This paper evaluates whether both equality or equity and excellence can be achieved in the present Israeli junior high schools. While academic goals are high and are, at least to some extent, achieved, the goal of providing an equitable education for students of lower socio-economic backgrounds and different ethnic backgrounds is not achieved. In…

This paper reports the findings of an investigation of the effects of school organization and ability grouping on students' academic achievements in Great Britain. Data for the study came from the National Child Development Study (NCDS) conducted by the National Children's Bureau (NCB) of London. The NCDS surveyed virtually every child born in…

Intended for parents and all citizens concerned about improving Chicago's 592 public schools, this handbook, a Spanish language version of "All Our Kids Can Learn To Read" (1985), explains how important reading is to a decent education and future employment. Chapter one describes the school improvement campaign called…

Sociologist Willard Waller, writing more than 50 years ago, framed many of the key ideas found in contemporary literature on school organization. This paper is both an appreciation and criticism of Waller's seminal case studies of social interaction in schools. The paper is divided into four sections. The first two explore Waller's thought and its…

Public education is facing a crisis of major proportions, but the things that are basically wrong with schools are not those being emphasized in current proposals for change. This paper identifies two basic defects in the American system of public education: (1) there is too little attention to individual differences; and (2) there is too much…

Access to higher education in Western industrialized countries in the 1960s and 1970s and structural policies are reviewed, along with policies on institutional patterns in the Federal Republic of Germany and the outcomes of the policies. Higher education policy in almost all Western industrial societies neither expanded in response to the…

Observations of and interviews with teachers and administrators in three elementary and three secondary schools provided support for the hypothesis that the social organization of the school as a workplace affects the fruitfulness of staff development efforts and the effectiveness of the school as a whole. This report reviews the relevant…

Profiles of 14 educational programs and products are presented which focus on competency- and goal-based education. Each report contains a description of the background, goals, and methods of the program or product, as well as the address of a contact person. The programs described are: (1) Project Write, designed to improve composition skills of…

This project was conducted to develop a course of study in health occupations in grades 9 and 10 for a county-wide comprehensive health careers high school. The course was to include related skills development in health occupations, support materials for an academic course of study, and broad outlines of curriculum for grades 11 and 12. The High…

This longitudinal study measured the impact of pubertal development, sex, race, and school type on the self-esteem of 12- and 13-year-old children. One of the questions being investigated was whether the move from a protected elementary school into a larger, more impersonal junior high affected children's self-image more negatively than did a move…

Both time and circumstance have convinced many a school district that it must find a better way to educate its students. For many districts the way has been alternative schools and programs that offer students a choice of goals, structures, and approaches to curriculum. One report estimated that as many as 5,000 alternative schools would be in…

Based on the assumption that a positive environment is an important component of a well-run school, this monograph offers techniques to school principals for evaluating and improving school climate. Topics covered include assessing school climate, planning for climate development, providing leadership for climate improvement, improving classroom…

This report is an early release of a measurement instrument used in a longitudinal project Management Implications of Team Teaching (MITT), and is taken from a larger, technical Project MITT report, "Governance and Task Interdependence in Schools: First Report of a Longitudinal Study." The instrument, "task interdependence,"…

Part of a series of studies on higher education in different countries, this paper examines internal differentiation of Japanese higher education and the problem of coordination, using a comparative perspective. The crucial difference in the division of universities by subjects among different nations has been between chair and department…

Factors influencing the social and educational environment of junior high schools are discussed, and recommendations for the improvement of the school environment through increased cooperation among students, teachers, and administrators are given. The needs of early adolescents are identified, and the degree to which the junior high school can…