Views recent educational reforms as "galloping centralization" resulting from states' excessive rationalism in legislating school improvement policy. A Vermont study shows that policymakers did not act in accord with a user perspective concerning local schools' policy environments and that Public School Approval, as a state policy,…

When discussing discipline, educators must separate trivial-but-annoying discipline problems from serious or criminal behavior and define vague terminology. The school's informal and formal curricula, instructional styles, and scheduling must also be examined to determine when the school itself is at fault. Carbondale (Illinois) Elementary…

Juxtaposes two concepts--the deep structure of schooling (based on controlling students) and schools' distinct personalities--to examine problems involving change and resistance to change in American education. Schools' custodial role influences restrictive classroom design and discipline policies. Genuine school improvement must happen at a deep…

Provides an essay review of "How Schools Work" (Barr and Dreeben, 1983). Maintains that the book is important because it focuses on the role of the curriculum and the multilevel nature of schooling, two important aspects of education which school effectiveness research has largely ignored. (JDH)

Repudiates Herbert Walberg's recent review article touting homework's beneficial effects on achievement scores. Presents evidence showing that good learning environments, interactive situations, and less restricted access to community and school resources (including new technologies) were of greater significance. Faults schools' organizational…

Faculty motivation, the role of money as an incentive, and the structural compatibility of universities with merit systems of pay are examined. As presently structured, universities seem unlikely candidates for successful merit-based pay plans. (Author/RM)

Describes new theories in science, based on the construct of "order through fluctuations," which lead to new understanding of the emergence of creativity from turbulence, both in the universe and in education. Attempts to develop new metaphors for "becoming" in education. (Author/KH)

Analyzes the occurrence of computer crimes in schools, focusing on the main types of crimes possible, potential criminals in schools, and how the organizational characteristics of schools invite computer crimes. Means to counter this problem and minimize it as far as possible are suggested. (MBR)

Individually Guided Education (IGE) is an alternative to the traditional age-graded form of elementary schooling. In a typical IGE school, the principal shares her/his authority with leaders of units in decision-making domains and reaches decision by consensus. The leader of a unit in turn shares his/her authority with unit teachers in making…

This paper describes findings from a study of school capacity, defined as the ability of schools to improve their practices and to sustain those improvements over time. Two schools in the San Francisco Bay Area (California) that have sustained success with distinct, though opposite, pedagogical approaches were examined to determine what makes a…

Organizational Development applied to schools offers great promise for the future. If education is to become more humanistic and begin to concern itself with the student as a total person and as one who will go forth to live in an increasingly complex and demanding society, such organizational renewal is indispensable. (Author)

Proposals, some radical, regarding classroom management, curriculum and organizational practices, based on positive acceptance of diversity and individuality'' of students. (Author/SP)

Describes some innovative teaching methods, including pupil grouping and team teaching, that can help humanize the elementary school. (LN)

Administrators of schools can best exercise their responsibility to the public by keeping open well-run channels of communication. (CK)

Argues that the education voucher experiment proposed by the United States Office of Economic Opportunity promises benefits especially for the poor, but that support for it will be hard to come by. (RJ)