Early education programs are increasingly being promoted by states and the federal government as an integral part of their efforts to ensure that all children enter school ready to learn. As these programs and their enrollments have grown in recent years, so too have efforts to monitor their quality and performance. A common focus is on…

Many schools identified by states as needing improvement through their Elementary and Secondary Education Act waivers have selected Response to Intervention (RTI), a three-tiered instruction program sometimes referred to as tiered levels of instruction, as one of their main strategies for improving school performance and closing achievement gaps.…

Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest assisted Milwaukee Public Schools in developing a fidelity monitoring system for measuring schools' progress in implementing Response to Intervention (RTI). The study examined the ratings produced by that system to determine the system's reliability, schools' progress in implementing RTI, and whether ratings…

Effective organizational communication begins with employees, who should be communications ambassadors for a district. From administrators to teachers to school bus drivers to custodians, employees set the tone for a district. The informal conversations they have at church, the bowling alley, the barbershop and other venues can make or break the…

The authors of this monograph assert that by assisting school systems to more closely resemble "high reliability" organizations (HROs) that already exist in other industries and benchmarking against top-performing education systems from around the globe, America's school systems can transform themselves from compliance-driven…

This article aims to examine the predictive relationships of self-evaluation capacity and staff competency on the effect of strategic planning in aided secondary schools in Hong Kong. A quantitative questionnaire survey was compiled to collect data from principals of the participating schools. Confirmatory factor analysis and reliability tests…

The purpose of this study was to develop and field test an employment screening instrument for special education teachers. The instrument developed demonstrated good reliability and concurrent validity. Both principals and special education administrators could effectively use the instrument. The instrument shows promise for helping administrators…

"Six Pillars of Dynamic Schools" uncovers an often overlooked truth--effective change is the product of hard work and dedication. There is no silver bullet; no matter how many programs, software packages, or new initiatives a district uses, the magic won't just "happen." Dynamic schools result from consistent and redundant focus on the fundamental…

Using data provided by the Council of International Schools and a literature review to contextualize the subject, this article examines the topic of international school finance. It is suggested that postgraduate programmes are not doing enough to supply financial training for teachers turned administrators, and that a lack of understanding of…

It is curious that so many people are accepting of statistics despite Disraeli's famous aphorism concerning "three kinds of lies." This acceptance certainly seems to hold for education statistics, especially when they imply something negative about American public schools. Sometimes people accept statistics because they are not in a position to…

This descriptive study investigated the attitudes of middle school building principals toward the desirability of preservice teacher preparation programs conducted wholly or almost wholly online. This project included middle schools in the states of Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio where random cluster sampling was utilized to select participants from…

Describes an alternative, relaxed, discipline system with four simple rules: (1) use mild consequences initially, (2) enforce rules without anger, (3) track each student infraction, and (4) reward frequently but unpredictably. (MD)

Group process and rating techniques were used to create a scale for measuring severity and frequency of 24 problem behaviors in institutionalized mentally retarded persons. A substantial correlation was found between scores and staff-time allocations, indicating usefulness of the scale as a predictor of staffing requirements for behavior…

Reviews three special-purpose forecasting methods (population-ratio techniques, Bell Telephone method, method of analogy, and multiple-factor method) and three methods of universal applicability (the cohort-survival, percentage- survival, and law-of-growth methods) to help administrators grasp enrollment forecasting technicalities. A comparison…

This guide shows how to integrate assessment with teaching and learning to reach educational goals. The aim is to present assessment concepts in a concise manner that can be understood and applied by teachers, administrators, and other school personnel. The chapters, organized around major assessment topics, are: (1) "Integrating Assessment with…