Analyzes findings of a 1984 teacher attitude survey (from Dade County, Florida) showing declining job satisfaction and extrinsic rewards for a more experienced, better-educated work force than 20 years ago. Examines factors damaging teacher status, including outmoded administrative structures limiting teacher participation. Suggests sharing and…

Discusses the results of a national survey of secondary school principals in Ireland undertaken to determine (1) what curriculum developments have taken place at central and local levels, and (2) what variables might best explain and predict involvement in school-based or decentralized approach to curriculum development. (RM)

This digest examines a completed pilot program in performance-driven budgeting (PDB) in the New York City public-school system. PDB links school-level budgeting and school planning; that is, decisions about resources must be aligned with school-developed instructional-improvement plans. The digest highlights how PDB came about; its primary goal;…

This book presents the accounts of successful headteachers (principals) in primary and secondary schools in England and Wales. It contains the following 14 articles: "Strategic Management in an Infant School" (Angela Bird; Les Bell); "Building the Vision: A TQM Approach" (Gwenn Brockley; Ray Moorcroft); "The Culture of…

This paper discusses critical thinking and ways education leaders can apply it to problems in educational settings. It forwards a model of critical thinking, called TC2, designed by The Critical Thinking Consortium, a group of scholars, teachers, and educational leaders in British Columbia, Canada. The model addresses four interrelated components…

Small rural schools have always had an important place in the educational life of New Zealand, but they have faced a number of challenges in the past decade. These challenges include difficulty in attracting and retaining high quality teachers, changing expectations of parents, decreasing rural population, and the impact of national educational…

This paper addresses educational reform centering on teacher participation and leadership. Although schools have developed new mission statements and implemented strategic planning and site-based management in recent years, most schools are not set up to accept teachers in leadership roles. The literature suggests that our "new" schools…

When the new government of the Australian state of Victoria was elected in 1992, it began the most radical change to an education system in the history of the country, introducing the Schools of the Future initiative. The underlying rationale, which has its roots in 20 years of experience in Victoria, is that quality outcomes of schooling can only…

These proceedings are divided into two sections that explore collaboration between schools and communities. In Part I, the first four papers, analytic frameworks are described that provide different perspectives on collaboration. In Part II, descriptions of concrete programs and advice for developing better school-community relations are offered.…

State departments of education (SDEs) play a pivotal role in the implementation of state-level school reform. This role is examined using two models of statewide school reform in Kentucky and Vermont. How the departments implemented their plans and how such implementation affected the internal dynamics of the departments, as well as the external…

This paper explores how a policy, that itself becomes the object of analysis, can be embedded within a wider nexus of policies that interact with it, thus affecting the course of its implementation. The research for the paper was built on a pilot study of a merger among three schools. The merger demonstrated how policies originating from the…

The transition of the Czech school system from a centralized system to one where schools enjoy greater autonomy has not been smooth. Educators and administrators need to learn new skills in interacting with parents, community, and each other in an educational system that is becoming more decentralized. Several surveys were conducted to…

This paper reports on a study that investigated how local school board chairs (N=16) in North Carolina framed school restructuring. It examines major problems awaiting to be addressed in public education and discusses what board members can do to create the conditions under which schools help students become productive citizens. Data collected…

Every school must have the power and responsibility to select and design its own particulars. Unfortunately, the existing system is not designed to support "oddball" entities. Small, self-governing schools of choice could flourish in an exemplary, accountable manner, if we built the system for them and changed our mindsets about the…

Offers a detailed discussion of school-level data collection on educational expenditures and research allocations. Describes some implications of this trend for school business administrators. Suggests that the long-term benefits of these new data far outweigh the short-term costs of their collection. (12 references) (MLF)