This study sought to describe how an elementary school faculty made sense of the impending succession of its principal, and to extend Gephart's effort to develop a grounded theory of leader succession by examining an unforced succession in an organization whose members exerted little if any influence on the selection process. On the basis of…

Institutional bonding was examined at a public, urban commuter college with exceptionally high attrition and visibly low morale. Changes in bonding and attrition were measured 6 years after a 2-year effort to develop school identity and student feelings of membership. It was found that a simple index of campus morale is provided by level of…

Key results and conclusions from the first year (1986-87) of the Detroit (Michigan) Effective Schools Project are presented. The project was designed to determine how low-achieving schools in Detroit can best be helped and to ascertain factors with greatest impact on retention and achievement. Focus is on assisting selected schools designated as…

Young urban teachers assigned to rural schools in Queensland, Australia, experience difficulties in adjustment related to isolation from family, friends, and other professionals. Twelve teachers in a small remote settlement and 12 teachers in a rural school close to a suburban area completed a questionnaire exploring their relationships with their…

One of the principal problems the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has in carrying out its responsibility to educate Indian children is the high turnover rate among its teachers; a large proportion of teachers in the BIA school system leave after their first year or second year of work. Teachers at six elementary schools on the Navajo Reservation…

Meaningful stress management efforts should include analysis of both organizational and individual factors. Results of a June 1982 survey of 130 teachers in 4 Buffalo (New York) school district elementary schools indicate that feelings of organizationally based stress did not vary significantly according to such demographic variables as sex or…

Two statewide surveys of Texas public school teachers who were members of the Texas State Teachers Association were conducted in l980 and in 1982. The 1980 survey, with 291 respondents, revealed that many teachers were considering leaving teaching. Of these, almost half cited low salaries as the chief reason. The survey also revealed that holding…

Information for newly appointed heads of graduate departments of psychology is presented as background material for the 1974 Chairman's Workshop. Topics include the following: the budgetary situation, pressures for increased teaching loads, effects upon recruiting faculty, faculty morale, graduate and undergraduate student morale, the intellectual…

Composition teachers can learn from nonteachers who evaluate writing. A comparison of nonteacher and teacher responses to the same student writing revealed that the teachers were much more negative in their evaluations. Studies have also indicated that teachers did not grade according to their own declared criteria. These inconsistencies and…

The objectives of this study were to determine whether teachers' personality characteristics affect their perceptions of stress and burnout and whether school climate interacts with personality factors to influence stress and burnout. A random sample of 162 teachers in nine junior high/middle schools completed a questionnaire measuring perceptions…

This study was conducted to determine differences between: (1) supervisors' ratings of instructional competencies of education majors and non-education majors in a semester of student teaching; and (2) evaluations by education majors and non-education majors of their morale during a student teacher program. Data were collected during one semester…

Concerns continue to be expressed as to how effective tenure has been in influencing the overall continued effectiveness of teachers who receive this permanent status. Teacher tenure is considered essential for protection of the teacher from capricious and arbitrary dismissal. However, there is concern about the lack of incentive to improve…

Nine discussions identify needs and concerns of beginning teachers and call for a more concerted effort to ensure a smooth transition from preservice teacher to a working professional. An historical perspective on beginning teachers' problems and attempted solutions is provided in the first chapter. An interview with four beginning teachers…

Legislation in the State of California has mandated bilingual programs. They must be included by administrators developing mainstream curricula for California schools. Not all program administrators have complied with this legislation. Legal requirements for bilingual programs have raised philosophical, legal and teacher morale problems for…

This guide is directed to education program administrators and basic education teachers in Job Corps Centers to help them understand how their functions relate to those of the center and to federal regulations and policies, and also to pass on some of the program experience accumulated by Job Corps teachers and administrators during the last dozen…