Network building vitally impacts career development, but in few professions does it impact daily practice more than in teaching. Teacher networks, known as professional learning communities, communities of practice, peer learning circles, virtual professional communities, as well as other names, play a unique and powerful role in education. In…

This chapter explores how youth organizers have injected themselves into education policy conversations in Philadelphia, asserting their agency and using their voices to shape how policymakers view them as well as the problems that confront them.

Evidence has found a lack of transformational leadership qualities among building level administrators across central Pennsylvania. The purpose of this project study was to identify the leadership styles of principals in central Pennsylvania and ascertain the link between background variables and leadership qualities held by building-level…

Colleges and universities are being increasingly recognized as key contributors to the well-being of the places in which they are located. However, in spite of the promise and potential of place-based engagement, there is little agreement about what place and place-building means or how these concepts can be operationalized in within the context…

Recent years have seen a growing push toward Portfolio Management Models that incorporate a variety of "providers" operating public schools. One rationale for this is that such organizations can offer distinct and innovative educational practices. This article describes the Diverse Provider Model implemented in Philadelphia from…

This paper offers a different perspective in measuring the value created by an organization. It does so in the context of an undergraduate course in managerial accounting. In order to break down the functional silo approach to problem solving that has become the model of traditional business education, applications of shadow accounting, the…

This study examined the leadership development of MBA students enrolled in an Organizational Behavior course. Students enrolled in either an in-class section or a section that included an intensive, outdoor training component called Leadership on the Edge. Results from Kouzes and Posner's Leadership Practices Inventory (2003) showed that students…

Over the past several decades, state officials and various interest groups and civic organizations have increased their level of direct involvement in the affairs of public higher education. The increase in external attention toward the academy would likely be accompanied by the development of oversight mechanisms to ensure that societal…

We theorize about the strategic alignment of computing with organizational mission, using the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's efforts to pursue digital government initiatives as evidence. To do this we draw on a decade (1995-2004) of changes in Pennsylvania to characterize how a state government shifts from an organizational to an enterprise…

In "The Transformation of Great American School Districts", William Lowe Boyd, Charles Taylor Kerchner, and Mark Blyth argue that urban education reform can best be understood as a long process of institutional change, rather than as a series of failed projects. They examine the core assumptions that underlay the Progressive Era model of…

Public schools as formal organizations have broad-based goals, limited resources, and a formal hierarchy with which to manage the goal achievement process. The board of education combines this organization's economic and political dimensions to provide a thorough, efficient education for all children in the state. This paper investigates the…

Examination of foundings of four-year women's colleges in three states, 1855-1968, reveals that institutional forces (presence of elite women's colleges, development of Catholic women's colleges, and enactment of the suffrage amendment) increased the founding rate, but rising organizational density later decreased the rate. Argues that…

The National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges' Kellogg Commission notes the perception that "despite the resources and expertise available on our campuses, our institutions are not well organized to bring them to bear on local problems in a coherent way." This article suggests some organizational patterns and…

The documents enclosed in this report provide a comprehensive and systematic review of the progress made in developing a network organization capable of supporting nanoscience education for the public on a national scale. There is a logic to the studies that were done and to the reports that are included in this notebook. The following are the…