This paper discusses the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) and its impact on school facilities planning and community involvement in related decision making. Since 1900, the pattern of rural school reform, nationally and in Kentucky, has been one of increased state and federal control, with cost effectiveness and equity the primary criteria in…

Collaboration between university and school board seems essential in matching core objectives of teacher training with the critical skills and knowledge needed by teachers in new environments. Therefore, Brock University (Ontario, Canada) and the Niagara South Board of Education (Ontario, Canada) established a collaborative early primary teacher…

Collaborations between schools and parents, and schools and other institutions, seek to improve or expand available resources. This issue of "Focus in Change" focuses on two elementary schools with different models of collaboration in place. At Columbia Park Elementary School (Maryland) parents have been involved in site-based management teams…

This report describes the Comprehensive Local School approach to school restructuring, which envisions the school as the coordinating vehicle for all children's services, including health and social services, and which reconfigures and coordinates all categorical programs at the school site under a site-based management system characterized by a…

After reviewing the San Diego (California) City Schools Board of Education policy on parent involvement and outlining responsibilities of principals, teachers, and school support staff regarding parent involvement, this document summarizes the benefits of parent involvement for students, parents, and teachers as indicated by related research and…

Shared governance in the community college district has both advantages and disadvantages. Among the three "perils" of implementing shared governance are that the process is difficult, lengthy, and sometimes tedious; that responsibility for decisions and actions must somehow be maintained; and that an appropriate role for faculty, staff,…

An assessment of two pilot accelerated schools using the inquiry process model for the transformation of school culture and classroom practices in serving at-risk students is presented in this report. The inquiry process is a central feature of the accelerated school, a comprehensive school renewal initiative. The traditional approach to changing…

Designed to assist state and district policymakers in developing a policy framework to encourage educational restructuring at all levels, this document begins by describing the need for restructuring and by discussing elements of the policymaker's role such as establishing a vision, reviewing existing policies, debating options, making policy…

This paper discusses problems the author encountered in attempting to conduct a study of teacher motivation as influenced by a combination of participative decision-making and financial rewards. Over a 3-year period, teacher motivation was to be viewed as influenced by two independent variables--participative decision-making and financial rewards;…

The report of a California task force examines new or revised special education service delivery models which would allow for maximum interaction between special education and general education. After a review of the literature and a 2-day policy forum, the task force concluded that there is no one model appropriate for all schools and all…

In 1990, William Rainey Harper College (WRHC) participated in the annual faculty survey conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute in California. Of WRHC's full-time faculty, 97 responded to the survey for a 50% response rate. Results from the survey were compared with those from two-year and four-year institutions nationwide. In…

The structure and function of the California Educational Research Cooperative (CERC), a collaborative action research organization designed to link research to educational practice, is described in this paper. A brief history of school-university partnerships and a review of the status of these partnerships is provided, followed by a description…

In 1989, the Eastern Iowa Community College District (EICCD) undertook a project to develop a collective image of what the community college should be in the coming century. The reasons for seeking this "shared vision" were to create institutional focus, foster commitment, build communication, and reaffirm the college's mission and…

This manual is intended to assist managers of Great Britain's Youth Training Scheme (YTS) programs in designing a coherent, integrated training program that is based on training methods that are (1) suited to the individual learning styles of trainees and (2) designed to help students understand the connections between different components of the…

The literature concerning higher education and generic organization theory is reviewed to address various questions relating to faculty participation in institutional decision-making. Attention is directed to: the rationale for faculty participation, alternative types of participation, participation in academic senates, participation by functional…