Successful urban superintendents demonstrate various traits not always specified in job descriptions, including an ability to inspire, business savvy, sensitivity to diversity, self-confidence, deference to board members, high energy, and a sense of humor. A school executive assuming an urban superintendency without these qualities will experience…

A discussion of the New South Wales (Australia) Department of Technical and Further Education examines background of the agency's establishment, organizational structure before the 1990 academic year, and the changes made in 1990. Restructuring that has affected staffing and governance is highlighted, and the importance of organizational…

Recent studies show that urban school boards are inadequate policymakers and reform catalysts. Lay school boards are not structurally suited to govern effectively in an increasingly divisive society facing unprecedented economic and social challenges. States are chiefly responsible for current local governance problems and should lead reform…

Under a bill amending Ontario, Canada's Educational Accountability Act, teachers were expected to resume formerly "voluntary" extracurricular duties they resigned when ordered to teach an extra class. The government's strategy to recast these activities as "co-instructional" did not fly. However, the education minister is…

Before 1980, academic-freedom litigation favored teachers over school boards. As a 1998 case involving termination of a popular creative-writing teacher shows, today's judges rely on decision makers' judgement. Courts view academic freedom as the province of school boards and administrators, who determine how it is exercised. (MLH)

Overweight has reached alarming proportions among America's youth. Although the cause of the rise in overweight rates in children and adolescents is certainly the result of the interaction of a variety of factors, the presence of vending machines in schools is one issue that has recently come to the forefront. Many states have passed or proposed…

This report examines the roles and functions of state coordinating and governing boards of higher education. Data are from a study reviewing 20 years' worth of data and a current survey. After an introductory section, the first section analyzes historical trends which suggest modest growth in appropriations over the period. Section 2, based on the…

This report describes the results of the United Parents Association's (UPA) project designed to monitor the effects of the New York City Board of Education's "promotional gates" policy of holding children back in the fourth and seventh grades, based on their scores on the California Achievement Test. The report was prompted by UPA's…

Med-Cor is a program designed to improve the maturation, interest, and academic skill level of junior and senior high school students. The program is jointly sponsored by the University of Southern California School of Medicine and the Los Angeles Unified School District. Students are tutored with the expectation that their academic skills will…

Conducted by the State Office of Education in cooperation with IBM Corporation, this study was designed to examine the uses of technology in Utah schools and how the implementation of technology could greatly assist the educational process. Six objectives are specified in Section I: (1) design state-of-the-art technological models to be offered by…

This report concludes that the house plan should be the centerpiece of a systematic restructuring of New York City neighborhood high schools to reduce the dropout rate and improve academic achievement. The house plan is based on the subdivision of one or more grades into smaller schools within schools. Long-term monitoring of New York City dropout…

The College Outcomes Evaluation Program (COEP), intended to be a comprehensive assessment of higher education in New Jersey, focuses on outcomes in order to improve undergraduate education. After an introduction covering the national perspective, New Jersey's efforts, COEP, and rationale and principles, subcommittee reports summarize the content…

Recent criticism of public education has led to demands for educational improvement. Responses to this criticism include the development of minimum competency tests (MCTs) and calls for increased academic requirements. This paper reviews a national survey of state graduation requirements that reveals a wide variance in requirements. Eighteen…

The study documents effective state and local policies in providing related services to handicapped children as required by PL 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. The areas reviewed include those state policies which clarify education agencies' responsibilities, and those which increase the resources available for related…

Although the functional relationship between school board and superintendent is a critical connection that stands at the apex of the organizational pyramid in education, little is known about that linkage, other than the tension endemic to the relationship. This study therefore examines how superintendents and school boards interact and inquires…