This study examines the leadership characteristics and skills of school principals who work within the franchise model framework. This model consists of a successful flagship school principal who is given the charge to be the principal of nearby schools while attempting to align practices and structures of the newly adopted schools to that of the…

Kappan's editor-in-chief talks with renowned scholar Susan Moore Johnson about her extensive research into the professional lives of public school teachers. For decades, studies have shown that teaching tends to be isolating work, with few opportunities for teachers to collaborate with and learn from each other or to play meaningful roles in…

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 National Study of CMO (charter management organizations) Effectiveness is a national, longitudinal research effort designed to measure how nonprofit charter school management organizations (CMOs) affect student achievement, and to examine the internal structures, practices, and policy contexts that may influence these outcomes. The study began…

Ten junior high schools and ten senior highs--among which were six city and fourteen suburban schools--in the Twin Cities metropolitan area were studied; their principals responded to a preliminary questionnaire and an "Organizational Health Description Questionnaire" was administered to all certified personnel at general faculty meetings. (JM)

Critical comments on an attempt to empirically test a conceptual scheme considered plausible and attractive but which has had little research exploration since the late 1960's reported in Kimpston and Sonnabend's proceeding article, "Public Secondary Schools: The Inter-relationships between Organizational Health and Innovativeness and between…

THIS STUDY WAS DESIGNED TO DESCRIBE THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT OF AN URBAN PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM USING THE MURRAY NEEDS-PRESS MODEL. A BROAD MEASURE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PRESS WAS ADAPTED FROM AN EXISTING MODEL AND USED TO--(1) DESCRIBE THE ENVIRONMENTAL PRESS PERCEIVED BY TEACHERS, (2) FACTOR ANALYZE THESE DATA, (3) DESCRIBE THE PERSONALITY (NEEDS)…

The bibliography of education for the year 1908-9 is the second attempt of the United States Bureau of Education to cover the field of current pedagogical literature. One of the special features of the present bibliography is the list of national and state educational societies, which has been carefully annotated. References have also been made to…

The research discussed here had two primary purposes: (1) to replicate a study done by George Weber in which eight factors were hypothesized to make successful schools successful: strong leadership, high expectations, good atmosphere, strong emphasis on reading, additional reading personnel, individualization, use of phonics, and careful…

Studies the complex layers making up a school culture and their effect on the routine organizational decision in handling truancy. Findings suggest school cultures, although unified at the organizational level, are inconsistent at the subcultural or individual level. Members can exercise greater flexibility within the organization but also can…

Two related questions are investigated in this research: (1) the characteristics which differentiate those schools which extensively use educational innovations from those which do not; and (2) the factors that determine whether innovation will be a carefully thought-out and discriminating process, rather than a process primarily influenced by…

This book presents a sociological perspective on the issues involved in transferring the institutional structure of inner city schools, and discusses the closing of the gap between sociological analysis and policy, and professional practice and citizen participation. Examining the published and unpublished studies of experimental programs in urban…

A national teachers union offers a program for educational improvement in urban schools, the More Effective Schools Project. The document presents the recommendations of the American Federation of Teachers on size of school and class, administration and supervision, and other professional matters. Proposals are also made for the areas of school…

This report presents the preliminary findings of the District/Secondary School Study. The study had two purposes: (1) to identify ways of managing urban high schools to produce excellence, and (2) to recommend policy-relevant guidance to existing school and district administrators. The study design focused on the testing of two specific theories…

This report presents results of a comprehensive survey of the Goldsboro (North Carolina) City School System conducted during the 1988-89 school year. The purpose of the survey was to determine long-range planning implications for the areas of organization, facility utilization, facility needs, site development, and media facilities. The report is…