Describes how camp counselors can foster camaraderie among campers through participative decision making, name games, listening, adventure courses, storytelling, spending time in nature, decorating cabins, avoiding favoritism, setting rules, admitting faults, setting group goals, and praising sincere efforts. (TD)

Study develops an instrument to investigate the relationship between the perception of full-time, in-house campus attorneys and chief student affairs administrators concerning their influence in institutional decision-making. Based on results of the study, makes recommendations for collaborative decision making. (Contains 27 references.)…

Building capacity in schools means developing a new understanding of leadership capacity--broad-based, skillful participation in the work of leadership. Leadership capacity can be seen as a complex, interactive framework, with four types of schools and school communities. Leadership is everyone's work, but it does not require extraordinary…

Challenged to increase leadership opportunities for teachers, an El Paso elementary school principal appointed two master teachers to a vice-principal vacancy, increased teacher collaboration time, and experimented with vertical-team representation, teacher input for hiring decisions, and creative scheduling. Only the principal can actually…

Discusses the articles in this special issue on classrooms that are democratic communities. Outlines a democratic classroom model and then discusses that paradigm in practice. Offers a list of selected readings and resources, containing 53 professional readings, six professional resources, and 38 books suggested by members of the author team. (SR)

Describes adapting an organizational technique used by cartoon animators to camp planning. A story board is a bulletin board on which are posted tasks on file cards. Columns for "to do,""doing," and "done" make it easy to track progress, add and save information, involve other staff members, set priorities, organize…

Discusses the problem of a democratic state facing multiple educational reform movements and establishes an outer boundary for what forms of school initiatives ought to be permissible. Included are claims of certain fundamentalist parents and the racialist "Christian Identity" religion that undergirds much of the militia movement. (GR)

Reviews 77 empirical and case studies of school-based management (SBM) implementations reported between 1985 and 1995 to determine typical obstacles and promising ameliorative strategies. There is no firm evidence of SBM's effects on students. Administrative-control SBM would probably produce the least amount of school change. Community-control…

Explores the role and importance of faculty governance based on personal experience at the University of California, Berkeley (which has one of the country's strongest faculty governance systems) and the University of Michigan (with a weaker system more representative of national norms). Discusses the increasing market-related obstacles to…

Inadequate school facility planning carries fiscal, human, and academic costs. Building a responsive school requires that future inhabitants participate in the planning process. The accommodation of various building-use patterns, teaching methods, and learning styles reflects how satisfactorily a school building performs for its users. New…

When embarking on school/community-based management, nine Hawaii elementary schools trained their staff in facilitative leadership and received technical assistance from district offices. Schools can involve more parents by reaching a shared understanding about parental involvement, developing appropriate involvement strategies, providing parents…

Discusses the characteristics of unsuccessful attempts to implement collegial supervision (teachers helping teachers through feedback and advice) in schools, and discusses the insights these characteristics provide. Discusses one successful collegial supervision program. (SR)

Documents the growing tension between primary heads' administrative and professional roles and between top-down and collegial management styles, based on qualitative data from a national sample of 50 Welsh and English schools. Highlights the 1988 Education Reform Act's emphasis on monitoring and quality assurance and headteachers' developing…

Summarizes a study exploring decision-making quality among 45 participants, who were administered the Decision Making Inventory either as groups or individuals. There were few differences between individual and collaborative group decision-making formats. Individual skills were more effective regarding curriculum and discipline. There were no…

Case study of a community and youth leadership development program in Rural Georgia illustrates a blend of traditional and participatory strategies, including participatory action research. Evaluation demonstrates the importance of working with community culture, forming cohesive groups, choosing facilities carefully, and reconciling community and…