Describes the importance of school culture and its relationship to school climate. Summarizes research about the key features of school culture and climate, their links to student performance, and the principal's role in improving school climate and culture. (LMI)

Summarizes findings of report "Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development," released in 2002 by the Arts Foundation Partnership. Report describes certain important relationships between the arts and academic and social skills. Describes what principals can do to link the arts with other subjects. (PKP)

Investigates the principal's instructional manager role, its relationship to student achievement, and how principals influence teachers to increase student learning. Subjects included elementary school principals and teachers in 27 schools. Student achievement was measured by regression analysis. Principal instructional management behavior was…

Discusses the programs, activities, and philosophies of a Missouri elementary school principal who became the National PTA's Phoebe Apperson Hearst Outstanding Educator for 1991. The principal encourages parents to spend time at school with their children; he stresses high self-esteem and community and family involvement. (SM)

In this age of overwhelming information, a good school library program is more important than ever. Students must be taught how to evaluate the information they find on the Internet. Collaboration between teachers and teacher-librarians is the key, and studies prove that this collaboration improves student test scores. However, the principal's…

This publication focuses on motivation at the school level and identifies ways in which administrators can improve student academic achievement. Chapter 1 discusses the influence of school culture on student motivation, based on recent research that suggests the importance of educational leaders in creating a motivating environment for improved…

Twenty-four elementary and junior high public schools that have received Chapter 1 funds since 1981 were selected for study in order to isolate effective school practices. Nine of these schools were included, also, in the earlier 1981-82 project; this publication, therefore, contains descriptions of only the 15 new achieving compensatory…

Based on the work of Ronald Edmunds, this speech reviews the characteristics of effective schools for poor children. The author begins by stating that effective schools seem to share a climate requiring all personnel to be instructionally effective with all children. Noted is a renaissance in the belief that all children are educable, in spite of…

A study was carried out to investigate the organizational determinants of student achievement in 52 Newark, New Jersey, public elementary schools. Data consisted of information collected from questionnaires (for principals, teachers, and students) and school records, and of student reading and math achievement scores. Variables found to have a…

This speech begins with remarks about the importance of the new Department of Education. According to the author, the first secretary of education, Shirley Hufstedler, sees the new department as dedicated, striving for quality, supportive rather than directive, responsive, and confident of the ability of the people to make educational decisions.…

The first section of this paper reviews research in which student achievement was not included as a correlate of principal attributes, or principal attributes were not included as correlates of student achievement. The second section focuses on the study of the linkage between the school principal and overall student achievement. (BW)

This document is designed to help administrators and faculties understand how the many complicated pieces of a high-performing school fit together. Trying to implement all the pieces at once may not be a solid plan for accomplishing a vision of quality. Taking steps to determine what is most critical for students is the logical starting place. The…

This report presents an update on what has happened in college athletics since three previous reports published in the early 1990s. It was developed following a series of meetings with a broad range of sports representatives and higher education leaders. The report examines progress made by the NCAA toward a proposed "one-plus-three"…

The role of the principal in evaluating student achievement is discussed in this paper. The principal is in a leadership position and has the duty of improving the ways in which students are evaluated. Educators often are blamed for poor academic achievement for which they really cannot be held responsible, but there certainly are areas in which…