After principals have involved all stakeholders in developing a school mission and identifying critical success factors, the planning team must analyze strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats within and outside the school; establish strategic goals (outcomes) to support the future vision; and develop objectives and target dates. Includes…

The present confrontational labor/management negotiations model mitigates against the development of a higher form of teacher professionalism. Current union and school management models are highly centralized governance systems. Collaborative planning must be instituted in a collegial manner to be successful. (MLH)

Recounts a fictitious high school's steps to build support for whole school change. To create a framework for change, Farragut High developed a vision statement of organization characteristics and a profile of current school characteristics and assembled people to coordinate the change process. A hands-on leadership role for the principal was…

To implement shared governance, 24 Georgia schools joined with the University of Georgia's Program for School Improvement (PSI) to form the League of Professional Schools. This article explains how staff at participating schools overcame the complexities of the new system by communicating openly and breaking issues down into small parts. (MLH)

Restructuring demands an organizational and cultural break with the past. Because goals are ambiguous and new roles are required, decision makers must relinquish sequential, goal-driven planning for sustained dialogue, inquiry, and risk taking. Principals enhance the process by educating parents and the community and by establishing a…

Data-based decision making is a process of inquiry, analysis, and decision making that draws inferences from the interplay of school input/process and output variables. A case study involving a Connecticut district's response to falling SATs illustrates the need for fast, sophisticated information technology systems. (MLH)

The redistribution of power brought about by collective bargaining is a major source of conflict between teachers and administrators. This article describes and reviews one school district's workshop conducted to bring these two sides closer together. (Author/DS)

An essential ingredient of good school administrators is understanding the differences among people. Provides a simplified outline of Carl Jung's typology of personality differences to provide administrators a better understanding of staff behavior. (MD)

This writer implores the literature dealing with the "in-house" political system that principals participate in. The principal's interactions with colleagues and superiors are all "political," in the sense that he seeks to influence the conditions of his school's environment. (Editor)

Because of lack of research and too much political gamesmanship, accountability's great promise may never be realized, say the authors. (Editor)

Lists questions that must be answered when deciding whether to close a school, when planning a closure, and when making sure the closure is successful. (JM)

A group of 300 graduate students in Georgia, who were also classroom teachers, were surveyed to determine the 10 habits teachers find most annoying in their administrators. The list of habits and suggestions for overcoming them are presented. (Author/WD)

The approach to discipline outlined here focuses on the principal, who has the responsibility and the resources to interpret effectively the behavioral differences among individuals. The approach stresses the sensitive, sensible, and effective use of the resources already available to the school. (Author/IRT)

Discusses characteristics of four common administrator evaluation procedures: management by objectives, traditional rating scales, self-evaluation, and administrator outcomes models. Outlines three broad responsibility areas for special-education administrators that warrant evaluation. Introduces a comprehensive, team-based model that begins with…

Teacher empowerment can be better appreciated if viewed as professionalization, rather than an exercise in worrying about who the boss is. This article discusses three guiding principles toward empowerment (status, knowledge, and access to decision-making), separate needs and vantage points of teachers and administrators, and teacher autonomy.…