The purpose of this study was to pilot a survey meant to learn about shared governance opportunities of Information Professionals within a library or learning resources environment in a community college setting. Participants were Chief Academic Officers (CAOs) from each of the 19 community colleges in Alabama. The ten-question survey instrument…

Collaborative ventures between families and schools can result in children being successful both academically and in life (Henderson & Berla, 1994; Jackson & Davis, 2000; Mapp, 1997). The most successful predictor of student achievement is an encouraging home environment, high expectations from parents, and parental involvement (Epstein, 2001;…

Decentralized regulation has become increasingly important in many areas; examples range from school vouchers to workplace safety committees to alternative dispute resolution procedures replacing courts. Consistent with this trend, in 1993 California permitted construction unions and employers to "carve out" their own workers'…

Current discourse in educare acknowledges the partnership between parents and practitioners. But is the partnership a reality, and exactly what does the term mean to those who use it? The increased interest in the relationship between home and school is one of the most positive educational developments of the past decade. Today, at all levels of…

Much has been written in recent years about advances in assessment technologies designed to aid decision making in the juvenile justice system. Adoption and implementation of this latest generation of actuarial tools, however, have lagged behind their development. Assessment in juvenile justice exemplifies the "science-practice gap" that…

It is frequently asserted that schools and local authorities should become "learning organisations" as a pre-condition for school improvement, but there is very little evidence about the specific processes and activities involved in such a transformation. This paper analyses the initial stages of the implementation by a Scottish local…

Schools of tomorrow will be completely different physically and operationally. The author of this article states that we cannot tolerate the current high failure rates in terms of graduation and possession of the competencies needed to function successfully as citizens in a democracy, productively as workers and heuristically as learners. He lists…

Workforce remodeling in England has been presented as a means to empower school staff through a restructuring process which has possibilities to dramatically shift the ways in which they operate. This initiative has also included a number of legislative requirements intended to help embed the more technocratic aspects of the remodeling process.…

This study assessed the role of inservice programs in bringing more developmentally appropriate practices to the early childhood classroom. Training was intended to accentuate the teachers' role in effecting educational change. Through classroom observations and teacher feedback, the researcher and participating teachers developed a 3-year…

This book was designed to help school, parent, and community leaders acquire the skills necessary for the successful restructuring of middle-level schools. Chapter 1 defines middle-level education and describes the forces that shaped and continue to shape middle-level education, the evolution of middle-level schools, and current middle-level…

From 1987 to 1995, the Accelerated Schools Project moved from a two-school pilot project to a national movement of over 700 schools in 35 states. This paper examines how the Accelerated Schools Centers have helped the expansion of the accelerated schools movement by recruiting and supporting schools in their regions, and how their institutional…

Effective schools exhibit unique structures and continuous change. Moral imperatives inspire people to sustain the commitment critical to building effective schools. Over 450 interviews with practitioners, parents, board members, politicians, academics, union leaders, consultants, and others are joined with background literature and research to…

This report responds to a request for information on School Based Management (SBM) from Senators Edward M. Kennedy and David Durenberger. It answers the following questions: (1) Under SBM, did administrators and teachers change their schools' instructional programs and budgets and, if so, how? (2) What were key similarities and differences in…

This paper summarizes a Master's project designed for principals who are interested in pursuing instructional leadership in their schools. The first part provides the principal with an overall understanding of, and rationale for, the role of the principal as instructional leader. The second part, written in the format of a handbook, describes the…

In 1992, the SouthEastern Regional Vision for Education (SERVE) began a 3-year research-and-development effort to support four schools and two school districts in the southeastern United States in their implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) processes. This document describes the experiences and perceptions of the participating…