The director of the Central Intelligence Agency outlines needed skills and suggests how secondary education can encourage their development. (DS)

Discusses the skills and strengths of individual principals that have been instrumental in turning problem schools into safe and effective places of learning. Their styles vary greatly, but all had a vision and were able to turn that into distinct goals and expectations for their schools. (MD)

Describes a Cluster Plus plan that groups middle school students into two clusters on each grade level according to ability. This arrangement retains vertical organization into core curriculum areas (mathematics, social studies, English, and science), while allowing flexible regrouping through horizontal team teaching. (MLH)

Because of a lack of locally worked-out theory, school methods are often the wrong ones for the specific situation, says this writer. (GB)

The process, not the instrument, is the key to developing successful contracts with students, claim the authors, who feel that contracting offers a unique opportunity to personalize and humanize instruction. (Editor)

The problem with most educational innovations, says the author, is that they are laid on one at a time, as if a single one could be best for all students. This article describes seven major differences in learners and how instructional components should be influenced by them. (Editor)

Argues that the self-contained classroom cannot guarantee superior results over sound innovative approaches and that intelligent application of innovation can enhance the teaching and learning of everything, including basics. (Author/JG)

To influence lasting change in schools, principals must study general research findings, understand people's reactions to change and the limitations of effective schools research, examine sources of change, work to develop an effective leadership style, analyze structures affecting change, use outside facilitators, review and select planning…

Describes a professional development system focusing on seven specific instructional strategies that was developed and implemented at an inner-city high school in San Diego, California. Reports improvement in student achievement. (PKP)

Principals' attitudes toward innovative teaching methods are extremely open, according to a Utah survey. The key to having administrative backing for new methods in the classroom, this author tells teachers, is to keep the principal informed of what's happening and why. (Editor)

Chairman presents highlights of several of the Commission on the Reform of Secondary Education's positions, including teacher training, rank-in-class, the Carnegie Unit, and alternatives. (GB)

Article is a report on NASSP's Model Schools Project that includes statements by a teacher, a student, and the principal of one of the MSP schools. (Editor)

Article considered an experiment with a three-quarter (trimester) schedule carried out by Wooddale High School in Memphis, Tennessee. (Author/RK)

Describes a day in the life of an exceptional principal, Dennis Litky of Thayer Junior-Senior High School in Winchester, New Hampshire. (MD)