Education must disengage from current accountancy concerns and serve learners now and in their real contexts. The massive efficiency of our industrialized apparatus for processing people in formal education prevents us from recognizing that a new approach is needed to satisfy tomorrow's uncertain and unlimited requirements. An international…

Applauds Anne Raywid's critique of the ASCD's "Public Schools of Choice" monograph in the same "Educational Leadership" issue for advocating the revitalization of public schools and the creation of more democratic governance structures. However, parental choice will be meaningless unless school norms and teacher-student work relationships are…

Despite ongoing school improvement efforts, there are more factors at work to stabilize schools than to change them. Stabilizing factors pervade school organization, curriculum context, unadventuresome textbooks, teacher isolation, and standardized testing practices. Educational innovation is predicated on change in form, content, and goals and…

Neither hyperrationalist nor decentralist reform strategies will seriously improve educational quality. Successful reform strategies incorporate three dimensions: the authorized movement, regional or localist responses, and conversation, involving changes in school rhetoric. States must create a context for developing organizational competence at…

Argues that fieldworkers' difficulties in gaining access to public schools for research can be resolved by examining the schools' organizational logic. Compares public and religious schools to show how access problems and strategies to overcome them vary with schools' organizational features. Offers examples from research conducted at midwestern…

Middle school transition brings with it considerable change for those involved. Using corporate and industrial management theories and practices presents a rationale for wholesale and comprehensive educational change. (six references) (MLF)

As schools are typically organized, children work under the guidance of female teachers employed by a male principal (the boss) empowered to interrupt their classes at will and mete out discipline. The principal serves as district stationmaster but not necessarily as educator. Two hypothetical examples show how teachers and secretaries can…

An organization's dramaturgical facade (ability to present an appearance in keeping with the script) is a better measure of effectiveness than its actual results. An organization must match its theatrical production--stage, props, drama, and actors--to audience demands. As directors, playwrights, and actors, superintendents play a vital role in…

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,…

Presents five definitions of "systemic change," ranging from "working with school districts or education departments to effect change" (vertical approach) to "working with every school in a system" or "working with every aspect of the school system (horizontal approaches). "Systemic" can also mean…

Discussions about educational productivity need to recognize that students are producers of their own learning. Equating students with workers, intensifying curriculum requirements, and professionalizing teaching are insufficient. The best strategies involve treating students as capable persons, capitalizing on their knowledge and interests, and…

Advocates a stronger comparative emphasis in the study of educational administration and management while acknowledging comparative educational administration's weak knowledge base. Clarifies the potential import of a comparative, cross-cultural perspective embracing five societal/cultural dimensions: individualism versus collectivism, power…

Presents the results of a 1991 survey of 118 community college presidents, which elicited details about how their colleges were organized five years prior to and in 1991, as well as their preferred organization structures for the future. Reports variations in structure by three college size categories (enrollment levels) and indicates significant…

In response to an evaluation conducted by the Netherlands Inspectorate of Education of the nation's elementary schools, the Institute for Educational Development and Advice (Christelijk Pedagogisch Studiecentrum, CPS) undertook a 3-year intervention to revitalize 5 schools experiencing problems with student achievement, curriculum,…

Focus groups are planned each year to gather regional needs assessment information on school restructuring as part of the Research for Better Schools (RBS) planning process. In spring 1991, RBS staff gathered rich, contextual data from five focus group discussions held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Newark, New Jersey; the District of Columbia;…