Applying Organizational Routines Theory this study aims to better understand the role of the teamwork routine as a central link between leadership and school effectiveness. Looking for the internal structure of the routine, we employed a multi-case study approaches in five successful schools and four coasting schools. The findings show that while…

This study used comparative interrupted times series analyses to assess the impact of a continuous improvement-focused family engagement intervention on ninth grade attendance and course passing rates. The intervention, conducted in an urban district, sought to improve middle and high school family engagement practices during the transition to…

At Arlington Heights High School, a grassroots effort began in the 2010-2011 school year with the formation of a new committee of teacher leaders on campus, tasked with envisioning and creating campus change hand-in-hand with administration. This committee's membership has continued to evolve over the last five years, and we are now known as the…

Twenty-three matched pairs of high-school students with mental retardation who obtained gainful employment were compared. One member of each pair remained successfully placed for at least 6 months, and the other did not. By selecting pairs from model programs under the transition-from-secondary-education initiative of the U.S. Office of Special…

This study investigated the extent to which school characteristics would interfere with or enhance a shared decision making (SDM) team's ability to address issues of academic achievement as mandated by New York State. A group of 108 SDM team chairpersons in New York State public high schools completed surveys about school characteristics and…

Teacher collaboration is characterized by joint work; shared responsibilities; and the existence of high levels of trust, respect, and mutuality. This paper presents findings of a study that identified some of the forms and contents of self-initiated collaboration among high school teachers. Data were gathered through interviews with 10 teachers…

This paper discussed using vertical teaming as a way to organize multi-year curriculum planning for academically talented adolescents. Vertical teams include educators from different grade levels in a given discipline who work cooperatively to develop and implement a vertically aligned program aimed at helping students acquire the skills necessary…

Despite prestigious reports, most notably "A Nation at Risk," and fervent reform efforts, school performance is unlikely to be improved by measures failing to recognize that schools are institutions--complex organizations composed of interdependent parts, governed by well-established rules and norms, and adapted for stability. Effective…

This study looked at the experience of four high school teachers as they worked to develop a collegial community by implementing the "Connections" program. The teachers were on the faculty at Cedar City High School in southern Ohio where their subjects were, respectively, English, Social Studies, and Physical Science; one teacher was in…

This paper reports on an effort to implement systems change in a secondary special education/vocational education program. Initial classroom observations and interviews with teachers identified themes of the existing program, including a perception of constant change, use of a new junior high to senior high transition process, and time pressures…

A study examined the influence of coauthoring on the writing process in the classroom. Subjects were 24 students in a ninth-grade English class at a racially and socioeconomically diverse high school located in a medium-sized Midwestern city. Data was collected over the first 9-week quarter of the year. Eight collaborative writing triads,…

Factors that are important to a partnership are addressed, based on cooperation between Brigham Young University (BYU) and five public school districts. Examples are derived from the work of the field experience committee, one partnership group. It is emphasized that a partnership is based on mutual respect of each other's competencies (the…

The reward structure of a classroom refers to the means by which a teacher motivates students to perform school tasks. This document reports on a study in which academic achievement in competitive and reward-structured environments was examined in two high school sophomore level biology classes of equal academic ability. Each class was pretested…

This paper describes the development and implementation of the Practice-Based Professional Improvement Project, a teacher-led high school improvement project that has improved academic success at several inner-city high schools in Nashville, Tennessee. The project believes that: teachers are key to school improvement; most teachers sincerely want…

This study had three purposes: to observe the formation and development of a teacher workgroup over the course of an academic year; to explore the connections between a teacher workgroup and the organization which supported it; and to determine the relationship between the organizational support given to the school, which was undergoing a massive…