This publication summarizes available research comparing middle schools with conventional types of schools serving 10- to 14-year old students. Research findings are presented in four topical sections dealing with student achievement and attendance, student self-concept and attitude, teacher and parent attitude, and administration, curriculum,…

In 1973, the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and the New York University School of Engineering and Science merged to form the Polytechnic Institute of New York, acquiring the largest graduate engineering enrollment in the U.S. Activities carried out under a Carnegie Corporation of New York grant are summarized in this report. It is shown that…

Alternative secondary schools were placed in separate groups based on patterns of organizational variables including goals, instructional features, size, sources of funding, and target school population. Distinct patterns of student perceptions of their school learning environment seem to be associated with identifiable patters of organizational…

Advances a model of individual teacher power using data collected in three high schools. A teacher's power resides in his/her access to various persons, information, and material resources. The resulting dependency of administrators on these resources can allow teachers to influence behavior. (Author/CS)

Results of three experiments indicated that school achievement is predicted by intelligence and academic time on-task in traditionally-structured schools and by intelligence and student commitment in open structured schools. Increasing the amount of teacher-directed time would increase achievement in traditional schools but decrease achievement in…

This summary of a study describing the communications of school administrators and teachers and the degree of congruency between principals' and teachers' instructional intentions and students' and teachers' perceptions of classroom events concludes by proposing Rensis Likert's overlapping work groups as a more effective organizational pattern for…

American public schools historically have used a range of differentiating mechanisms to meet the needs of diverse groups of students. Examples from Title I service delivery include pullout, in-class, add-on, and replacement programs. These models have elements that differentiate the educational experience of Title I students to varying degrees and…

From 1990 to 1995, the Center on Organization and Restructuring of Schools at the University of Wisconsin-Madison examined questions about the effects of school restructuring on student performance. Center researchers analyzed data from more than 1,500 elementary, middle, and high schools throughout the United States and conducted field research…

This paper explores the deep-reform efforts of 9 secondary schools over a 3-year period. The reforms occurred in an Ontario, Canada, school district that empowered their secondary schools to develop site-specific organizational structures that deviated from the traditional subject, departmental structure. The sample for the study included all…

Many educators have been too quick to use traditional statistical data as measures of school effectiveness. Instead, educators should develop means of understanding and communicating to the public measures of social variables that operate in effective schools. (JW)

Two competing images present schools as either rational bureaucracies or loosely coupled systems. Teachers in 13 Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) schools were surveyed on two dimensions distinguishing these images: goal consensus and influence centralization. The results suggest that high schools fit the loosely coupled image and elementary schools the…

Reports of a survey of 36 Southeastern United States geoscience departments on policy, faculty size, salaries, teaching, and research. Departments are classified into five categories by university enrollment. (Author/MA)

The perceptions of Black and of White students toward each other in team-organized and traditionally organized schools were compared. Although Whites appear to have more negative perceptions of Blacks than Blacks of Whites, closer contacts of Whites with Blacks in the team-organized schools improve perceptions. (CJ)

Reports on a study that investigated the causes for student truancy and responses to the problem by two urban California secondary schools. Holds that attendance problems are much influenced by organizational structures and that school administrators are inadequately prepared to shape effective attendance policy. (GC)

In this 1979 replication of a 1974 survey, 234 high school principals provided information on perceived influences on curriculum, groups involved in curricular decision making, and use of 20 curricular arrangements and offerings, such as departmentalization, independent study, competencies, moral education, and unified studies. Five-year trends…