School principals who exert a great influence toward change are generally older and more experienced than their less influential colleagues. (CK)

A case study of an innovative comprehensive school in Britain revealed both traditional and progressive tendencies in the headmaster's and the school's goals. The researchers label this duality the Janus Syndrome. The article concludes that the traditional and progressive can coexist to the benefit of all concerned. (Author/WD)

Despite ongoing school improvement efforts, there are more factors at work to stabilize schools than to change them. Stabilizing factors pervade school organization, curriculum context, unadventuresome textbooks, teacher isolation, and standardized testing practices. Educational innovation is predicated on change in form, content, and goals and…

In an interview published in the June 1980 issue of "Principal," Paul Collins, pioneer principal of a model New Hampshire middle school, called for a real understanding of preadolescent students. The school has continued its experiential learning emphasis and has become involved in action research projects, such as an intensive inservice…

Provides background information on the Hudson Institute's "Charter Schools in Action" project that studied 50 charter schools in 10 states. Examines innovative ways charter schools organize and support themselves, and presents five lessons from the charter-school movement. Public schools would benefit by becoming more consumer-oriented,…

This article presents new systems produced by systemic change. First is Systemic Changes in the Chugach School District by Wendy Battino and Jo Clem. Second is Systemic Changes in Public Schools through Brain-Based Learning by Renate N. Caine. Third is A Vision of an Information-Age Educational System by Charles M. Reigeluth. Fourth is Systemic…

This document describes the successful schools-within-a-school (SWS) program implemented at Kapa'a Elementary School in Hawaii. The SWS model addresses the issue of school size and its ramifications. In 1989, the school sought the help of a leading educational researcher, Dr. Mary Anne Raywid, to develop a change model that gave the teachers…

Two discussion papers, commenting on the main article, are included: (1) "The Person and the Bureaucracy by R. Oliver Gibson, and (2) "Campus Strategies Extended by Goodwin Watson.

At the present time, over 2,000 elementary schools in this country have adopted a model known as Individually Guided Education (IGE). This research carried out in 59 elementary schools in Connecticut disputed the claim of IGE advocates that the organizational component of the IGE model known as Multi Unit School (MUS) offers a more facilitative…

The purpose of this theoretical paper is to describe a set of models for the instructional organization of the multiunit secondary school. The school's instructional organization is viewed as a mechanism for structuring resources to influence learning outcomes. The multiunit elementary school (MUS-E) models served as the point of departure for…

Educational planning involves giving attention to the social, political, and educational complexity of schooling. Where reform programs do not consider the underlying patterns of school belief and conduct, innovations may only rearrange the technological surface. (Author)

The Organizational Health Description Questionnaire (OHDQ) was developed by the authors because no known instrument existed that would lend itself to the measurement of organizational health as defined by Matthew B. Miles. (Authors)

Discusses the search for more appropriate and effective ways of organizing and staffing elementary schools. (Author/RK)

Focus of this study of leadership is the West Philadelphia Community Free School designed as an alternative within public school education in one of Philadelphia's predominantly black school districts. (Authors/MB)