College costs are rising and enrollments are at an all-time high, yet the proportion of students earning degrees has stayed more or less constant for decades. This leads some to conclude that colleges aren't holding up their end of the educational bargain. The question, Do they graduate? is receiving the most scrutiny by state legislatures and by…

Today there has been a shift in the organizational structure in our schools (Murphy and Seashore Louis, 1999). These include educational leadership shifts in roles, relationships, and responsibilities; the alteration of traditional patterns of relationships; and the fact that authority tends to be less hierarchical. Senge (1990) believes systems…

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to identify some determinants of rural-urban disparity in the implementation of decentralised educational management programmes in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach: The study examines how political leadership's disposition to decentralised educational management, allocation of funds and physical…

Purpose: Aims to offer some ways of improving and developing the residents in the dormitory of Tsuyama National College of Technology, Tsuyama, Japan. Design/methodology/approach: Describes how in order to calm the dormitory atmosphere, strict regulations had been adopted since the foundation times for the college, which sometimes led to…

This paper examines and compares the recent emphases in school education and school leadership training in Australia and the state of Tasmania as they relate to the democratic purposes of schools. It finds a strong emphasis on the democratic purposes of schools and congruence between these purposes and the means of achieving them, in respect of…

Democratic leadership processes are desirable for schools not only because they reflect socially mandated ethical commitments to collective process. They can be professionally justified as a necessary approach to leading schools effectively in the increasingly culturally diverse communities and a world transformed by the effects of technology and…

A poorly performing school is like a complex puzzle with its pieces haphazardly scattered. To achieve coherence and improve performance, a principal must have a vision of how the completed puzzle should look. Schools that have effectively implemented instructional models have principals that are puzzle solvers. To fit diverse needs into place and…

This article presents a model for conceptualising learner involvement in online environments. It takes as its starting point the emerging approach to service-user engagement in public-sector change in the United Kingdom. This is focused upon civic inclusion and empowered decision making. In turn this personalisation is related to issues…

In spring 1989, a group of 33 administrators, supervisors, faculty, and staff from El Camino College (ECC) in Torrance, California, attended 10 days of training in Total Quality Management (TQM) tools and techniques. The subsequent implementation of TQM at ECC included the following six phases: (1) establishing a Campus Commitment to Excellence…

The process of school-empowerment ultimately may be intellectual: an awareness and understanding by schools as unique collective learning communities that new school structures, roles, and relationships are necessary in the first place. First, preliminary results from field studies of schools undergoing restructuring are used to show that school…

This paper describes the Duke University Libraries' transition in early 1994 from its traditional hierarchical model to an organization emphasizing Total Quality Management (TQM) concepts such as self-managing teams and continuous improvement. Existing conditions at the libraries that played a role in the decision to switch included: (1) rising…

The Chicago (Illinois) School Reform Act of 1988 set in motion a chain of reform efforts that have been the subject of considerable study. The plan emphasizes returning control of the schools to parents and the community through school-based management and local school councils. This book reports on studies of the implementation of the reform…

A qualitative study was undertaken to examine similarities and differences in the leadership styles of two successful private liberal arts college presidents and two successful public two-year college presidents. During site visits, a series of semi-structured, open-ended interviews were conducted with the president, senior staff and faculty,…

To develop a college-wide resolution process for dealing with student concerns, Burlington County College, in New Jersey, undertook a planning effort involving the faculty, student, staff, and administrator senates in the college's governance system. Rather than appoint an administrator to lead the project, a member of the staff senate was…

Intended to stimulate improvements in shared governance in the California Community Colleges, this report outlines the evolution and current structures of shared governance at the local and system levels and provides recommendations for change to better serve the public interest. Following a preface, chapter 1 describes the evolution of shared…