Data from needs assessment surveys administered to building level administrators, supervisors, and classroom teachers in a large urban school district (42,000 students) before and after a major staff development initiative were analyzed. The primary focus of this study is the impact of the training effort on participants' perceptions of district…

Instructional leadership studies are plentiful but have many shortcomings, including lack of definition of key variables, problems of causality, overrepresentation of exemplary schools, and lack of validity and reliability in research design and implementation. Definitions of "leadership" and "instruction" are needed. There is…

This strategic plan is a synthesis of a number of previous studies on computers in the schools of Alberta, Canada, as well as an assessment of the current situation in the schools, and a recognition of today's difficult fiscal climate. The topics covered include the rationale for integrating microcomputers into school programs; risks and…

Faced with declining enrollments and decreasing resources, institutions of higher education need to consider new ways to conceptualize their purposes and the administrative processes relevant to those purposes. Asserting that the organizational structure of the institution and the learners, educators, and instructional methods interacting in that…

Rural special educators play a very complex role in the provision of services to exceptional learners. Population sparsity and distance factors more or less mandate that most rural special education programs must be cross-categorical, multi-age programs. These same factors, and the fact that support specialists in related areas are nonexistent or…

Designed to be a tool for curriculum and instructional development consistent with assessment of the state objectives in mathematics, this teaching and testing guide provides a summary of the skills that should be considered instructionally and how each objective is tested. Information is included on state objectives for mathematics teachers for…

Designed to be a tool for curriculum and instructional development consistent with assessment of the state objectives in mathematics, this teaching and testing guide provides a summary of the skills that should be considered instructionally and how each objective is tested. Information is included on state objectives for mathematics teachers for…

The implementation and evaluation of a quality daily physical education program into a 14-room elementary school in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, is reported. The implementation process involved the services of a university professor who served as an external change agent and consultant within the project. The consultant made 20 day-long visits…

A major problem in mainstreaming and implementation of Public Law 94-142 has been in establishing evaluation criteria to determine appropriate learning environment placement. Providing appropriate education in the least restrictive environment is primarily the classroom teacher's responsibility, requiring decision-making based on these questions:…

Limitations seen in traditional educational procedures are discussed, and three new directions are suggested as being important emphases for testing. A new perception of measurement in which children have positions along particular concept dimensions or "lines" is discussed in terms of traditional testing notions including variables, item banks…

A great variety and amount of teaching materials and methods related to water quality and other Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concerns have been developed. Program developers/trainers responsible for instructional programs will find in ERIC and the Instructional Resources Information System (IRIS) enough material to organize dozens of…

A strategy for assessing the skill needs of principals and for training them to assume effective instructional leadership is outlined in this paper. A school production model of instructional leadership, supported by research, is presented; the model emphasizes orientation toward specific goals of school productivity and suggests ways to analyze…

To aid in instructional planning, 4,730 certificated and 3,381 classified staff members, and 20,506 parents from schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) were surveyed for their opinions on the district's performance in instruction. Survey results emphasized the importance of the quality of instruction. Certificated and…

In a discussion of revitalizing teacher preparation programs, the questions of what a beginning teacher should know and be able to do in order to function at a fully professional level were considered. A description is presented of Operation PROTEACH activities at the University of Florida in Gainesville. This operation was generated by several…

The development of a field-based approach to the validation of behavioral competencies for young children which reflect the theories of Bloom, Gagne, and Briggs is described in this paper. In Spring 1974, a list of 45 behaviors developed by the author was initially presented to the 50 faculty members of the Athens, Georgia, Child Development…