Many educators react defensively to demands for student assessment, accountability, and so forth. Rather than being defensive, we must turn these challenges to our advantage. If I am responsible in my work, then I ought to also be accountable for my work. We must describe what schools are expected to accomplish and show publicly whether these…

Burnout and stress are nation-wide, cross-cultural, and multi-occupational afflictions. Stress can be a friend or a foe. It can energize and motivate people or it can lead to physical and mental distress, unhappiness, and, in extreme cases, death. Teachers have identified a number of factors that contribute to their stress and burnout. They are a…

As demands for accountability are heightened and job expectations become increasingly unrealistic, people are less interested in entering the superintendency or staying in it if they already have it. This study explored motivators and inhibitors that contribute to a person's decision to become a superintendent and remain in the superintendency. Of…

A study of the relationship between the operating costs of statewide boards for higher education and the administrative costs of institutions of higher education in 50 states is described. The analysis focuses on 61 statewide boards for higher education and 1,472 public institutions. The research design involves controlling for such variables as…

A partnership involving eight rural school districts in Indiana developed out of the need for a cooperative services organization to communicate with its school board members. A Joint Services Cooperative Committee composed of one or two school board members from each district visits classes, reviews program policies, and keeps fellow board…

Questionnaires were distributed to student body presidents, building representatives of the teacher organization, principals, and school board presidents of each of 80 randomly selected Kansas high schools (with representation from each of 4 size categories) to determine how various groups affected by attendance policies perceived the…

Background: In June 2002, the State of Connecticut General Assembly (CGA) passed Public Act 02-119, An Act Concerning Bullying Behavior in Schools and Concerning the Pledge of Allegiance. Section 1 mandated that each local and regional board of education (school district) develop a policy to address bullying in its schools. Conn. Gen. Statute…

A study was done of the degree to which a program of comprehensive training in shared decision-making was implemented in Chicago (Illinois) Public Schools. Focus was on reliably measuring the implementation of shared decision-making processes and principles and identifying factors that might promote the adoption of this model at the local level.…

Educators are faced with policy development issues that will allow children with AIDS to be educated, provide AIDS education in the schools, and educate groups whose lack of information may cause difficulties for educators trying to implement these policies. This paper provides guidelines for development of a HIV/AIDS policy. The premises of…

School board members from 50 states have in common the United States Constitution and the legal principles announced by the federal courts in response to that Constitution. New board members are usually concerned with the rights of teachers, parents, and students. Starting with student rights, student conduct that involves freedom of expression…

This paper examines the decision making process used by selected principals as they implemented the 1977 faculty desegregation plan of the Chicago Public Schools. A historical summary of the development of the plan, from the 1969 ultimatum issued to the Chicago Board of Education by the Attorney General's Office to the 1977 adoption of the plan is…

Developments in American higher education from 1905-1945 to increase efficiency and coordination are discussed. Data were collected on the costs of instruction, utilization of facilities, and the distribution of faculty time in order to find ways to reduce wastage and increase efficiency. A certain amount of this wastage resulted from competition…

Attempts at censorship of books and periodicals used or made available in public schools have been increasing in recent years. Parents are raising a higher proportion of the complaints than ever before, and the percentage of complaints that are successful in having books removed from shelves is also on the rise. Three of seven federal court…

The desegregation decision by a local school system sometimes is perceived as the result of pressure, and at other times as unrelated to overt pressure for desegregation. Contrary to both of these views, this exploratory study suggests that a positive desegregation decision may stem from the personal values of school board members. These values…

One purpose of this paper was to describe the present process of machine government and private-regarding practices in local school government. Another purpose was to theorize from these data, based on selected conceptual notions, about the political process in educational governance. Data for the study came from a Pennsylvania superintendent…