During the 1973-74 school year, elementary and secondary students in Minneapolis were released from their classes every Tuesday at 2:00 to allow staff members to participate in staff development activities. A variety of different types of meetings were distributed throughout the 37-week schedule: building meetings, citywide meetings, curriculum…

Meeting teachers' differing training needs calls for an assortment of staff development strategies to be selected by the teachers themselves. Choices should include individualized education plans, short-term sabbaticals, substitute-teacher teams, teachers as instructors, peer coaching, teacher exchanges, released time, summer workshops, weekend…

Sustaining reform requires district leaders to develop a supportive infrastructure, nurture professional communities, reduce turnover, and use facilitators to build capacity. Bringing educators up to speed means providing abundant staff development, balancing pressure with support, providing adult learning time, and reducing fragmentation and…

Beyond no-establishment and free-exercise principles, widespread agreement now exists on many thorny church-state questions: school prayer, teaching about religion, Bible clubs, equal access, excusals, distribution of religious literature, religious holidays, creationism, released time, and character education. One issue, speaker versus audience…

Recent research shows that principals can heavily influence schools' organizational effectiveness. This report describes the instructional leadership roles of elementary and high school principals participating in the Wayne State University Staff Development for School Improvement Program (SDSI) conducted from 1981 through 1984. The SDSI school…

Reports results of study which investigated kinds of professional development activities engaged in by school library media specialists. Values and types of professional development activities, amount of input to district library media policy, release time provided, and other factors influencing professional development activities are noted.…

Examines deficiencies in traditional administrator preparation programs and discusses new directions. Describes the Leadership Initiative for Tomorrow's Schools, developed by the State University of New York at Buffalo. Key features include cohort groups and mentors, field participation in candidate recruitment and selection, promotion of…

Intended to provide school officials an understanding of the legal aspects of common religious liberty and church-state questions in the public school context, this pamphlet attempts an objective summary of the current status of church-state law as it applies to the public schools. The document seeks to catalogue objectively the law as found in…

Organizations that span the ideological, religious, and political spectrum stand together as they make this a statement of consensus on current law regarding religion in public schools. Each organization professes a commitment to the freedom of religious practice and the separation of church and state that such freedom requires. The statement is…

Needs, resources, methods, and motivation must be emphasized in personal and professional growth programs if teachers are to continue to develop professionally. Programs should include input by teachers, administrators, and staff development specialists in a spirit of mutual development of professional skills and, when possible, should be built…

Notes that one of the best investments society can make is in its children's education. Describes how employers across the country are supporting better education through family-friendly policies for learning, particularly through the "Employer's Promise for Learning," an initiative of the "Family Involvement Partnership for…

Politics and sex are regular entrees on the school curriculum menu, but since the Supreme Court's 1960s revival of the "wall of separation" between church and state, religion has been censored from the curriculum as well as from the school routine. The free exercise of religion, guaranteed by the First Amendment, is accommodated in U.S. school…

This paper presents arguments in favor of, and legal and constitutional guidelines for, religious released time education programs as a workable counterbalance for those concerned with the trend toward secularism in public education. The guidelines are necessarily general, because laws regarding the authority of school districts to adopt released…

In response to recent controversy surrounding the relationship between religion and public education, this bulletin offers an examination of past and present conflicts and the legal status of each. A great diversity of religious beliefs is part of our national heritage. Conflicts resulting from differing views on the role of religion in education…

Designed to improve inservice teacher training, this report surveys the kinds of inservice activities needed by social studies teachers in Indiana during 1975. Nearly 40 percent of the state's social studies teachers responded to the questionnaire which focused on how inservice activities should be designed, when they should be held, and what the…