Two significant themes are considered as part of a conceptual whole in this book: curriculum development and inservice education for teachers. Curriculum development is considered in many dimensions--the logic of subject matter, teacher opinion, student need, parent opinion, political climate, fiscal policy, psychological climate, ethnic values,…

Knowledge, curricula, and goals are implicated in some way in practically every organizational feature of schools. This paper begins with classroom activities as the most microscopic structure of interest to students of schooling processes. It progresses from there to the various forms of structure found in classrooms, to school and community…

The relationship between student attitudes and the school as a political system is analyzed in this research report. Four types of school systems are hypothesized: elite, bureaucratic, coalitional, and participant. After testing this conceptualization, student attitudes of trust, integration, confidence, and interest toward both school and society…

John B. Carroll's Model of School Learning is a paradigm which describes the degree of learning that takes place in school setting as a function of the time spent on a learning task divided by the time needed for its mastery. The components of opportunity and perseverance in Carroll's model have particular relevance to a form of school…

The School Organization program of the Center for Social Organization of Schools is currently concerned with authority-control structures, task structures, reward systems, and peer group processes in schools. This report, prepared by the School Organization program, examines one aspect of authority-control structures in high schools--content of…

This study was concerned with the relationship between (1) educational technology employed by a high school English department and the structure of that work group, and (2) the technological-structural congruence and teacher perceptions of organizational effectiveness. It was suggested that the research findings would be useful for inducing…

This article presents five propositions for rethinking the role of teachers and the practice of teaching in the years ahead. The propositions are rooted in certain conditions of schooling and teaching and are proposed as a step toward making teaching as attractive a career as other lines of professional endeavor. (IAH)

Four data-based analyses and three commentaries concerning research into the micropolitics of education are introduced. The following themes in micropolitical analysis are considered: ideologies/values of teacher/administrator subsystems; bureaucratic myths; policy remaking in site-level implementation; bias in organizational life; reality…

The past 30 years have been a busy time for Catholic school researchers. Once focused almost exclusively on historical research, Catholic school research in recent years has diversified and multiplied to include new descriptive and comparative studies. This article summarizes the findings of the most significant studies from 1966-2002 concerning…

The reflections of two social scientists regarding an inservice education program for elementary school teachers were the basis of their approach to inservice programs: Teachers need to have analytical and inquiry skills that will allow them to read research reports and listen to inservice presentations, digest the information, and then apply what…

This study reports a preliminary investigation into the origins, assumptions, and practices of one of the most widespread innovations in schooling: the classroom system. Material for the historical study is drawn from sources in Glasgow, Scotland, where the combined influences of Calvinist theology, Scottish-French philosophy, and the industrial…

This book concerns the experience of the author during two years (1966-68) as director of an Upward Bound program, which has the goal of helping poverty high school students gain admission to college. "Within two years I was to experience the immense satisfaction of sharing in a collaborative community of inquiry that was demonstrably…

The 32 articles in this volume suggest many ideas to be considered in planning a middle school. The traditional junior high school organization and program have for some years caused much concern. This level of schooling has seemed to some to be too much influenced by the high school curriculum. Observations suggest that sixth graders are more…

This study compares open education groups and traditional education groups with respect to student attitudes toward high school; creative thinking of students; collaborative behavior among students; and student preferences for intellectual activities, activities involving change or sameness, and activities involving autonomy or dependence. Groups…

Seminar papers focus on two sequentially-related projects concerning the implementation phase of educational innovation: (1) a set of observational case studies of schools in their first year's effort to initiate differentiated staffing plans and (2) briefer but more pointed case studies of elementary schools that reputedly had succeeded in…