Phrónêsis or practical wisdom is an important element of Aristotelian virtue ethics. This paper is an attempt to study what is meant by Phrónêsis, how it might be understood, reinterpreted, applied, and extended in contemporary professional management practice and its role in enhancing professional excellence in modern managers. Phrónêsis can…

Teacher effort, a critical component of education production, has been largely ignored in the literature due to measurement difficulties. Using a principal-agent model, North Carolina public school data, and the state's unique accountability system that rewards teachers for school-level academic growth, we show that we can distill effort from…

Faced with rising demand for information about early childhood programs, states need to find tools and strategies to monitor the progress of and to identify high-quality early childhood programs. In response, REL Mid-Atlantic convened a regional workgroup for state personnel who work with the systems containing early childhood data. The workgroup…

(Purpose) While numerous data and research indicate that the fiscal practice of institutions has been influenced by National University Corporation Act (NUCA), what exactly the effect NUCA has had on institutions is not known beyond anecdotal experiences and stories. The contribution of this paper is to provide hard evidence on such institutional…

Policy making, policy implementation, and accountability are discussed, and a conceptual model is proposed for understanding a number of contemporary problems and for planning future research. The model suggests a tension theory consisting of two dilemmas. One is an apparent conflict between the public's expectation of educational…

The global movement to improve education by decentralizing governance and financial management and by holding school personnel accountable for outcomes aligned with standards extends even to traditionally centralized systems in Asia. The author explores research questions related to how resources are acquired, who decides how best to use resources…

Progress made during the 1973-1974 school year by the Junior College District of Metropolitan Kansas City and priorities for the next year are discussed. The particular areas that are focused upon are: the accountability system, expanded access, participative governance, the district master plan, and future priorities. (DB)

This paper attempts to conceptualize, sort, and analyze national and state policies that have affected teacher education programs during the last 30 years. If teacher recruitment, preparation, licensing, and professional development are situated at the ropes center, then who is winning the tug-of-war over teacher education policy making. The paper…

The author presents testimony on the value of process indicators--i.e., measures of the services the education system is actually providing--for improving educational governance. He states that the case in favor of process indicators can be summarized in terms of three propositions. First, information about system performance is critical for…

In 1989, New Zealand implemented a decentralized education system centered on school-based management. Outcomes of decentralization include higher workloads at the school level, more structural opportunities for parental voice, and resource discrepancies between schools in low- and high-income areas. This paper describes and analyzes the changes…

Since 1946, four major efforts to improve educational outcomes through shifts in governance have occurred in North Carolina. The 1989 reforms were characterized by an increase in rhetoric about local control and initiatives, teacher involvement, and school-based management. This paper surveys the last 50 years of educational reform policy in North…

This paper examines how motivations for school-board membership influence individual board member's agendas. It suggests the implications of individual agendas for board dynamics and superintendents when both must be accountable to state and federal mandates and their own district's desire to collaborate to improve academic achievement for all…

During the 1980's shifts in social, economic, and political forces will be such that major changes will be necessary if educational agencies are to continue to provide a relevant and necessary service to the society that supports them. Institutions must accept change and become skilled in the change activities required. (Author/MLW)

The Tasmania Department of Education and the Arts commissioned policy research in February 1992 to identify forms of accountability preferred by stakeholders. This paper describes the policy-research project that sought to clarify the accountability processes and the criteria for collecting data and improving the quality of learning, teaching, and…

It seems clear, in philosophical terms, that citizens have a basic right to participate in and to govern public institutions such as the schools. During those times when schools are perceived by the community as fulfilling their charge, professionals and elected representatives such as school boards are allowed to regulate the schools. When…