Background: Using meta-analytic review techniques, this study synthesized the results of 79 unpublished studies about the nature of transformational school leadership (TSL) and its impact on the school organization, teachers, and students. This corpus of research associates TSL with 11 specific leadership practices. These practices, as a whole,…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe, measure, compare, and contrast the perceptions of elementary teachers and principals regarding the degree to which the schools in which they are employed have implemented learning organizations conforming to Senge's (1990) 5 disciplines: mental models, personal mastery, shared vision, team…

The purpose of this article is to summarize what is generally known about talent development and schooling by stating some propositions about the way such programs are structured. This article sets the stage for a series of stories of programs that attempt to address the challenge of talent development in diverse low-income populations. The…

Develops a theoretical model of the salient organizational variables related to mathematics achievement in high school. The model is composed of three variables: socioeconomic status, academic press, and collective efficacy. Finds, for example, that collective efficacy is the significant variable in the model in influencing mathematics…

From time to time critics of the middle level publish works that suggest that our philosophy is too much "feeling good" and not enough academic substance. Confusing this debate is the current trend of districts (especially large urban ones) to reconfigure their schools to K-8 neighborhood schools. In this article the author takes a long look at…

Presents a model relating the adequacy of an organization's problem-solving to its resources and to the appropriateness of its structures. Describes a test of the model, on 25 public elementary and secondary schools in southeastern Michigan, which found that different organizational structures use money differently and produce different outputs.…

Based on a review of recent research on school effects and workplace psychology, this paper hypothesizes that three core concepts comprise teacher organizational commitment: (1) belief in school goals and student learning ability; (2) intention to remain an active member of the school; and (3) willingness to exert extra effort on the school's…

Evaluation of education involves assessing the effectiveness of schools and trying to determine how best to improve them. Since evaluation often deals only with the question of effectiveness, performance indicators in education are designed to make evaluation more complete. They are a set of statistical models which relate several important…

Surveyed fifth-graders and school staff in 117 elementary schools regarding school processes and outputs. Found that the open systems and human relations models provided the best-fit statistics and explained the most variance in achievement progress, followed by the rational goal model. Explored implications for effective schools research and…

According to a theoretical model, student learning can be raised through separate channels by school autonomy and parental participation. Increased school autonomy increases the rent that can be distributed among stakeholders at the school, while institutions for parental participation empower parents to command a higher share of this surplus, for…

IN THIS REPORT TO THE COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS, THE NATURE AND IMPACT OF EXISTING COMPENSATORY EDUCATION PROGRAMS ARE EVALUATED, GENERAL CRITERIA FOR THE SUCCESS OF SUCH PROGRAMS ARE DETERMINED, AND THE COST FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS IS ESTIMATED. AFTER A REVIEW OF NINE CURRENT COMPENSATORY PROGRAMS THE REPORT CONCLUDES THAT…

The nature of direct and indirect effects of local management of schools (school-based management) on learning outcomes for students has remained elusive. The findings from a 5-year longitudinal study of the "Schools of the Future" reform in Victoria, Australia, are reported in this paper. The Victoria system is the largest public school…

Organizational differentiation of students is defined as the division of a student body into subgroups (classes, sections, streams) of a relatively permanent character for instructional purposes. A vast body of research exists on the effect of organizational differentiation, especially the effects of grouping according to ability. No coherent…

This paper is one of a series to guide research linking educational policy and management with student achievement. It specifies the determinants of key paradigm variables and teacher and principal work. The paradigm developed for this type of research is presented in an earlier paper in the series. The constructs of the paradigm are defined,…