Describes a school improvement program and the reasons for its successes and failures. (JM)

Examines some problems with school effectiveness research, including small samples, indentification error, and inappropriate comparisons. Nevertheless, the article concludes that characteristics of effective schools can be useful in school improvement as long as facile solutions are avoided in favor of incremental long-term cultural change.…

Suggests that spelling instruction must go beyond the use of a text or series and that spelling should be impressed on students as an important part of their writing. Proofreading, peer editing of compositions, and other techniques for spelling improvement are discussed. (SJL)

Describes the Middle-Management Center at Tulane University, which through simultaneous research and action seeks to develop the problem-solving capabilities of principals. (JG)

Performance improvement practitioners can be stymied to solve clients' problems. Clients may fail to recognize problems, would rather address symptoms than root causes and practitioners unable to convince clients to institute a meaningful solution. Practitioner can use internally developed data to build a case for action, create a clear vision of…

Discussion of instruction and training to introduce new ideas and to improve performance focuses on the presence of conflict and the theory of games. Topics discussed include learner participation; Theory X; Theory Y; and Theory Z; and game rules, including control, scoring, changing rules, and ending the game. (25 references) (LRW)

Discusses two tools necessary for the successful practice of human performance technology: gathering data and interpreting data. The focus is on what data to gather, how to gather it, and how to interpret the data. (Author/JKP)

Discusses two plans for reforming urban schools: the Comer model, begun in New Haven schools in 1968, and the Chicago school reform, begun in 1989. The former emphasizes community; the latter, accountability. Both demonstrate that, when people are not alienated, they will actively participate in improvement programs. (DM)

Considers three variables that can help performance technologists work more effectively with different kinds and different generations of people. Discusses recognizing the impace of position and disposition, assuring that feedback occurs, and thinking beyond old ways of operating and motivating. Suggests that the context of human interaction is…

Describes a Web-based learning environment that was designed to provide new learning opportunities for leadership facilitators to build content knowledge through interactive learning activities. Highlights include the iterative design process; human performance technology; learning environment design principles; and continuous improvement. (LRW)

Provides instructional developers' (ID) insights and observations based on the experiences of a training and development organization, Sprint's University of Excellence (UE), as it evolved from a small group of 20-25 individuals in 1990 to a large business unit comprising almost 400 individuals in 1999. Discussion includes course development…

Examines the relationship between school organizational climate and the school's preparedness to undertake restructuring and improvement. Findings indicated the existence of an important relationship between organizational climate and the school's capacity to implement and sustain authentic site-based management. Where the climate is negative,…

Discusses reading comprehension difficulty among older students. Only 40% of adolescents can read well enough to comfortably manage standard high school texts--untangling specialized text to construct meaning does not come automatically. Offers tips for reinforcing reading strategies that center on teaching children to interact with text. These…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the processes of care, organizational attributes, cost of care, staffing level, and staff mix in a sample of Missouri homes with good, average, and poor resident outcomes. Design and Methods: A three-group exploratory study design was used, with 92 nursing homes randomly selected from all nursing…

In recent years, assessment data have assumed a more central role education policy and practice. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requires states to implement standardized assessment-based systems to evaluate their schools. The NCLB approach rests on the assumption that assessment data can provide credible information to gauge how effectively schools…