School reform on a large scale has largely been unsuccessful. Approaches designed to document and understand the variety of organizational conditions that comprise our school systems are needed so that reforms can be tailored and results scaled. Therefore, this article develops a configurational framework that allows a systematic analysis of many…

North Park University's adult program has moved steadily from a centralized governance structure toward a more distributed structure in many ways. The School of Adult Learning hires its own faculty, some of whom are full time in the adult program. The school also has autonomy over academic policy. Ultimately, this academic autonomy has fostered…

By concentrating on the formal school organization, researchers can miss the informal relationships that are fundamental to leadership. Distributed Leadership Studies (DLS) provides a framework for examining school leadership and management that considers the interactions of leaders, followers, and aspects of the context. The framework involves…

The institutional environment of America's schools has changed substantially as government regulation has focused increasingly on the core technical work of schools--instruction. The authors explore the school administrative response to this changing environment, describing how government regulation becomes embodied in the formal structure of four…

Realists recognize reorganizations for what they are: opportunities to do things better--to change business as usual to reflect best practices, new tools and technologies, and current challenges in the marketplace. At educational institutions, perhaps no area is as sensitive to those shifts as communications and marketing offices. The advances in…

A survey of assessment and instructional approaches to literacy education in middle schools was distributed to coordinators of reading programs in schools state-wide in Illinois to determine the alignment between existing schools' literacy program organization and new directions mandated by researchers for instruction for young adolescents. This…

When discussing discipline, educators must separate trivial-but-annoying discipline problems from serious or criminal behavior and define vague terminology. The school's informal and formal curricula, instructional styles, and scheduling must also be examined to determine when the school itself is at fault. Carbondale (Illinois) Elementary…

This article describes a school reorganization in Woodstock (Illinois) resulting in the establishment of an Early Learning Center serving all the district's young children (525 children, ages 3 to 6). Advantages of this center approach for the students (such as integrating students with disabilities), for teachers, for parents, and for the…

Staff and students at an Illinois high school recently decided to challenge all previously held assumptions about all school operations. For this group, school was best viewed as culture (not bureaucracy) dependent on collaboration, shared leadership, and flat organizational structure. Group identified communication styles matching their approach,…

When the parents of school age children have significant relationships with their children's schoolmates, a particularly strong school-community relationship forms. Public schools in the United States are best organized to serve such functional, neighborhood communities, which are rapidly disappearing. School reorganization might renew community…

The team-block program, in keeping with current junior high/middle school research, represents a varied and flexible organizational and instructional approach. An Illinois middle school developed a student-centered program design that offers certain grouping, scheduling, and teacher planning benefits and accommodates remedial, gifted, and…

Data from a study of eight Chicago suburban elementary school districts are used in this paper to assess the impact that declining enrollments and funds have had on the educational policies of suburban school districts. (Author/EB)

Lessons learned in the merger of two junior high schools, one predominantly black and one predominantly white, with a history of competition and distrust, illustrate the sense of community that can be developed with shared decision making and respect for cultural differences. Reducing ability grouping was vital in unifying the academic structures.…

This paper discusses the difficulties that rural and small urban communities are facing in resisting attempts to consolidate their schools into larger districts. (BE)

Data concerning state-local systems of financing public education in Illinois reveal inequities across districts of different types as well as between districts of the same type. The procedure should be of value in appraising school finance inequities in states with diverse patterns of school district organization. (MLF)