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…

With the implementation of site-based decision-making occurring in schools, the extent to which teachers perceive their involvement in decisions on planning, budgeting, curriculum, staffing patterns, staff development, and campus-level organization and the extent to which teachers' views of their involvement in these activities are congruent with…

This article explores three incarnations of the idea to integrate high school and the community college--Leonard Koos's 6-4-4 plan of public school organization, Middle College High School, and the early college high school initiative. The author discusses rationales for integrating high school and the first 2 years of college, as well as possible…

This non-experimental, correlational study looked at the relationship between bureaucratic structures in middle and high schools in bringing about change in individual teacher classroom instructional practices through the centralized directive of membership in a professional learning community. Using a continuum of bureaucratic structure, from…

While providing stability and uniformity, organizational routines can foster continuous change. Using Feldman's (2000) performative model of routinized action theory, coupled with leadership succession research, we examined how three successive administrations in a California high school revised a student attendance (tardy-monitoring) routine over…

Details for making worthwhile and effective changes in high schools are presented. (CK)

High school improvement initiatives often focus on specific intervention strategies, programs, or priority topics (e.g., dropout intervention). However, research shows that systemic and sustainable improvement can only be achieved when initiatives are implemented with consideration for the broader education contexts in which they operate. The…

A speculative story that outlines the organization and curriculum of an ideal high school in the future. (IRT)

The citizens of Norfolk, Virginia, challenged educators to preserve a large, comprehensive high school while implementing a small-school concept. Staff responded by establishing four academies within the larger school that conveyed the feeling of smallness. Administration is decentralized, and special classes and computer labs are held outside the…

Seemingly endless tinkering and adjustment of the structure of education in the United States over the past century have led to the adoption of different school forms (grouping particular grades into separate schools) at different times. These different school forms necessitate transitions between schools (e.g., from a middle school to a high…

Headmasters respectively of a primary and secondary school in Stevenage, authors examined the gradual transition to comprehensive provision in a new town. (Editor/RK)

Lutterworth Grammar School for 500 selective children, to which the author was appointed Headmaster in 1962, became a 14-plus Upper School under the Leicestershire Plan in 1967. Here he recounts the school's responses as it developed to a fully comprehensive Upper School for 1200. (Editor/RK)

Describes the educational reform of the Italian middle school system from a fragmented system of separate vocational and academic schools to a unified comprehensive middle school system. Effects on the high school system are also mentioned. (AN)