Monica Higgins is the Kathleen McCartney Professor of Education Leadership at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), where her research and teaching focus on leadership development and organizational change. Drawing on a background that combines organizational behavior, business, and education, she works with senior education leaders…

This paper considers the contextualised value-added scores of all secondary schools in one LEA in England over five years. It shows that only 2 out of 30 schools had a consistent run of either positive or negative value-added scores, and that this number is no more than would be expected by chance even if the scores were meaningless. Value-added…

This article presents an interview with Eric Barela, a K-12 school district internal evaluator who conducted the Title I Best Practices study for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), Research and Planning Division (formerly known as the Program Evaluation and Research Branch). In this interview, the author focuses not only on the…

During the technology boom of the 1980s and 1990s, computers seemed set to revolutionize education. Do any of these promises sound familiar? (1) Technology would help all students learn better, thanks to multimedia programs capable of adapting to individual needs, learning styles, and skill levels; (2) Technology would transform the teacher's role…

Each of the articles included in this issue launched the author backward into nostalgia and reconsideration of her own work as they motivated her to ask new questions in current and future studies. The author's goal, therefore, is not to provide a linear road map through the articles but to point to themes and ideas that run through the project…

Illustrates the web of relationships among state education agencies, regional educational service agencies (RESAs), state legislatures, state boards of education, and school districts through case studies of two RESA systems. Also compares the "active" and "quiet" approaches taken by the respective states and identifies policy…

One of the major concerns of the California school district represented in this case study centered on the possible legal problems associated with minimum competency testing (MCT). The responses of the district to the California law regarding MCT, and to six potential problem areas, are documented. (LC)

A case study of an organization development intervention in a large New York State school district describes to staff developers the complex process of discovering and responding to organizational needs. The discussion focuses on understanding the problem; frameworks for diagnosis and intervention; and implementing the intervention strategy.…

Because public school districts have highly permeable organizational boundaries, analyses of their structures and processes should include consideration of external as well as internal factors. Such analyses have become feasible with the application of general systems theory, which views organizations as functioning units that have continuous…

The words cooperation and collaboration are often used interchangeably in describing the efforts of two institutions working together. The basic issue of whether or not collaboration is different from cooperation was confronted in a project in which a national education research center attempted to work with a large school district in a…

Through an extensive nomination process, six school districts which were trying to link their testing and evaluation activities with instruction were identified. Interviews with these districts were conducted over a 2-year period; the results dealing with the dissemination and use of testing for instructional change are presented here. Three…

A review of the major studies of administrative behavior introduces this consideration of what features of administrative agencies, either in structure or patterns of organization, have been associated with their successful operation. The theories of interorganizational relations reviewed include the political economy approach, the organization…

The importance of theory in qualitative work is discussed through an examination of the search for theory that arose in relation to a case study of educational change in an American school district. Theory is defined as an analytical, interpretive framework to help the researcher make sense of what is going on in the social setting. Certain…

The first part of this article describes the use of Computer-aided note taking (CAN) for a fifth-grade student with a profound hearing loss who has been mainstreamed in her local grade school since first grade. As such, this is a case study of how technology can directly and dramatically impact the educational experience of a student with a…

Current trends towards greater collaboration between schools to support training and staff development at a local level together with the linking of the needs of trainees, the wider workforce and experienced staff to this agenda has created a need for "neighbourhood" support. This support can be effectively developed by Training Schools,…