Discusses the growth and development of principal centers since 1981. Includes mention of the Harvard Principals' Center and a discussion of "The Conversation," a networking exchange funded by the Babcock Foundation. (MD)

Outlines the assumptions guiding the development of programs for leadership education of principals in Minnesota. (MD)

Records the experience of a principal who was able to turn to the Maine Principals' Academy for inservice training programs that help administrators develop effective leadership qualities. (MD)

Explores the relationship between knowledge and change and asks what knowledge is of most worth. Outlines 10 knowledge skills providing learners with the basis for coping with change. Failure to master these skills will leave future adults powerless in a complex, power-driven world. (MLH)

Leadership development is a learning process that extends over many years. A single, all-purpose instrument of leadership is effective communication. Despite growing dependency on leadership development programs, centers for advanced training, and graduate studies, the workplace remains the most effective arena for personal growth. (MLH)

Thirteen ideas for marketing and implementing the assessment center concept are presented. These call for a primary focus on individuals and on excellence, preparation and organization, assessor training, assessor newsletters, accessible locations, a statewide advisory board, an action plan, confidentiality, both causal and formal meetings,…

Discusses the need for developing networking and support and discussion groups among principals and administrators. Describes the positive effect such a group is having among school administrators in the Washington, D.C. area. (MD)

An education professor draws an analogy between skipping stones on water and a principal's development of school leadership. As stone skippers think about the stone, the environment, and the act of throwing, so should school leaders consider their problem ("stone"), their school and community environment, and the way they introduce the…

Proposes clustering content areas of a middle school curriculum under humanities, technology, and personal study. An interdisciplinary team planning approach could eliminate the schism between academic and other subjects. (MLF)

Argues that two major transitions in a teacher's professional development offer inherent possibilities for occupational growth--the tenth year, in which teachers opt for a classroom career, and the twentieth year, which marks a major alteration in attitudes towards students and towards the process of aging. (Author/WD)

Curriculum developers should consider middle level learners' needs for intellectual growth and individual attention and their needs to understand themselves and know others. (MLF)

The literature suggests collaborative planning is purely egalitarian, but this article identifies a form called "dialectical collaboration" providing situationally determined variations in the locus of control. One district's experience planning an administrators' inservice program illustrates dialectical collaboration. The authors urge…

Describes in sequence the key considerations involved in planning an effective program for communications among a school's staff members. Covers program goals, communications needs analysis, responsibility, credibility, communications rights of employees, necessary attitudes, planning steps, appropriate channels and network patterns,…

The principal must analyze curriculum content and instructional methods and correlate these with instructional objectives and outcomes. (JM)

Middle-level teachers can avoid passive seatwork and encourage students to think using a "guided thinking" approach, designed to help adolescents develop more sophisticated thinking and reasoning skills. Essential elements of guided thinking are described, along with an implementation strategy and the principal's role in fostering…