Discusses the varying effects of economic and social conditions (particularly affluence, educational attainment, and immigration) on the development of U.S. art museums in 1869-99, 1900-30, and 1931-59. Suggests that museum legitimacy transmits the effects of most economic and social variables. Contains 63 references. (SV)

Nursing education administrators (275 of 401 responded) considered available resources adequate and thought they had moderate success in securing them. Specialized institutions perceived a greater degree of richness in resources and more success. There were no differences in perception of system openness and community interaction. (SK)

A qualitative study of faculty, distance education program administrators, and chief academic officers at four research universities found that distance education has marginal status, is not highly valued or well rewarded, and is not highly related to promotion and tenure. The study concluded that institutional commitment to distance education…

University teachers (N=118) in Sweden assessed their organization on 17 dimensions. Two dimensions, creativity and productivity, were regarded as consequences of organizational conditions. Factor analysis yielded five factors: creativity, productivity, sufficient resources, and organizational climate. Productivity was related to variables of human…

Stewardship, defined in terms of shared beliefs, social structure, and organizational routines, was explored using a comparative case study approach to determine how conditions in the institutional and task environments and internal organizational characteristics influence the nature of the stewardship process in five professional schools at the…

Previous research has indicated significant variation between schools in the proportion of their students who go on to higher education. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the specific school characteristics influencing application and entry to tertiary education. This paper sets out to analyse the individual and school factors…

Teaching economic geography outside Anglo-American countries presents a particular pedagogical challenge, as theories and concepts developed in these countries might not be directly applicable outside their intellectual and national contexts. In this paper, the authors show how the peculiar institutional and development environments in China and…

Civic responsibility as an ideal of higher education is rarely considered through a cultural and theoretical lens. Swidler's (1986, "American Sociological Review", 51: 273-286) framework linking ideology, culture and action was used in this ethnographic study of a research university (a) to understand dominant institutional beliefs about civic…

A study examined the influence of differences in school district organization on internal school organizational processes that are central to reform strategies, such as teacher cooperation and instructional leadership. Data were obtained from interviews conducted with the principals of 98 Tennessee elementary schools that participated in the…

The Coordinated Approach to Investigations and Information-Sharing (CAIIS) Project conducted research to clarify roles and responsibilities for investigating child abuse and neglect in 24-hour facilities. The goal of the project was to develop, refine, and disseminate model guidelines for investigating institutional child abuse and neglect reports…

Research indicates that the characteristics of schools can affect student performance. School improvement reforms depend on the involvement of individual teachers and administrators, but research also suggests that individuals are more likely to commit themselves to change when a positive, supportive change environment pervades the entire…

Reported are the results of a questionnaire mailed to all public supported institutions for the mentally retarded regarding the physical arrangement of buildings housing the various IQ levels. (DB)

Models of organizational structures developed through the study of commercial organizations are not necessarily applicable to educational organizations. Technical organizations such as factories act to regulate the flow of their processes and products and, thus, to buffer them from external forces. Institutional organizations such as schools or…