Classroom teachers are affected directly and indirectly by external forces: international, national, social, institutional, pedagogical, economic, commercial, professional, and religious. It is proposed that teachers make use of constructive forces and combat destructive ones by using organizational and individual resources to create change.…

Two elementary school teachers were members of a large sample participating in a study of changing teacher practices through intervention with staff developers. In October, one teacher was transferred to a similar school in another part of the district. The other teacher accepted an assignment in another school at the end of the first semester.…

The educational change strategy termed "reaching success through involvement" (RSI) has yielded promising results in creating school effectiveness. This paper analyzes the theoretical bases and practical applications of RSI strategy among 14 schools over an 8-year period. RSI theory assumes that educational organizations are dynamic social systems…

A rural Vermont school district instituted needed and desired changes during a 3-year improvement effort. A 1982 needs assessment evaluated school performance in seven areas found to exist in effective schools. Change efforts followed three principles: all curriculum and policy changes were done on a district-wide and K-12 basis, teachers were not…

This document outlines an overall plan of action for improving school effectiveness in the Spencerport (New York) school system. This master plan (developed by a leadership planning team consisting of key personnel in the Spencerport system, in cooperation with the Institute of Research on Teaching, College of Education, Michigan State University)…

Proceedings of three regional conferences on the quality of American higher education are presented. Sponsored by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, these conferences consisted of round-table discussions concerning recommendations from the national report "Involvement in Learning," as well as strategies needed to…

Every high school student should not only be provided with appropriate academic instruction but with supervised work experience as well. For the past 70 years, the number of students in cooperative education programs has grown steadily. Despite these steady gains, the best estimates place no more than 10 percent of all vocational education…

Implementing new instructional strategies and programs is a challenging task, and the need for teacher renewal and updating is apparent when the advances in literacy research in recent years and the increasing gap between this knowledge and the training of most teachers are considered. Among the obstacles to teacher change are short-term inservice…

This report is adapted from a letter sent to President-Elect George Bush in early January 1989. The report was published to stimulate a broad public discussion of the role that the Federal Government might play in developing the skills of the Nation's people. The priority of preventing damage to young children is the topic of the first section. In…

Although effective schools research has indicated the need for an added emphasis on increasing student achievement within a satisfying learning climate, the issue of how best to implement this research has been perplexing for both researchers and practitioners. Different approaches are being tried in two rural Saskatchewan school divisions. In…

An innovative educational program is being planned at the Yorba Linda Campus of the Northern Orange County (California) Community College District in an effort to increase enrollment and improve the financial status of the district. The proposed program involves the following components: (1) the adoption of a trimester-based educational system;…

This handbook is intended to help instructors and administrators increase enrollments of females in nontraditional vocational training programs and thereby foster sex equity in society. Information is provided that is designed to address the following objectives: increasing nontraditional enrollment, facilitating positive educational experiences…

Ways that states can help improve the academic achievement of minority college students are recommended by the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEOs) Task Force on Minority Student Achievement. Current concerns regarding minority representation in college and minority student achievement are outlined, and implications in the context of…

To improve the existing junior high school's academic and activities programs as well as the school environment, a school superintendent and a middle school consultant teamed with others to effect the transition of a 7-9 grade junior high school plan to a 6-8 grade middle school plan in Augusta, Kansas. The overall plan was basically simple and…

Corporate-based education programs, the response of higher education, and the cooperation between business and higher education are considered. It is suggested that the fact that private industry has moved into the degree-granting arena, even to a small extent, may indicate that higher education needs to be more responsive to the business sector.…