Surveys were conducted to investigate contemporary thought regarding organizational practices at the elementary level, with particular attention to identifying the extent to which departmentalization was supported by research and actually employed in 24 elementary schools in the Midwest and in 41 Des Moines elementary schools. Four committees…

This book presents guidelines for implementing school-based management practices. Chapter 1 describes the growing interest in and rationale for school-based management (SBM). The second chapter discusses essential characteristics of good schools, and the third chapter describes 13 elements necessary for effective SBM. Pros and cons of SBM are…

The adoption of a school-based management/shared decision-making administrative process (SBM/SDM) was recommended for the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) school district in June 1990. Findings of a study that determined the attitudes of three non-Chapter 1 elementary school communities in Philadelphia toward the adoption of SBM/SDM are presented in…

This report describes results of a survey on school-based budgeting (SBB) in the Albuquerque, New Mexico, public schools (APS). SBB began in the 1986-87 school year at 33 of the 116 APS schools and alternative schools, with 16 elementary, 11 middle, and 6 high schools, participating in the first year. A total of 131 responses were received from…

Education in European countries has been characterized by a tendency toward decentralization and deregulation. The Dutch Ministry of Education commissioned the University of Twente to perform a comparative study of actual and future shifts in tasks, responsibilities, and authority in education in several European countries. This book presents…

The results of a survey on the opinions of the patrons of the Ruskin School District (Nebraska) regarding how they view school organization and what they would recommend regarding future considerations are reported. One hundred fifty questionnaires were mailed, and 111 responses were received. Findings are represented in six groups: (1) what…

A model is presented for studying how schools provide instruction to students. A major function of the National Center for Education Statistics is to collect data for understanding and improving how schools provide instruction. The model describes school factors (characteristics, staffing, organization, policy, and student evaluation); classroom…

In fall 1988, a study of full-time faculty and staff was conducted at Evergreen Valley College (EVC) to identify factors contributing to burnout and to create opportunities to allievate the problem. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was used to assess the level of burnout among full-time faculty, administrators, and classified staff at EVC and…

Existing qualitative studies of school principals suffer from procedural or conceptual shortcomings that result in failure to clarify the principal's instructional role. This paper describes the methodology and procedures of a year-long, multimethod, multilevel field study of 12 school principals. First, the background for the study (the…

Mastery learning is both a philosophy about student learning and a set of instructional implementation techniques. This volume presents 10 case studies of instructional programs identified as mastery learning or outcome-based education. The programs are organized according to whole-class mastery, flexible grouping, flexible grouping/continuous…

North York defines Special Needs Schools as those in communities characterized by a higher than average percentage of: children under 15 years of age, one parent families, women in the labor force, people whose mother tongue is not English, multiple family housing, or family mobility. During the fall of 1982 the Special Needs Evaluation Committee…

Report of a study from Israel that reveals that SBM positively affects teachers' commitment to the profession and students' academic achievement, and negatively affects their commitment to the school and students' social well-being. Further, teachers' autonomy remained unchanged after SBM was introduced. (Contains 4 figures, a questionnaire, and…

The Center for the Study of Evaluation at the University of California, Los Angeles, collaborated with school site personnel in an attempt to build an on-going, comprehensive, school-based information system useful in instructional decision making and general school renewal. Conducted at a suburban senior high school over an 18-month period, the…

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development/reliability/validity of a teacher instrument to assess the organizational coupling structure (OCS) of schools. A secondary purpose is to describe the implications of this work for understanding school coupling structure as a complex, "paradoxical" measurement and theoretical…

Characteristics of middle schools are analyzed, based on data from surveys in 1968 and 1988. In 1968, W. M. Alexander undertook a survey to provide benchmark data about middle schools with information from 110 schools. This study was replicated in 1988 with data received from 56% of the 10,857 schools approached. Comparison of these data confirmed…