To establish an effective, collaborative work culture, the school and its members must embrace continuous improvement. Principals can use certain activities and leadership approaches to help establish a productive school culture. One Oklahoma middle-school principal involved faculty in creating a school vision and developing grade-level teaching…

Many educators have been too quick to use traditional statistical data as measures of school effectiveness. Instead, educators should develop means of understanding and communicating to the public measures of social variables that operate in effective schools. (JW)

Examines three collaborative action research projects on school effectiveness--one each in Texas, Iowa, and Florida--to show how university and secondary school personnel can cooperate to implement research findings in schools. (JW)

Assistant principals are a neglected variable in the effective schools equation. The traditional conceptualization of assistant principals as disciplinarians still prevails, despite these administrators' usefulness as change agents, motivators, ethical models, community relations agent, care givers, and innovators. (MLH)

Effective schools research and techniques are useful in developing dropout prevention strategies. The success of these programs depends on a school's adherence to certain variables asssociated with teacher and administrator characteristics and behaviors, school climate, instructional emphasis, and pupil progress measurement. Includes five…

Principals need sensitive measures of school climate to diagnose problems and monitor progress in overcoming them. This article discusses the Effective School Battery developed by Johns Hopkins University and used to describe individual schools in terms of 34 specific aspects of environmental, teacher, and student characteristics. Includes one…

Current research supports the importance of positive school climate and the use of school-climate measures as school-effectiveness predictors. This article describes several instruments, including the Organizational Climate Index, the Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire, the Effective School Battery, the Charles F. Kettering Ltd.…

Outlines criteria needed in effective performance evaluation systems for principals. (MD)

Describes a framework for moving from the general school effectiveness factors to specific practices and behaviors focusing on strong leadership by the principal. Outlines the general functions of instructional leadership, then narrows to one function, monitoring student progress, and derives specific principal behaviors. (MLF)

A study of the 18 "most effective" high schools in California uses analysis of questionnaires completed by administrators of the schools to identify eight recurring general factors of effectiveness. (DCS)

Surveys teachers, administrators, superintendents, and school board members for opinions on whether each of 18 major characteristics commonly associated with effective schools could actually be included in the local school programs. Suggests courses of action for superintendents. (JW)

Presents in checklist form 11 characteristics of an effective school, including student relations, school climate, parent relations, and regular evaluations of curriculum and students. (JW)

First of two articles that review 16 major research studies of secondary education in the United States during the early eighties. The purposes, assumptions, and methodologies of the studies are examined here. A later article will cover other aspects of the research. (Author/MLF)

To determine effects of uniforms on school climate, students in two Charleston (South Carolina) County middle schools were surveyed in Spring 1966, using NASSP's Comprehensive Assessment of School Environments (CASE) School Climate Survey. Students in the uniform school rated climate as more positive in 9 out of 10 subscales. School uniforms are…

To maintain a culture supporting effectiveness, school leaders must carefully monitor the school's climate, collect measures of goal attainment (student performance and student satisfaction), and plan school improvement initiatives based on these assessments. The Comprehensive Assessment of School Environments (CASE) model fosters data-based…