This study was conducted in a large urban school district. Fifty-nine elementary schools, designated as Fine Arts Schools by the district, were organized as a Fine Arts School Network. The school district partnered with an external arts organization to deliver research-based, consistent and collaborative professional development to art, music,…

Efforts to improve child and adolescent health typically have featured interventions designed to address specific health risk behaviors, such as tobacco use, alcohol and drug use, violence, gang involvement, and early sexual initiation. However, results from a growing number of studies suggest that greater health impact might be achieved by also…

Although there has been sizable growth in the number of empirical studies of shared forms of leadership over the past decade, the bulk of this research has been descriptive. Relatively few published studies have investigated the impact of shared leadership on school improvement. This longitudinal study examines the effects of distributed…

The South African Schools Act No. 84 of 1996 mandates that secondary school learners, who are members of the Representative Council for Learners, should be part of school governance through participation in school governing bodies. But they are often not afforded a full opportunity to participate in crucial decisions by the adult members of…

The traditional roles of teachers and principals have changed and improved organizational teamwork is fostered by all members of the learning community assuming decision making roles. Toward this end, the purpose of this correlational study was to explore the relationship between teachers' perceptions of the leadership behaviors of secondary…

This paper is devoted to a discussion of the conditions which led to a thorough review of the computing and information technology organization, policies, and practices for University of South Carolina-Aiken. The Task Force on Campus Computing was established in the fall of 1994 to address the campus' concerns. Among the concerns were: Computer…

In November 1993, the chief executive officers (CEO's) and academic senate presidents at all 107 California community colleges were surveyed regarding faculty members' role in shared governance. Study findings, based on an 84% response rate, included the following: (1) the CEO's and senate presidents agreed that faculty were greatly involved in…

The vision of school restructuring seems to be taking shape. New themes and patterns in curriculum, instruction, and assessment have begun to emerge in American schools. A new focus on social issues and practical application opens the doors to more community and parent involvement. Teaching strategies are becoming more congruent with the needs,…

The fifth of six volumes in the "Elementary Principal Series," this booklet clarifies the principal's leadership role in developing an effective school discipline policy that stresses staff involvement and student self-control. As team leader, the principal works with staff to establish standards and insists that they be enforced. A…

During the 1987-88 school year, the notion of school-based management (SBM) was introduced in selected schools in the Dade County (Florida) Public Schools. The paper discusses the changes that are occurring in the shared decision-making (SDM) body of the SBM project over time. In June 1989, schools participating in the SBM program completed a form…

Centennial High School in Gresham, Oregon, was one of three pilot schools selected in 1983 to use a research-based school improvement process developed by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. In the process, the local school establishes a leadership team to manage school improvement, collects data on student performance, uses the data to…

Effective administrative decisions result from the continuous and systematic appraisal of past decisions and of current conditions. Forty observations that may guide secondary school administrators in assessing and improving the effectiveness of their own decision-making processes are presented in this publication. Each observation is accompanied…

The Studies of Implementation project is a 3-year longitudinal investigation of planned educational change. The research focuses on the process by which an innovation becomes a pattern of individualized schooling. This study identifies those conditions that promote or retard change and relates them to the modifications they foster. It reports on…

This paper deals with an attempt by the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) to strive for excellence in education via a collaborative approach to administrator preparation. The approach utilizes professionals from both the university community and the local education agency in forming a training team to prepare preservice supervisors and…

The discipline of discipline is the cornerstone upon which educators should build the other disciplines. Teaching responsibility for one's actions must stand beside the teaching of writing, reading, and arithmetic. Discipline cannot be mastered when stifled with negative reward systems and punishment. This paper describes a comprehensive…