If principals are responsible for implementing educational reforms, then criteria for effective leadership skills should be developed. This paper considers criteria for identifying effective principals and proposes a training and appraisal system. The paper discusses five domains that identify effective principals: (1) vision, (2)…

School administrators in the 1980's must learn to provide stronger instructional leadership to improve student achievement and restore public confidence in education. School improvement will occur, however, only as a result of changes in attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors. Only when teachers have worked out their own concerns regarding a given…

The extent of any community's citizen involvement in education depends largely on its administrators and school board. Pennsylvania's Long Range Planning for School Improvement identifies six reasons for desiring community involvement, including providing citizens the opportunity to understand school board operating plans and giving the board the…

In the spring of 1907, Homer Lane began his work with institutionalized problem boys when he became superintendent of the Boy's Home and d'Arcambal Association in Farmington Hills, Michigan. The program Lane developed at the school was geared toward building the boys' self-respect and self-reliance and toward giving them an opportunity to practice…

The way that department heads learn the chair role was studied through interviews with 39 department heads randomly selected from nine colleges within a single university. Four types of roles were identified. Faculty-oriented department heads described their primary responsibilities as recruiting, developing, and evaluating faculty members;…

This paper discusses management strategies based on feminist social psychological principles, applies them to the administration of small colleges, and suggests their effectiveness for dealing with intelligent and independent faculty members. The principles cited are: (1) individuals are located in a sociological context that creates differences…

Projects are in-depth studies of a topic undertaken by a class, a group, or an individual child. Projects are intended to strengthen children's dispositions to be interested, absorbed, and involved in in-depth observation, investigation, and representation of worthwhile phenomena in their own environments. This Catalog on the Project Approach, the…

In the context of the modern global society and economy, foreign language instruction is placing more emphasis on students' cross-cultural understanding and on using language to develop students' communication skills. These goals are evidenced by the current interest in Foreign Languages Across the Curriculum (FLAC) courses, which teach languages…

This collection of papers identifies critical issues in mentoring and mentoring programs. Paper 1, "Support Behaviors Among Teachers in Authentic Settings" (Deborah L. Bainer), discusses the following issues: (1) mentoring is just one of the types of support behaviors needed and practiced by teachers in elementary schools; (2) support…

This paper examines parental involvement, regardless of socioeconomic status and ethnic or racial differences, in a school-university partnership in an elementary school in San Antonio, Texas, where the Alliance School is involved in a partnership with a local Holmes Group university. First described is the history of the school, followed by a…

School administrators' uses of subjective understandings and common language to gain and maintain power and predictability in their environments are described. Micropolitical theory, with a focus on language, is utilized to understand administrators' knowledge of the assumptive worlds of their subculture, and how these assumptive worlds constrain…

One of the seven correlates of an effective school, as identified by the Effective Schools Research, is a positive school climate: a positive attitude on the part of the entire staff and student body exhibited through overt behavior that creates a warm, orderly learning environment. Development of such an environment depends upon: (1) strong…

Two addresses presented at a conference of top administrators of traditionally black colleges are presented. In "The Clarion Call: Imperatives for the Pursuit of Excellence," Robert J. Albright discusses urgent issues in the survival and strengthening of historically black institutions. The paper begins by examining the significance of…

Beginning with a review of signs and signals of public attitudes toward American education over the last 15 years, this paper analyzes some concerns regarding public confidence in public schools. Following a brief introduction, issues involved in the definition and behavioral attributes of confidence are mentioned. A synopsis of three approaches…

The strength of partnerships within and without the educational enterprise provides the ability to alter or modify existing practices as social and economic realities emerge. A number of interdependent factors raise questions related to partnerships. Demography is a major factor; while a substantial portion of the aging population will have less…