Furman Brown has spent over a decade figuring out how to design a better school. As a first-year teacher in South Central Los Angeles in the early 1990s, he got a taste of what was wrong with the traditional public school model: It was not designed to serve students "or" teachers well. Convinced there was a better way to organize and…

Many Catholic high schools have transitioned to a president-principal administrative structure. This article discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the model, revealing pertinent issues that must be addressed while operationalizing the model. Recent research supports some aspects of the model, but it is no panacea. Clear job descriptions, role…

Develops a theoretical model of the salient organizational variables related to mathematics achievement in high school. The model is composed of three variables: socioeconomic status, academic press, and collective efficacy. Finds, for example, that collective efficacy is the significant variable in the model in influencing mathematics…

A study of five Vermont high schools suggests that change must grow from seeds already planted in different schools, fed by a constant flow of human energy interacting across all school organizational levels. Certain patterns, such as top-down or bottom-up change, are not as interactive as systemic efforts. (MLH)

Outlines procedures for constructing a definitive model which conceptualizes the nongraded system. (Author)

CHARACTERISTICS AND CONSTRUCTION OF A COMPUTER SIMULATION MODEL FOR SIMULATING BEHAVIOR OF STUDENTS AND STAFF IN A SCHOOL WERE DESCRIBED. THIS MODEL INCORPORATED SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND COMPUTER SIMULATION TECHNIQUES AND WAS EXPECTED TO PROVIDE DESIGN RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MORE PERVASIVE AND INTERGRATED CHANGES THROUGHOUT THE SCHOOLS. THE MODEL WAS…

This paper describes the progressive/collaborative model high school program, a model designed to facilitate student movement from special day classes into regular classroom environments with an ongoing emphasis on serving at-risk students. Charts outline options available to special education students through this model and differences between…

This newsletter briefly discusses the question of whether or not large secondary schools suffer from more problems than smaller schools and then examines the possibility of subdividing large schools through use of the "school-within-a-school" approach. Two different variations on the school-within-a-school approach are described, including…

THE USES OF SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND COMPUTER SIMULATION OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION WERE EXPLORED TO FIND NEW WAYS TO IMPLEMENT INSTRUCTIONAL MEDIA. THE USES OF SYSTEMS ANALYSIS RECOMMENDED WERE--(1) TO FACILITATE IMPROVEMENT OF PRESENT INSTRUCTIONAL AND EDUCATIONAL PLANNING SYSTEMS AND (2) TO EXPLORE THE FEASIBILITY OF PROPOSED SCHOOL ORGANIZATIONS. THE…

One of 52 theoretical papers on school crime and its relation to poverty, this chapter, based on the findings of an indepth study of the social organization of the American high school, provides a new, school-specific way of examining the problem of school crime and violence. The study, which made use of field methodology, addressed two basic…

A GENERAL DESCRIPTION WAS PRESENTED OF THE SCHOOL SIMULATION PROJECT WHICH USED SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND COMPUTER-SIMULATION TECHNIQUES FOR STUDYING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES IN EDUCATION. THE ORGANIZATIONAL MODIFICATIONS STUDIED WERE APPLICABLE TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF INSTRUCTIONAL INNOVATIONS. FIVE HIGH SCHOOLS. VARYING IN THE EXTENT THEY WERE…

A PROJECT WAS DESCRIBED THAT WOULD USE SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND COMPUTER SIMULATION TECHNIQUES TO FIND NEW WAYS TO IMPLEMENT INSTRUCTIONAL MEDIA. THE FOUR MAJOR STEPS TO BE TAKEN FOR THIS STUDY ARE--(1) SURVEY AND SELECTION OF HIGH SCHOOLS, (2) SYSTEM ANALYSIS OF THE FIVE HIGH SCHOOLS SELECTED FOR STUDY, (3) CONSTRUCTION OF A COMPUTER-SIMULATION…

THE PLANS FOR A SIMULATION MODEL USING SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND COMPUTER SIMULATION TECHNIQUES WERE PRESENTED. THE TECHNIQUES AND DESIGN RECOMMENDATIONS WERE INTENDED TO FIND NEW METHODS FOR IMPLEMENTING INSTRUCTIONAL MEDIA. FOUR MAJOR STEPS WERE INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT--(1) SURVEY AND SELECTION OF HIGH SCHOOLS, (2) SYSTEMS ANALYSIS OF FIVE HIGH…

The first report of an ongoing case study examining the impact of using a laboratory of microcomputers as a tool for teaching science and social science courses in a high school, this paper reports on a sociological investigation of the organizational change in the structure and functioning of the school brought about by the introduction of the…