Familiar high school problems include unprepared and apathetic students, inadequate teachers' salaries and benefits, and outmoded grade-level systems. Improvement requires new schooling models including clearer goals, advancement linked to skills mastery, promotion of thinking skills, less fragmented school time, elimination of age-grading, less…

Six administrators comment about their experiences as dual principals--situations in which one principal has responsibility for two or even more schools. All agree that the dual principalship imposes restrictions on the principal's role as a leader. (MLF)

Examines the difficulties that plague the middle school movement and why there has been little substantive reform in changing from junior high schools to middle schools. (Author/WD)

Examines the background of external degree programs in Germany and proposes a model that includes a critical discussion of various organizational forms for teaching university courses at a distance. (Author/IRT)

Contrasts the bureaucratic image of schools with four other possible images based on characteristics of social action in sects, legislatures, hospitals, and under anarchic conditions. Aims at developing a greater variety of ways to think about how schools can be organized. Various educational problems and means to resolve them are considered…

A principal describes the conditions in his school that provide intellectual stimulation and promote discussions among staff, students, and himself. (JM)

It is clear that the development and refinement of a theory is a continuing exercise that both shapes and is shaped by parallel developments in methodology, and data collection and analysis. (Author)

The report most frequently heard in successful schools is that rules are carefully and openly developed, clearly announced, firmly enforced, and consistently applicable to everyone. (Author)

This article provides an historical overview of organizational theory and research relevant to participation in decision making. Applications of this theory and research in schools are discussed. Two examples of organization development interventions which foster participation in school decision making are described. Implications of recent…

Evidence suggests that a middle school organizational design has some administrative advantages over the traditional junior high school program because of the more unified social and academic atmosphere. (LH)

Although works on specific restructuring initiatives are prevalent, few focus on meaning and organizational implications inherent in American restructuring efforts. Motivated by scarcity of conceptual literature, this article aims to provide researchers and practitioners with a framework for thinking about restructuring process in educational…

An individual's participation in school can be analyzed on four levels--the individual, the team, interteam coordination, and management of the school's interaction with the environment. These levels represent different intensities of participation and degrees of complexity in an individual's commitment. This paper explores each level and…

Discusses research in three Australian secondary schools planning to implement school-based decision-making and planning procedures as part of a "corporate-managerialist" restructuring program. Results showed that secondary schools are open social systems comprised of complex relationship patterns. A unitary view of secondary schools is…

Identifies 10 educational restructuring components: setting a clear school mission; reorganizing the school to fit the mission, realigning curriculum, instruction, and assessment; enhancing the teaching profession; building collaborative relationships; initiating school-centered decision making; increasing parent and community involvement;…