Described is the London School Plan, a small comprehensive secondary school system. The author states that the success of the small comprehensives will be judged on how well they cope with the least able student and the sixth formers (ages 16 to 19). (KC)

Motivational factors affecting decisions to discontinue existing minicourse programs or to not consider the adoption of minicourse programs tend to be programmatic and administrative rather than philosophical. (Author/IRT)

To understand schools from insiders' perspectives, this study shadowed 19 high school students and 8 teachers in all of their classes for two weeks. Given schools' problematic features (structural fragmentation, teacher isolation, emphasis on intrinsic rewards, and school-relevant learning) and teachers' weak sense of school ownership, the article…

Some relationships between high schools and their parent districts are similar to those between individual business enterprises and their parent companies. This article reviews several factors enhancing the success of these relationships in business and draws implications for high school organization. Leadership, organizational autonomy, and…

This book is designed to inform the educational community about the empirical foundations of productive high schools. Part 1 focuses on the core technology (learning and teaching), the organizational systems in which the core function are nested (the ecology of the institution), and the institutional linkages between the school and its…

This article discusses one school's experiences in planning, implementing, and dealing with the changes resulting from a modular flexible scheduling system. (Editor)

Providing humane high school environment requires some philosophical and psychological foundations. Fundamental is the belief in circumstances that permit persons to grow and change at their own pace, but under sensitive and rational guidance. (Editor)

Traces the reorganization of Seton Catholic High School, the only Catholic high school in Wyoming. Discusses the roles of support groups, administration, programs, physical plant, curriculum dress code, and enrollment. Attributes success to cooperation, unity, and participation, and to factors such as public relations and meeting geographic needs.…

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)

Several studies have found that an inordinate amount of potential instructional time is lost in the American secondary school classroom. This paper briefly overviews the history and types of block scheduling in secondary schools and presents findings of a study that examined the perceptions of administrators and teachers in two large eastern…

This paper discusses the merits of developing a high school semester time-table, or schedule, as the final planning stage in the educational process. Such a schedule would provide a weekly breakdown list of all academic subjects, grade levels, teachers for each subject and grade, rooms, laboratories and other facilities, and resources, thereby…

ARGUMENTS ARE PRESENTED IN FAVOR OF THE RECENT PROPOSAL BY THE AUTHOR THAT THE NEW YORK CITY SCHOOL SYSTEM CHANGE ITS PRESENT ORGANIZATION OF JUNIOR AND SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS TO INCLUDE THE SIXTH, SEVENTH, AND EIGHTH GRADES IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL AND GRADES 9 THRU 12 IN THE COMPREHENSIVE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL. IT IS HELD THAT THE PLAN WOULD BE MUCH MORE…

Describes one of the first examples in the Inner London Education Authority of how cooperation between sixth forms might be made to work, in this case the successful sixth-form center in Tower Hamlets. (Author/RK)