The typical administrator certification program does not devote specific attention to shootings, suicide, terminal illness, and natural disasters. A crisis of major proportion calls for enlightened leadership: a take-charge manner, combined with effective teamwork and delegation of vital operations. Crisis teams should exist at regional, district,…

IQ scores and disability labels can sentence certain children to lifelong failure. MAPS (Making Action Plans) is a collaborative process that brings the key actors in a child's life together to create an action plan to be implemented in a regular classroom setting. This article describes MAP's eight-step planning process. Sidebars describe MAP's…

Cooperative professional development is a process by which teams of teachers work together for their own professional development. Types of cooperative development described include the following: (1) professional dialogue; (2) curriculum development; (3) peer supervision; (4) peer coaching; and (5) action research. (MLF)

Because secondary school faculties are more diverse and specialized than elementary, a team approach to instructional leadership at the secondary level is recommended, and a four-step process is presented for incorporating such an approach: diagnosis, allocation, implementation, and evaluation. (TE)

Faced with government-mandated restructuring, Dutch secondary schools and universities are networking to tackle school and professional development concerns. The collegial network helps teachers interpret and influence government policies, learn from one anothers' experience, tap into external expertise, and develop new educational approaches,…

A quiet revolution is underway in six North Carolina schools involved in Project Design--an innovative school restructuring process that is developmental, reasonable, professional, and educationally relevant. The voluntary program features multiple changes in the distribution of time, work responsibilities, decision authority, status, students,…

The League of Professional Schools is a practitioner-driven, school-initiated reform effort founded on the belief that those closest to students have the capacity to improve schools. The league now has 62 member schools working on action plans. The league's three guiding premises are shared governance, action research, and instructional focus.…

In Brookline, Massachusetts, two classroom teachers learned that restructuring the teaching profession had to begin with restructuring the school. Discouraged by disappearing colleagues and dissatisfied students, these teachers began a team teaching and internship project called the Learning/Teaching Collaborative and sought ways to further…

Building capacity in schools means developing a new understanding of leadership capacity--broad-based, skillful participation in the work of leadership. Leadership capacity can be seen as a complex, interactive framework, with four types of schools and school communities. Leadership is everyone's work, but it does not require extraordinary…

A school-to-work curriculum (What's Up in Factories?) developed by a New York PBS station is giving some Ohio students a view of factory careers in the 1990s. Students are surprised at the level of job skills needed and are discovering the importance of teamwork, willingness to take responsibility, punctuality, effective communication, and…

Examines the history of peer coaching, describes changes in coaching practice, and makes recommendations for its future. Consultants have found that all teachers must agree to be members of peer coaching study teams, verbal feedback must be omitted, "coaching" must be clearly defined, and collaborative teamwork increases teacher learning in…

Describes a team approach to guidance at Briarcliff Manor Middle School, Briarcliff Manor, New York. (MB)

Unlike stimulus-response models based on external controls, the Educational Responsibility program thriving in many New York State schools is designed to strengthen student empowerment and responsibility. Teachers learn to create needs-fulfilling classrooms, using strategies such as building team involvement, offering choices, increasing value for…

In the nation's capital, 53 schools are participating in the Comer School Development Program, which sponsors meaningful, engaging activities involving students, parents, and community members. The Comer framework comprises three school governance mechanisms (the school development team, the parent program, and the mental health team), three…

After joining a statewide project to encourage continuous improvement in education, the City of Burlington (New Jersey) Public Schools tackled high school attendance problems, using a seven-step process based on defining reasons for improvement, assessing the current situation, performing a cause-and-effect analysis, formulating countermeasures…