Proposes a modified English "house system" to personalize American high schools, thus increasing individual guidance and student sense of belonging. (DW)

Some criticisms of high school have been concerned with what organizational theorists call operations technology. Broadly, technology refers to the work an individual teacher or the school's collective professional staff does with or for students, the school's "raw material." Technology can be studied more closely by separation into three…

This newsletter briefly discusses the question of whether or not large secondary schools suffer from more problems than smaller schools and then examines the possibility of subdividing large schools through use of the "school-within-a-school" approach. Two different variations on the school-within-a-school approach are described, including…

The author, editor of the National Society for the Study of Education yearbook on secondary education, reports some contentions and observations presented by the yearbook's chapter authors. Each author addressed one of nine central issues. The issues are in the areas of the individual, values, social realities, man's experiences, education's…

Based on questionnaires sent to a random sample of 140 debate coaches in Kansas in December 1973, three aspects of Kansas high school debate programs--general characteristics of programs active in debate, budget characteristics of these programs, and general characteristics of the professional staff associated with the programs--are examined. Ten…

This document is an English-language abstract (approximately 1,500 words) of a report dealing with the arguments for school reform, aims of elementary education, student development, elementary school activities, educational administration, and the measures leading to school reform in Finland. The purpose of elementary education in Finland is to…

This article, using Bolivian data to test a model based on American theoretical formulations, shows that interpersonal influences mediate the effects of structural variables on educational aspirations. (Author/DE)

U.S. educational systems and schools are now organized primarily for student custody and administrative convenience. This article describes how to redesign schools to achieve better educational results by focusing on an outcomes-based paradigm, illustrated by the High Success program being tried in various high schools. Includes four figures and…

Using surveys of the professional staffs of 41 secondary schools, this study examines the relationship between two aspects of bureaucratic structure (centralization and formalization) and two sorts of alienation (from work and expressive relations). It then compares the results with similar studies of social studies of social welfare agencies. (JW)

The chief purpose of this study has been to determine what existing forms of American secondary-school organization are of greatest promise. The study has sought, in particular, to discover the effects of the junior high school movement upon practice in school organization, to secure objective evidence as to the comparative merits of reorganized…

Describes a project intended to help high school students personalize their school environment. The program emphasizes positive social reinforcement, positive peer pressure, interaction with administrators and teachers regarding school problems and solutions, and peer counseling during homeroom. (DB)

The author examines frequently-voiced objections to mainstreaming educable mentally retarded (EMR) students at the secondary level. These focus on the inability of school structures and curriculum to adapt to EMR students' special needs. He finds in these objections not a case against mainstreaming, but a case for school change. (SJL)

The Delphi technique was employed on a random sample of National Middle School Association members to identify topics of needed research in middle school education and to seek consensus on the usefulness of each research topic. Available from NMSA, P.O. Box 968, Fairborn, OH 45324. (Author)

This paper describes a method of organizing a mathematics department to provide students with a flexible individualized program consisting of core courses and modular electives. The adaptability of the program to both open and traditional schools is discussed, as is evaluation of the program. (SD)

Born in rural Tennessee, 15-year-old Billy Charles Barnett is proficient enough at hunting and fishing to support himself by teaching his survivalist skills to others. His economic well-being is threatened by required school attendance. Given the impoverished state of American education, society would not necessarily benefit from a lower dropout…