Formal teacher leadership roles--such as coach and coordinator--have become a standard component of education reform efforts intended to support teachers' instructional improvement efforts. Yet the culture of schools is widely understood to favor autonomy and egalitarianism, suggesting that classroom teachers may be resistant to peer leadership.…

This paper discusses the benefits and drawbacks of shared governance models and the ramifications of shared governance on the environment and morale of faculty, staff, and students. Effective leadership teams can be developed in all settings. With clarity of purpose and mission, communication, and sincere motivations to transition, all sites have…

Servant leadership represents a significant departure from hierarchical systems of leadership often employed in educational and social service programs. The premise of servant leadership is deeply rooted in the leader's priority of serving others, to ensure that other people's highest priority needs are being served before one's self. The servant…

Words Work! and Community Action Head Start have been working together for seven years to provide training, consultation, mentoring, and resources to teachers in pilot classrooms as they learned to implement effective early literacy strategies. In its work with teachers, Words Work! developed a culture "where ongoing assessment, reflective…

To be actively involved in their own writing requires that students make decisions. In order to build a new approach for our Technical/Professional Writing classes, we assessed our individual teaching practices and past experiences, studied current scholarship on teaching writing, and conducted research on technical writing in our local community.…

Public policy for agriculture and natural resources must change as farming and the use of resources change, but policy also changes to reflect new understandings. The new understandings that will shape future agricultural policy may not come from food producers or agricultural scientists, and may not assume that expanding production is the primary…

In 1989, seven Memphis City Schools (MCS) implemented school-based decision making (SBDM). This paper describes outcomes associated with shared decision-making efforts during the pilot-study years (1989-92) and following years. Data were obtained from participant observation, interviews, administration of The Tennessee School Climate Inventory…

This paper presents a practice-based theory of administrative, supervisory, and organizational decision-making, which views the organizational decision-making process as a social enterprise. It also describes how to facilitate organizational change by promoting faculty involvement and shows how to increase the potential success of reform efforts.…

This paper presents findings of a study that explored effective school-based budgeting practices within effective school-based management (SBM) contexts. The sample was comprised of 18 schools across 9 school districts (7 in the United States, 1 Canadian, and 1 Australian)--that had used SBM to improve school performance. During onsite visits,…

Although, theoretically, an organizational vision can unite school-community members, it can also destroy organizational culture without the consensus of those members. This publication offers guidelines for creating a collaborative vision--one that gives all members the opportunity to help create the vision. Each school should choose a strategy…

If fundamental change in education is to be lasting and effective, it must be a systemic transformation that pervades all aspects of the organization. The New American Schools Development Corporation (NASDC) mission requires rapid, comprehensive change. The Community Learning Centers program described in this document features systemic change with…

Over time, a policy can be modified and its implementation may take a form different than originally intended by policymakers. This paper presents findings of a case study that examined the implementation of a comprehensive education plan for improving secondary education using systems technology in Malawi. Data were gathered through document…

This report presents findings from a study of school-based instructional decision making (SBIDM) and the regional staff development centers for SBIDM in Maryland. Data were collected through interviews, focus groups, and a group process adapted from storyboarding. Informants included school-improvement teams, principals, other faculty in seven…

Principles of developing a comprehensive planning model for a college are considered, and experiences in using the strategic planning model at Cardinal Stritch College (Wisconsin) are addressed. Important components of the planning process are articulating a mission, determining parameters and objectives while completing internal and external…

New managerial techniques such as total quality management and similar worker participation programs are an important albeit controversial component of the recent changes in the workplace brought about by increasing globalization of the economy. In addition, organized labor is faced with a changing and increasingly diverse population of new…