According to a recent survey, both school board members and secondary principals support reform proposals involving professional development schools, magnet schools, teacher certification, and teacher empowerment and are opposed to school choice. The groups disagree concerning teacher accountability issues. Implications are discussed. (five…

Developing helping skills and strategies for working with groups, parents, and other professionals is essential for teacher/advisors desiring to create a more favorable learning environment. School counselors are the key to teacher growth and development in program development, time management, creative leadership, accountability, and high,…

The human factor, the authors say, makes the product of schools of education hard to evaluate. They describe, however, a successful teacher-training program that provides more actual classroom teaching activities much earlier than do most teacher education programs. (Editor)

While the administrator, parent, community, school board, and others must be held accountable to some degree for a student's education, the primary responsibility is shared by the student and the teacher. Fully achieving educational accountability involves going beyond minimum requirements to do the best job possible. (PGD)

At the fall 1996 Education Summit, 40 governors and 45 business leaders called for higher student achievement standards. This article provides some historical background for the standards-based education movement and introduces essays exploring the movement from various perspectives. Although some educators remain skeptical, standards-based…

The standards movement is in a state of crisis. Although states have made progress in developing and implementing standards, some standards-driven reforms and takeover sanctions represent significant threats to students and educators. Principals should focus on new opportunities to become instructional leaders, help teachers use standards to…

External assessments for accountability may be taking precedence over other educational assessment purposes and are beginning to direct teaching and learning in schools. Four common concerns include teaching to the tests, narrowing instructional focus and allowing tests to determine curricula, deemphasizing higher order thinking skills, and…

William A. Brock, a member of President Bush's Advisory Committee on Education and chairman of the Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCAN), criticizes American society's lack of attention and support for public education. Principals must examine and evaluate the enterprise system, talk to its participants, and learn about helpful new…

School board and community have only two ways to achieve accountability: by prescribing teaching methodology and establishing expensive supervisory superstructure to enforce it; or by establishing desired learning outcome standards and products and requiring professional staff to develop plans to achieve them and criteria to evaluate results.…

Describes origin and elements of the standards movement. Reviews research on grade retention and social promotion and concludes that both are failed strategies to improve student achievement. Describes principal's role in meeting standards. Discusses the use of systemic and classroom interventions to help students meet state standards. (Contains…

Summarizes findings from a 15-month study of 6 schools and principals changing to a decentralized school governance model. Highlights benefits such as administrator role redefinition, autonomy's effects on improving school culture and contributing to school reform success, increased commitment to decisions, increased staff cohesion and trust, and…

Since students possess intimate knowledge about their academic progress, they should be invited to participate in, or even lead, parent-teacher conferences. Interested middle schools should consider piloting their models, focus on the conference model process, have students identify personal goals, clearly define participants' roles, and evaluate…

Twenty-first century principals will play a vital role in curriculum and staff development. Principals must be prepared to revitalize teachers' energies by mastering and using powerful, research-based strategies, including establishing a common vision, focusing on instructional improvement and accountability, creating a collegial, participatory…

Decentralizing the budget process not only empowers teachers to make decisions about instructional goals and fiscal planning but also involves other stakeholders, including parents, students, administrators, and business people. This article describes a three-phase system that enables secondary teachers to address issues relevant to their…

Too often school counselors are evaluated through a teacher-assessment process bearing little relevance to (poorly defined) counseling tasks or roles. Evaluation is hindered by lack of a developmental model and by administrative pressures to perform tasks outside counselors' training and experience. Improvement measures are outlined. (Contains 16…