Identifies five building blocks of school restructuring forming the foundation for comprehensive educational change. Identifies four overarching restructuring issues, including administrative and teacher leadership, the dilemma of process versus content, balancing student and teacher needs, and achieving a balance between action and reflection.…

W. Edwards Deming's concepts offer an integrated approach to quality schooling. Three barriers must be overcome: fear of industrial models, poor knowledge of workers and work processes, and unquestioned beliefs. Instead, educators must develop community understanding and commitment, establish business-education partnerships, and manage schools as…

The evidence does not support Chubb and Moe's conclusions that current methods of school governance are responsible for poor student achievement. Organization and other variables (such as family background and student ability) combined account for less than 5 percent of student achievement variations. Market principles applied to education could…

Presents information concerning the range of external interruptions experienced by junior high school teachers. Examines the ways in which interruptions become disruptions. Provides suggestions on how to manage these interruptions and discusses the difference between "proactive" and "reactive" class management. Finds that size…

The development of the paper-and-pencil instrument called the Organizational Culture Assessment Inventory (OCAI) is based on the theory of organizational culture. Recent literature and organizational analysis are combined with Schein's model of organizational culture to provide the background for metaphorical analysis of organizational culture…

A preliminary analysis of the Organizational Culture Assessment Inventory yielded four root metaphors descriptive of the type of culture likely to be found in public schools: the family, the machine, the circus, and the "little shop of horrors." (10 references) (SI)

In Connecticut programs and services vary greatly from district to district; these variations are caused mainly by wide disparities in local tax contributions that affect state aid distribution. This study shows a marginal relationship among some selected financial variables and organizational health characteristics of randomly selected high…

Introduces a special section forecasting problems, delineating issues, and proferring strategies that should prove helpful as early childhood policies and programs are crafted. Today's programs are grounded in research that verifies the efficacy of early intervention, particularly for low-income children. School restructuring will play an…

Restructuring is this era's main contribution to improving America's schools. Teachers, parents, and communities must become more involved in school decision-making, and children need more choice in curricular decisions. Ten "commandments" for successful early childhood collaborations are presented. Care and education are inseparable.…

Argues for learner motivation emphasis in teaching practice, application of school organization and classroom climate findings to prisoner education program development, and a cooperative administrative approach. Urges implementation of a social interaction learning model to achieve state educational aims for all students. (LAM)

In late 1988, the Soviet Union's "perestroika" entered a new stage aimed at developing human resources and fostering democratic processes. Educators' and parents' discontent with the centralized bureaucracy and rigid educational administrative structure will press officials to formulate a comprehensive new education theory to achieve 19…

Efforts to improve American high schools must center on their most fundamental deficiencies. Out of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development's High School Futures Planning Consortium have evolved experience-based principles (outlined in sidebars) that other school leaders can adapt for improving their schools' organization,…

First in a series of profiles to trace the intellectual roots of the modern middle-school movement through the thoughts and actions of five of its most influential revolutionaries. (seven references) (MLF)

The Executive Leadership Program at Fordham University presents a model for practicing school administrators' continuing education that reflects a changing society and schools' changing needs. The program is based on four innovations: an intellectual/change agent approach; a clinical, field-based research experience; an instructional agenda…

Small elementary schools are frequently perceived as having discrete organizational problems that are intensified when such schools are located in rural areas. Article reports a study conducted in a Welsh local education authority that established clustering arrangements to resolve some managerial, administrative, and curricular problems. Views…