Fiscal efficiency and organizational effectiveness were the primary objectives that underpinned the reform of educational administration in New Zealand in the late 1980s. The consequent re-organization of schools and schooling located responsibility and accountability for school performance, teachers' work and student outcomes firmly at the door…

The effective, sustained implementation of literacy across the curriculum in secondary schools is still a relatively rare phenomenon. This is because such an approach to literacy requires secondary schools to undergo extensive and complex processes of school change, involving altering teachers' thinking, attitudes and behaviour in relation to…

Continuing education centers mainly organize activities for the society in the fields that have gained importance on the improvement of individuals with a view of career building, improving professional knowledge and skills, achieving new skills and supplying individual development needs. Such centers have been established within universities…

Educational inequalities are evident even before children start school. Some educational achievement gaps widen out as individuals progress further through the education sequence and into the labour market, especially those connected to disadvantaged students. Thus, there is a significant need for careful evaluation of educational policies that…

This article sheds new light on the so-called "natural tension" between bureaucracy and professionalism in schools. As it is quite common in the educational field to appoint teachers, it is debatable whether the assumed tension really exists. It seems more reasonable to find hierarchical control "within" the professional group.…

The gap between Blacks and Whites in educational outcomes has narrowed dramatically over the past 60 years, but progress stopped around 1990. The author reviews research suggesting that increasing the quantity and quality of schooling can play a powerful role in overcoming racial inequality. To achieve that goal, he reasons, our knowledge of best…

This case chronicles some of the problems a corporate executive encountered on his transition from the private sector to the deanship of the College of Business in a university of higher education. His deanship, which resulted from the recent reorganization at State University, gave him significant responsibility for undergraduate and graduate…

In 2006 and 2007, two workshops on teaching work-family courses were held at the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association. This article examines the current challenges and strategies of teaching work-family, as identified by workshop participants, and the resources that are available through the Sloan Work and Family Research…

In this paper, we present data from an evaluation of the educational impact of a school breakfast program implemented in rural schools in Peru. The results showed positive effects on school attendance and dropout rates, and a differential effect of the breakfast program on multiple-grade and full-grade schools. Particularly in multiple-grade…

During the last three decades Swedish education has undergone radical decentralisation involving increased school autonomy. One aspect of this change is the gradual weakening of the state regulation of teaching time. Thus, Sweden is somewhat of an extreme in the EU. This is accentuated by a five-year experiment, where 900 compulsory schools were…

Develops a framework for analyzing the politics of school organizations, affirming a Weberian perspective as most appropriate. Develops "logic of action" (the implicit relationship between means and goals) as the focal point of organizational politics. Underlines the importance of analyzing interest groups and their strategies. Political…

Seemingly endless tinkering and adjustment of the structure of education in the United States over the past century have led to the adoption of different school forms (grouping particular grades into separate schools) at different times. These different school forms necessitate transitions between schools (e.g., from a middle school to a high…

A large proportion of teachers throughout the world teach in multigrade classrooms, or classes with more than one grade level. It is reliably predicted that the number of multigrade classes will increase in the future. This paper addresses the issue of teacher education for multigrade. The main thesis of this paper is that the professional…

In 1999, on the eve of rationalisation of South African higher education, J. M. Coetzee published a book entitled "Disgrace". In this publication he narrates the tale of a Classics and Modern Languages professor transformed into an adjunct professor of Communications, a marketable identity, as a consequence of rationalisation. Coetzee,…

An Illinois school district decided, on an experimental basis, to drop junior high schools and go back to a K-8 organization. In the first year of a three-year experiment, average student learning growth in all subjects was 11 months at the K-7 buildings compared to six months at the junior high school. (MLF)