Based on recent school effectiveness literature, this paper suggests local policies to stimulate and facilitate school reform. After discussing the goals of the effective schools movement and briefly reviewing the literature, it presents a two-phase model for school improvement projects, based on the premise that a school's culture primarily…

This paper describes the complex environment of federal, state, and independent agencies within which school districts operate, and suggests how these agencies, with their demands and resources, can contribute to school improvement when local decision-makers use them for this purpose. Features of these external governance and support systems are…

The effects of teaching on teachers was investigated. Interviews with female elementary school teachers were conducted on a bi-weekly basis during 2 years of data collection. An analysis was made of the relationship between teachers' work experiences over the course of their careers within specific institutional structures, and their perceptions…

The literature was studied to investigate some of the significant factors that affect participation of older persons (aged 60 and over) in educational programs. Focuses of the literature review were economic and geographic background; educational gerontology; the learning environment; physical, physiological and psychological characteristics; and…

This study of recent educational innovation in seven different countries aims to provide an understanding of how innovation and reform can be made to work by focusing on process. Chapter 1 discusses common concerns such as national identity, as well as methodological problems. Chapters 2 and 3 describe the contrastive styles of educational…

Past research and experience have documented considerable variation in what is learned and applied in staff inservice efforts, even for participants in the same workshop. For a study which set out to explain such variation, pre- and post-workshop questionnaires were completed by 349 staff (three-fourths of whom were teachers) who participated in…

This paper reports the results of the final stage of a 30 month study of knowledge use in staff-initiated inservice workshops. In earlier stages of this study, knowledge acquisition, use, and impact correlated with multiple sets of participant, workshop, school, and community characteristics. Based on those results, a refined model was developed…

This paper synthesizes data from two studies of educational change to describe how school contextual factors influenced teacher involvement and how principals reduced those influences. The first study, involving 14 schools representing a mixture of levels and types of areas served, began in 1979 and spanned 3 school years; the second study, which…

This report on the educational concerns of Hispanic Americans is part of a four-part study of minority education in the United States by the National Education Association (NEA). Data were gathered from site visits to a wide variety of urban schools and programs, and from the testimony of representatives of community organizations, the U.S. Bureau…

This publication is a series of role guides written by appropriate role group representatives that address the issues of effective schooling from the perspectives of six different role groups. The publication outlines how the following six key role groups might contribute to schools that are striving to become academically effective for all…

This analysis of the changing balance in who controls the schools contends that local authorities have been slowly losing authority to the states. Moreover, within the local districts, the central offices are assuming more control in such matters as curriculum content and state testing programs. The paper begins with an overview of recent…

This paper focuses on the transition to military rule in Brazil (1964), Uruguay (1973), Chile (1973), and Argentina (1976) and examines the argument that the disciplines which lend themselves to analysis of the social order, such as the social sciences and humanities, are most often the target of political repression. Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile…

This book discusses practical ways to improve a school's climate by increasing both productivity and satisfaction concurrently. Chapter 1, "Defining School Climate," identifies the overarching goals of school climate improvement, the basic human needs that school climate must address, the factors that make up a school's climate and…

Purposes of this study were: (1) to examine patterns of implementation of an innovative educational program with a built-in staff development component over a period of three years; (2) to compare patterns of implementation of the Adaptive Learning Environments Model's (ALEM) three types of teaching skills, including generic, adaptive, and program…

The number of dropouts is increasing and is particularly high in urban areas and among minority students. Dropouts earn less over their lifetimes, are in poorer health, and do not have the technological skills needed for newly-developing jobs. The federal government, the private sector, and educators have made serious commitments to bring down the…