The 33 modules of a Utah district's successful Resilient Youth Curriculum pilot program provide guidelines for initially working through students' protected exteriors to establish trust and facilitate the resiliency-building process. Students then develop ownership of the program by participating in planning, shaping, and implementing the…

Describes the results of an intensive study of Chicago elementary schools on how relational trust among teachers, students, parents, and principals influences school-reform efforts. Relational trust is grounded in respect, personal regard, competence in core role responsibilities, and personal integrity. Describes the benefits of relational trust…

A game-theory approach to illustrating elements of organizational culture can help to achieve desirable information exchange by aligning individual and organizational goals. The game approach should involve the values of permanence, trust, teamwork, and credibility and should be combined with appropriate reward systems and parity in…

Examines intentional invitations that challenge, confront, exhort, and persuade people to change their behaviors. Assumes that the sender controls the "intention" and that the receiver determines the degree of "inviting." Suggests that elements of the invitational model serve as a framework to create acceptable inducements in…

Contrary to assumptions of the supergame model, agents in exchange situations will normally not be perfectly informed about past behavior of their partners. Moreover, they will generally be in a position to choose their partners. The formal model of this article, reputation formation, attempts to take account of these facts. (JBJ)

Factor structure and predictive validity of a measure of vanity-motivated overspending were investigated based on a sample of 2,030 individuals. Confirmatory factor analysis supports the relationship between vanity and poor spending habits, but further refinement of the scale is warranted. (SLD)

Built on 15 years of proven results, IMPACT II-The Teachers Network continues to trust classroom teachers, mobilize them to support school improvement, and refine and extend the teacher leadership agenda. Basically, the network finds good teachers with good ideas, awards them small grants, and connects them with other good teachers. Program…

Neither teachers nor supervisors benefit from poor evaluation methods. Effective evaluation ultimately depends on the presence of open trust and communication within an organization. "Drive-by" shooting evaluations are often poorly disguised attempts to weed out a faculty member by confronting that person with virtually nothing but negative…

Teachers are isolated from their peers by classroom walls and invisible school barriers. Many evaluation systems are outmoded, and few opportunities exist for teachers and principals to stretch their traditional roles. Professional Partnerships, an alternative evaluation process, addresses these common concerns. Teachers establish voluntary…

Explores the relationships among school climate, group openness, group trust, and the implementation of two Kentucky reform initiatives: school-based decision making and nongraded primary classes. Participants included 292 teachers in 13 schools. The Tennessee School Climate Inventory and the Group Openness and Trust Scale were used. Results…

Describes a role-playing simulation of a public meeting where community members are concerned about toxic material dumping. Use of the simulation in postgraduate management courses to emphasize the importance of trust between people and between groups in work situations is discussed. (four references) (LRW)

Outdoor educators in training engaged in a mask-making activity involving partners. One person made the mask and the other provided his or her face as the mold. The anxiety-provoking experience invited an intimate exchange between partners around issues of intimacy, trust, and compassion. (KS)

Examines one high school's implementation of a conflict resolution program, focusing on how the teacher's use of this process affected both teacher and students. Full development of a caring community, including mutual trust and respect, is needed to allow students to become fully self-responsible and empowered. The teacher's philosophy,…

An emancipatory researcher morally committed to reciprocity, or sharing results with study participants, felt extremely uncomfortable when disclosing findings about power definitions to one friend and participant. Clearly, this participant felt betrayed, not emancipated, when findings were applied to her own situation. The researcher learned a…

Staff at a Sandy Hook, Connecticut high school agreed that content standards are fixed learning goals specifying what a student should know and accomplish; performance standards describe student work products (criteria) to meet these goals. Forthright expectations increased students' accountability for quality work, improved grading objectivity,…