By enhancing the cognitive abilities of teachers, supervision can help them make better instructional decisions in planning (the preactive stage), teaching (the interactive stage), analyzing and evaluating (the reflective stage), and applying (the projective stage). Seven charts and a 33-item reference list are provided. (DCS)

Successful management of an American school--like the operation of a Japanese industry--involves long-term development of personnel, trust between workers, participative decision making, and a shared philosophy. (Author)

When applied to values education, the personal computer provides interactions that promote reflective analysis while ensuring discretion and psychological safety. (Author)

A seventh-grade teacher's get-acquainted exercise (involving desirable character traits) led to signing a class constitution that governed rules of conduct for both teachers and students. While involved in this democratic process, children gained practice in creating the kind of culture in which they wished to live. (MLH)

In Rochester, New York, the Teachers Association and the school distict have an unusual contract that mandates new roles and responsibilities for classroom teachers as well as new levels of reimbursement. Principals and central office staff have new roles as facilitators and look forward to the challenges and rewards of shared governance. (TE)

State endorsements of site-based management frequently overlook the development of skills necessary for collegial teamwork and strategies for demonstrating administrators' sincere commitment to the process. This article describes symbolic actions that some administrators have taken to develop new skills and build the necessary trust for assuming…

Total Quality Management is a value-based, information-driven management process through which the minds and talents of people at all levels are applied fully and creatively to the organization's continuous improvement. The total quality view allows educators to see with a student's eye, to understand what the school and the world look like to…

Individual autonomy and responsibility to society through declared goals of education can be realized only when teachers provide a learning environment in which pupils are encouraged to make autonomous judgments in an environment of cooperative relationships. (JD)

Community participation has many faces, but is moving increasingly away from a group notion toward the individual participant, that is, each and every parent and student as educational consumer. (Author)

A survey of 57 Minnesota school districts about participants in district curriculum decisionmaking reveals a heavy involvement by principals in both curriculum coordination and development. Teachers are less involved in coordination than in the development process. Community members are almost totally excluded, and students are excluded.…

Describes a principal's efforts to help staff restructure an Arizona junior high school's entire curriculum while struggling to achieve a successful transition to middle school status. The most traumatic change for staff involved a radical scheduling change from one-hour classes to two-hour time blocks with alternating subjects from quarter to…

Site-based management tries to transform schools into communities where the appropriate people participate constructively in major decisions affecting them. Effective site councils have a well-designed community structure, enabling leadership, student and adult learning focus, and a schoolwide perspective. Districts should provide long-term…

Although those charged with developing learning standards for Maine students have tried to be inclusive, there are some likely challenges ahead. Planners need to include the views of less educated, less successful, or very conservative persons; reach consensus on defining the basics; resolve equity versus excellence issues; and incorporate…

Beland maintains that high school students will need a high level of skill in the social and emotional arena to be ready for competitive employment in the 21st century. In a 2006 survey, human resource professionals said five skills were most crucial to high school graduates' success: professionalism/work ethic; teamwork; oral communications;…

Several initiatives hold great promise to reform teaching: redesigning initial teacher preparation; rethinking professional development; and involving teachers in research, collaborative inquiry, and professional standard-setting. U.S. teachers need to emulate their European and Asian counterparts, who are better paid, prepared, and supported and…