Using enrollment decline cases for data, the case survey method analyzes the content of case studies, thus allowing data from various cases to be aggregated and researchers to overcome constraints on data collection. The analyst uses six steps in this method in reviewing the case literature: (1) definition of the unit of analysis, (2)…

This paper decribes the case survey method as a technique to overcome data collection problems and lack of integration of case studies. It outlines the roots of the method, distinguishes it from meta-analysis, describes the process with illustrations from an enrollment decline study, and analyzes its strengths and limitations. (BW)

Using 56 school districts that experienced enrollment declines, this study describes the variables in superintendent succession amidst declining enrollments and locates the strongest predictors of succession. (JW)

The status of research on administrative problems caused by declining enrollments is discussed, and a theoretical framework for administrative decision making is presented. Managing enrollment declines is difficult because administrators are forced to deal simultaneously with increasing costs and staff reductions. (PP)

Discusses the background and implications of a court decision resulting in the resegregation of public schools in metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County, Tennessee, because of declining enrollment. Speculates whether the events indicate a trend back to the concept of neighborhood schools and an end to busing to achieve desegregation. (AOS)

As studies of organizational development have focused increasingly in recent years on stages of decline and death, theories of revolutionary adaptation have gained currency. The theory of organizational retrenchment developed in this paper is divided into five chronological stages: (1) preresponse, (2) emerging awareness and buying time, (3) alarm…

Case studies of community opposition to school closure decisions in 65 school districts indicated the tendency for opposition to be greater in districts where planning was more comprehensive; in communities where incompabilities were perceived between the superintendent and the board of education; and in urban versus suburban and rural areas. (MJL)

Previous literature investigating community protests of school closings may be divided into four perspectives emphasizing (1) lack of comprehensive planning, (2) lack of participative decision-making, (3) loss of community maintenance (or sense of community), and (4) contextual factors, such as district size and type. The present study examines…

Three possible explanations for superintendent succession focus on poor administrative performance, district response strategies, and the politics of the chief executive's relationship with the school board. To analyze succession in the context of declining enrollment, a case study survey was conducted of 56 school districts whose peak enrollment…

Previous management research supports the view that comprehensive planning and participative decision-making are important factors in reducing community opposition to educational policies. To investigate the possibility that neither of these strategies necessarily has this effect, a survey was undertaken of 53 school districts that had experienced…

Although educational leaders have been coping with declining enrollment for almost a decade, educational researchers have begun to focus on the topic only recently. The first part of this introduction to a special issue of the Peabody Journal of Education briefly summarizes the contents of the subsequent essays, which are intended to bridge the…