadership involves four technical tasks that comprise a leadership profile: curriculum development, teaching supervision, staff development, and teacher…

Intended for use by graduate students in educational administration and supervision as well as by practicing school administrators, this book is a guide to the most effective practices surrounding the school principalship. Ideas in the book reflect current views of good management, including systems approaches, participative and collaborative…

This report summarizes two studies conducted during the late 1960s on effects of team instructional organization upon elementary teachers' decision-making influence in educational affairs and their job satisfaction. The first study, by University of Oregon researchers, compared interview and questionnaire data from Wisconsin teachers in four…

This study was conducted to determine whether changes from traditional organizational patterns in elementary schools make a difference in reading achievement. The study was conducted through comparisons of student populations in three suburban schools. Two schools were experimental (one nongraded, one open space), and the third was a traditional…

Several major reports on the status of education in the United States have been presented to the public and to educators and government bodies in recent years. Nine of these reports provide the source material for this document on the state of the search for educational excellence: Adler's "Paideia Proposal,""A Nation at…

Notes the increasing availability of prekindergarten programs for four-year-olds and describes a program that groups four- and five-year-olds together. Covers the program's instructional goals; reasons for using multi-aged grouping, cooperative teaching, and structured planning time; curriculum; interaction with parents; and dependence on the…

After a theoretical analysis of the concept of organizational citizenship is elaborated, we complete an analysis of the characteristics of school organization that promote citizenship behaviors. We assume that the leadership of the principal is critical in such an endeavor as well as the trust that colleagues have in each other and the extent to…

This conceptual expression of "task interdependence," or role coupling, derived from research of elementary teachers in self-contained schools and team teaching schools, recommends that organizational theory provide clear concepts and measures to capture significant variations among schools. Research, measuring the…

The educational change strategy termed "reaching success through involvement" (RSI) has yielded promising results in creating school effectiveness. This paper analyzes the theoretical bases and practical applications of RSI strategy among 14 schools over an 8-year period. RSI theory assumes that educational organizations are dynamic social systems…

Based on interviews with students and staff and several months of observing life and work in the school, this report examines Colorado's Mountain Open High School, where the program is based on the notion that secondary education should be the rite of passage from adolescence to mature adulthood. Chapter One introduces the people and facilities of…

To improve the existing junior high school's academic and activities programs as well as the school environment, a school superintendent and a middle school consultant teamed with others to effect the transition of a 7-9 grade junior high school plan to a 6-8 grade middle school plan in Augusta, Kansas. The overall plan was basically simple and…

The research methodology of this study included both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Samples consisted of school counselors from 66 Victorian, 33 ACT, and 71 NSW schools in Australia. Findings show that building genuine partnerships between school and external communities requires lots of effort, commitment, and time. Effectiveness of a…