Describes difficulties of Saint Paul's Saturn School of Tomorrow from planner, implementor, and evaluator viewpoints. The plan for a citywide, ungraded, downtown middle school called for an extended school year and the latest technology in a completely redesigned building with 4 teachers, 4 interns, and 162 students. Teachers were overworked, test…

Substitute teachers are often not as effective as they should be, considering that they generally oversee 5 solid months of a typical student's K-12 education. The Ashland (Ohio) City Schools developed a questionnaire to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their substitute teacher program. The result was an in-depth manual and improvement of…

Despite teacher layoffs and program eliminations across United States, extra-year programs before kindergarten or between kindergarten and first grade are booming. Such developmental retentions are costly and could lead to higher incidence of dropping out. Schools should be ready for each child. Early-grade teachers and principals must reject…

Describes an early intervention prekindergarten program for at-risk students stressing staff unity, a curriculum rich in developmentally appropriate activities, cooperative and mastery learning techniques, collaboration with teachers in the primary grades, intense parental involvement, and a comprehensive program evaluation. (MLH)

Recommends an eight-step program for school districts seeking first-rate teachers, including (1) determining desirable staff characteristics, (2) broadening recruitment strategies, (3) honing selection procedures, (4) completing preemployment paperwork and placement decisions, (5) beginning orientation immediately, (6) setting up support systems,…

Following the August 1991 state takeover of the Paterson (New Jersey) Schools, the new district superintendent launched a program to improve the city's four worst elementary schools. The process involved creating an administrative team to evaluate principals and school programs, replacing key staff, forming a partnership with Columbia University's…

Suggests that school systems "audit" their communication system to assess their communication needs. Provides two tests that audit a school system's environment and its community. The test results indicate whether the system's communication program should emphasize formal or informal communication methods. (RW)

Instead of relying on standardized test scores and interdistrict comparisons, school systems must develop a more powerful, timely, and local approach to accountability that is truly client-centered and focused on results. Accountability requires giving successful teachers the freedom and opportunity to take effective ideas beyond their own…