The current structure of governance and decision making in Swedish higher education and the effects of recent national reform on perceived and actual autonomy at the central, regional, and local levels are discussed. An initial desire for more decentralized decision making has turned to increasing demand for more guidance by central organizations.…

School leaders are finding that business as usual is no longer an option. This fastback provides a framework for thinking about the multiple demands of school leadership, suggesting that the different models of leadership can be reconciled by considering them to be complementary strategies. The fastback describes the hierarchical,…

The executive board of the college or university governing board has the central purpose of strengthening the board's performance by helping it function efficiently and effectively. Because the executive committee can undermine trustee morale by abusing its authority, the entire governing board must decide the extent of the powers delegated to the…

All too often, rhetoric has become the guide for change, rather than philosophical assumptions and value systems. This paper presents three organizational constructs to assist schools in successfully transforming their work cultures into learning organizations. The three components include systems thinking and quality concepts, social…

This paper proposed some limitations on "quantitative-only" research focusing on Puerto Rican poverty in the United States. An overreliance on quantitative data may not allow for a full understanding and awareness of the nature and maintenance of poverty in Puerto Rican communities in the United States. An understanding of Puerto Rican…

A personal transformation group therapy program was designed to help Saudi women function more effectively in their daily lives. The major cognitive idea of these groups was to enable women to better understand their thinking patterns so that they could learn techniques to change. Personal transformation group topics included: Self-Esteem;…

Based on a survey of superintendents from 100 of the nation's largest urban and ex-urban districts and on interviews with 40 large-district superintendents, this study finds that a majority of urban school superintendents believe that their ability to implement reform in order to raise academic achievement is frustrated by district governance. The…

Pennsylvania's Philadelphia School District implemented an action plan that mandated establishment of small learning communities (SLCs) in all schools. SLCs were intended to increase teacher professionalism and effectiveness by bringing decision making power to the local level. This paper examines how two elementary schools' SLCs implemented…

The Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI) is being implemented in Alberta school jurisdictions and charter schools in the 2000-01 school year. While the "Framework for the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement," December 1999, provides the AISI background, goals, principles, considerations, clarifications, and…

This report explores the insights and experiences of activists who build strong constituencies to reform public schools. It presents data from a 2-year study involving the seven primary constituency and coalition building grantees of the Ford Foundation's Constituency Building for Public School Reform Initiative. Data were collected from 14…

This paper discusses dynamics of educational systems that can influence professional development. It begins by suggesting that adjusting education systems to support sustained, high-quality professional development for all teachers can be compared to developing dynamic, passionate orchestras whose productions touch their audiences and bring joy…

This study examined the effects of an intervention model on second-grade students who exhibited inappropriate behaviors toward authority figures. Participating in the study were 20 second graders (7 females and 13 males) from 1 classroom in a rural northeast Tennessee school district. Data were collected by means of observation of five targeted…

Takes a brief but hard look at each of the Demonstration Districts involving the school decentralization experiment in New York City, in order to understand the present chaotic situation. Only a well-informed, aroused citizenry is considered to be able to save the children from destruction at the hands of the school system. (DM)

An interview with the chairmen of the Senate's Select Committee on Equal Educational Opportunity in the months of hearings on Southern school desegregation. (JM)

Faculty surveys of the honorific academies and of American professors indicate that the former are more liberal politically than the latter, including those at the most distinguished institutions. Theories of intellectual creativity and political socialization are applied to these findings. Available from Elsevier Publishing, 52 Vanderbilt Avenue,…