Teachers need flexibility to adapt to the uncertain situations and unique needs they confront in their classrooms. Most efforts to reform public education address the needs of teachers at the expense of administration--and vice versa--reinforcing the tangled relationships and patterns of compromise and conflict they are meant to solve. This book…

The dominant theoretical frameworks (structural, human resources, political, or cultural) espoused by elementary school principals are studied; and the platforms are compared with data previously collected on leadership behaviors and time usage. Data for 5 principals and 151 teachers in 5 elementary schools in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) on the…

This book, written with reference to British schools, examines the skills that are needed for educational management and leadership, and discusses how those skills should be applied. The first chapter sets out the tasks and skills involved in each of three major areas: the management of learning, the school as a community, and the management of…

This paper uses a national survey of secondary schools to examine the relation between size and orderliness in secondary schools and to test alternative theories linking school disorder to school size. Manning theory and social control theory, taken together, predict that larger schools will experience more disruption because a smaller proportion…

This literature review examines the teaching techniques and school environments that have been linked with high scores on standardized tests. It describes the strategies that might be used to achieve one particular educational goal, while making teachers aware that trade-offs are required when they choose to emphasize one particular goal. The…

This paper describes a new approach devised by the Harvard Principals' Center for improving professional development for practicing principals. The approach is predicated on a novel conception of principals as life-long learners and on the proposition that principals themselves can and should assume major responsibility for all aspects of their…

In a number of respects, principals of rural schools encounter problems different from their counterparts in urban schools, e.g., fewer supportive services are available to assist principals in administering programs for disadvantaged pupils, rural patrons often resist curriculum innovations and new teaching techniques, and any guidance services…

A specially developed 96-item English Teacher Role Inventory was used to question 52 supervisory teachers and 49 student teachers to determine (1) the kinds and amounts of agreement existing between experienced and novice teachers about the role of the high school English teacher, and (2) the ways in which males differ from females in viewing the…

This collection of research reports is intended to advance the understanding of schools through empirical study and theoretical analysis. The reports are as follows: "The Punctuated Equilibrium of National Reading Policy: Literacy's Changing Images and Venues" (Celia Sims and Cecil Miskel); "Productive Campus Leadership Responses to…

Several trends in education are affecting administrators on a daily basis. This paper attempts to heighten understanding of a few of the current trends in administration. The first trend that is increasingly coming to the forefront is the lack of personnel willing to pursue a career in administration. Personnel in schools are not willing to take…

Constructivism is a response to the depersonalized hugeness of our society and institutions. The constructivist model for education offers a way to decentralize the authority of a large and distant administration and return decision-making to the local level, that is, to learning communities, teaching teams, and individual classroom teachers. This…

Drawing from the experiences of successful businesses and business leaders, this book offers a different look at school leadership. It is intended to be a hands-on guide for school officials by offering perspectives on what it takes to be an effective leader in today's schools. Its concepts and recommendations represent a combination of the best…

This book, intended to be a hands-on guide and training tool, contains basic principles for new principals. Following an introduction, each of the book's 10 chapters focuses on one of the essential components of personal effectiveness. A highly effective principal is: (1) a communicator; (2) an educator; (3) an envisioner; (4) a facilitator; (5) a…

Supervision by circular letters is essential in most counties. The size of the territory to be covered makes frequent visits on the part of the county superintendent an impossibility. Many superintendents have no supervisors or field deputies and have only occasional office help. In such cases circular letters are the most valuable means of…

Because of the individual authority of each State for its own educational program, practices and policies differ widely among them in many respects. Yet in the midst of differences there are also common elements of development. The U. S. Office of Education, in presenting this series of monographs, has attempted to point out those common elements,…