An action research study examined whether students in a multiage "house" design, in which they have the same teacher for three years, have a stronger connection to their school. Identifies dynamics that influence African American students' bonding and discusses how school structure and peer influence can interact to affect students'…

Despite evidence that school factors are associated with differences in various types of student behavior, little research has explored the predictive utility of school factors for school-level substance offense rates. Using data from the State of Florida Department of Education and the Census, we explore the associations between school climate…

In this study, we explore how high schools, through their structures and organization, may influence students' decisions to stay in school or drop out. Traditional explanations for dropout behavior have focused on students' social background and academic behaviors. What high schools might do to push out or hold students has received less empirical…

A study of 24 elementary, middle, and high schools conducted by the Center on Organization and Restructuring of Schools (CORS) found that simply adding school-based support services to bureaucratically organized schools is unlikely to prove effective, and does not necessarily produce better student achievement. However, the research linked schools…

Although differences in the organization of public and private schools are a focus of school reform discussions, those differences are not well understood. Using data from a national sample of secondary schools in the 1990-91 Schools and Staffing Survey, conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), this report examined…

The Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey and Public Education Agency Survey are annual state-level collections of information about the numbers and types of public schools and education agencies, the numbers and selected characteristics of students, dropouts, and the numbers of staff. This report summarizes statistics from each of…

Contracting in public education is not a new development. This book examines projects that transfer the management of entire schools or school systems to private firms. Chapter 1, by Rima Shore, is a comprehensive survey of the practice of contracting out in public education. It provides a broad historical background for the U.S. education system…

This study assesses community-sponsored Jewish supplementary high schools, and its implications were analyzed and applied to proposed closings and mergers among Catholic schools in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania). Data were gathered via administration of a questionnaire, follow-up interviews, an examination of published articles and reports and…

This study presents a report on parents' participation in a leadership-development project in which parents constructed their own leadership roles for improving children's educational opportunities and outcomes. The text focuses on parents working in collaboration with other parents, school administrators, and university faculty and staff. The…

Focusing on the area of student participation, this paper considers the findings of a research project conducted by a team at the University of Western Sydney, Nepean, and funded by the New South Wales Department of School Education. The project was broadly focused on investigating the dynamics of communication within the school communities of…

The use of microcomputers in elementary education is described by focusing on an empirical study of computer use in a 10% random sample of elementary schools in one large local education authority. The inclusion of people at the "grass roots" level was considered to be a priority. Interviews of school-level administrators, teachers, and…

This paper discusses a study of at-risk students in two highly contrastive schools, located in different districts, in order to illustrate the comparative perspective on how district and school characteristics might influence the definition of and response to at-risk students. The study is linked with a larger cultural context through an…

Private schools constitute 25 percent of all elementary and secondary schools, while enrollment in private schools is 12 percent of the total elementary and secondary school enrollment. These are some findings from the 1985-86 Private School Study, based on a sample survey conducted by Westat, Inc., under contract to the Center for Education…

In an application of contingency theory, data from 45 Arizona schools were analyzed to determine the relationships between three sets of independent variables (organizational structure, leadership style, and environmental characteristics) and the dependent variable (organizational effectiveness as perceived by principals and teachers). Contingency…

Cognitive imaging was investigated as one factor associated with the development of the University of New Mexico from an undergraduate teaching institution toward becoming a nationally-ranked graduate research university. A longitudinal, ethnohistorical study was undertaken for the 1967-1978 period. The qualitative research methodology involved an…