Grouping for instruction has characteristics that make existing structures, habits, and attitudes resistant to change. This case study accordingly describes a school district located 40 miles south of Chicago in which attempts were made to change attitudes about, and the practice of, instructional grouping over a 3-year period. Two ways are…

Over a three-year period every school system in Maryland received State Department of Education support in putting into practice research on effective teaching, using strategies and processes from the research on effective staff development and planned change. This paper summarizes some of the findings of an intensive study of this program, School…

This paper provides school district administrators with a structured method for developing school programs aimed at reducing the risk of adolescent dropout. The methodology encompasses problem definition, fact finding, mission management, overcoming inertia, cohering programs tied to theory, feasible goal-setting, and normative personnel…

This nine-part literature review examines ways in which community college administrators are dealing with the rapidly changing social, political, and educational environment. Part I examines some of the external pressures placed on community colleges to change both policy and programs, and argues against reactive responses to these changes. Part…

Channel management, a concept developed in marketing to refer to the process by which a product is moved from production to consumption, uses a channel of distribution operating at several levels, each responsible for one or more of the activities of moving the product forward to the consumer. The function of channel management is to select the…

Creative actions toward preventing global unemployment seek to (1) uncover the painful realities of joblessness, (2) design better models for fruitful discourse and action, (3) climb the "commanding policy heights" of moral vision, (4) move from autocratic to democratic corporatism, (5) uncover the kind of information that may hold power…

This handbook is intended to illustrate to students that they are not alone in their fear of tests and to help students reduce their own test anxiety. The handbook is a compilation of writings contributed by students who attended an adult basic education (ABE) program to prepare teenage and adult students to take the General Educational…

San Juan School District, a rural school district in the southeast corner of Utah, implemented the Rural Futures Development (RFD) Strategy program to develop greater public involvement in the education process. Geographically one of the largest school districts (approximately 8,000 square miles) in the U.S., San Juan serves Anglos who mainly live…

Seven papers in Part III of "Studies in Curriculum Decision Making" bring forward views on improving curriculum decision making. The first paper outlines actions that may be taken to strengthen Ministry of Education guidelines. In the second paper, the teacher's role in curriculum planning is examined. The teacher as a user of research,…

This document presents a synthesis of research and theories used as background for a study designed to identify racist behaviors and to observe change in racist behaviors resulting from an intervention. The first chapter defines racism and discusses problems in creating a paradigm for the study of behavioral change. The second chapter contains a…

Over a 15-year period the use of computer technology in the Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools increased dramatically, expanding from a small operation supporting the finance department to a full system with applications in all aspects of administration at the central office and local school levels as well as in instruction. Four of the…

Researchers using a combination of principal logs, on-site observation, face-to-face interviews, and regularly scheduled telephone interviews documented how principals intervene in the management of school change on both a day-to-day and a year-long basis. The data are from the Principal-Teacher Interaction Study conducted at the Austin campus of…

The assumptions individuals make about their personal behaviors have received extensive attention, particularly the concepts of locus of control and self-efficacy. An additional concept, change orientation, refers to assumptions about how to change personal behavior. Approximately 180 subjects ranging from college freshmen to graduate students…

Retrieval bargaining is the process of removing, through collective bargaining, benefits won by employees in previous negotiations. This document treats the retrieval bargaining process, explaining first the factors that could make such cutback management techniques necessary in the public sector, including federal funding reductions, inflationary…

A review of school effectiveness literature is presented in this paper. Research studies and other literature on this topic are examined, including case studies, surveys and evaluations, studies of program implementations, and organizational theories of schools and other institutions. Emphasis is given to organizational theories and findings…