About educational experts who offer technical assistance to developing nations, the article presents complaints about the experts, various roles of an expert, technical assistance since 1950, prospects of improvement, and alternatives. (ND)

Describes and analyzes a training program for school support agents carried out in Madrid, Spain, from 1990 to 1992. Explores the institutional, cultural, and personal factors influencing program implementation. Addresses problems involved in reconstructing the theory and practice of external support through inservice training of school support…

This article reports findings from a two-year study of 17 change agents working in three New York City school improvement programs. Interview, observation, and ranking data from the change agents, their managers, and their school clients were analyzed, and a synthesis of findings resulted in a list of 18 key skills for educational change agents.…

This document's three-fold purpose is to give guidance to schools that will be using technical assistance, to raise important considerations for those resource units that provide such assistance, and to point out areas of concern to Pennsylvania Department of Education planners. Included are four articles by University of Pittsburgh faculty…

The papers from the 1982 conference on Pennsylvania's Long Range Plan for School Improvement (LRPSI) assist in constructing reality about LRPSI itself. Focusing on the program's registration phase, Charles Gorman offers an alternative proposal, linking registration and evaluation, that would contribute to improving schools and increasing public…

The purpose of the Teaching Research Assistance to Children and Youth Experiencing Sensory Impairments (TRACES) Project was to provide technical assistance to state and multistate projects to improve the quality of existing placements and services for children with deaf-blindness. Seven major objectives guided project activities: assist projects…

This document provides a case history of the efforts of the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education to serve as one school district's Technical Assistance Agency during the first year of the Pennsylvania School Improvement Program (1980-81). Brief descriptions in Sections I and II of the Pennsylvania program's general and specific settings,…

Program improvement activities can be classified into four categories based on the source of the impetus and the locus of the change agent: systematic, symbolic, opportunistic, and pragmatic. This paper (1) describes the various approaches to implementing Chapter 1 program improvement activities at the state and local district levels in 13 western…

This document gathers together nine papers prepared in conjunction with a series of four seminars, held from January through May 1982, on the Role of Technical Assistance in the Long Range Plan for School Improvement. The seminars included participants from higher education, intermediate units, and public school superintendents. The following…

This report sets forth the commitment toward improving the over-all quality of education in Latin America as first announced at the Punta del Este Conference in 1967. Recognizing that education is a universal right and its implementation must not depend on socio-economic affluence or political motives of any region, members of the Organization of…

The following considerations are of major importance to the persons who act as technical assisters for the Long Range Plan for School Improvement (LRPSI) in Pennsylvania: (1) long-range planning should be viewed as a deliberative and participative process; its steps should not be considered in isolation from each other; (2) comprehensive needs…

This paper describes the activities and experiences of a technical assistance consultant working with a superintendent and assistant superintendent to implement the Achievement Directed Leadership (ADL) school improvement program during 1981-82. The paper's first section describes the ADL program's "top-down" implementation plan, with…