Materials are provided for a 2- to 3-day workshop for different school constituencies to establish direction, focus, and long-range goals for a school system. The workshop is also intended to help clarify and foster a working relationship between the board of education and the administrative staff that will include definition of individual roles…

A guide for college presidents is presented that reviews briefly the significant research on leadership and power and discusses each presidential constituency. Attention is directed to the uses and limits of the following types of power in many daily situations: coercive, reward, legitimate, expert, and charismatic. Of these types of power, it is…

To explore themes previously identified among successful schools from the perspective of the school district, this report organizes its discussion of the nine themes developed by T.B. Corcoran and B.L. Wilson (1986) around the role of the central office administration and the ways in which it might cooperate with schools in supporting secondary…

This workbook is intended to help the school board and superintendent tailor a performance appraisal system to suit their own needs. It consists of ten separate exercises that guide the board and superintendent through the planning and decision-making that must precede successful performance appraisal. The workbook contains exercises through which…

Designed as a discussion guide for administrators and school board members, this paper deals with the issue of "fair process" for school administrators. Fair process is defined as the right to be supplied with fair notice, probable causes, opportunity for improvement, and right to appeal prior to dismissal, nonrenewal, or demotion. The…

This handbook is designed as an informational aid for community college governing board members. Each of its seven chapters discusses a particualr topic related to the trustee role and is appended by supportive or illustrative materials. Chapter I outlines major trustee responsibilities and is followed by a sample college mission statement,…

The National Association of Secondary-School Principals devotes this entire issue of "The Bulletin" to the smaller secondary school. Included are articles dealing with the relationship of intermediate units and small high schools, teaching opportunities and demands in smaller secondary schools, a nongraded program, new technology, curriculum…

This paper contains two sections, each with a different author, that address the need to increase the effective role of school boards in public school governance. Section 1, by David K. Wiles, argues that most school boards are becoming increasingly irrelevant in educational policymaking and offers a radical alternative to the present arrangement…

A number of school divisions have entered year-round education without fully realizing the effects of such a program on the family and the community. Family vacations, child care, and routine living are disrupted by year-round educational programs. Community recreational facilities, church activities, public service programs, police work, and…

An earlier report examined the relationship of school system innovativeness to selected dimensions of interpersonal behavior in eight school systems as revealed through data collected in 1967. The major implication of this study suggested that the climate of the schools might be changed to make them more receptive to innovation from within or from…

The challenges facing governing boards today have never been greater. Financial constraints, as well as legal questions, increases in teacher militancy, collective bargaining, affirmative action, and other thorny issues, make the job of the trustee increasingly complex. The 16 articles in this sourcebook examine the role of the community college…

Suggestions are made for returning federal aid programs to their original goal of improving access to education, including expansion of some programs, simplification and increased flexibility in the system, and improved information dissemination. The roles of trustees and presidents in forming and carrying out institutional policy are discussed.…

Many higher education leaders are adopting measures that may contribute to better governance, but unless they also look at how the phenomenon of culture shapes the way their board members behave as a group, they will miss the forest for the trees. The best trustees and presidents grasp the paradox of assembling a number of highly competent…

This report describes a study of the effects of environmental complexity on managers of semipublic organizations, in particular, school principals. Although some previous empirical studies do estimate relationships between principals' management activities and individual elements of schools' immediate organizational contexts, researchers have yet…

It is suggested that the most important difference between public and private colleges, from the president's perspective, is the nature of the board of trustees. Private boards are seen as more cohesive, proceeding with more civility, and better advocates for their institutions, attributable to differences in membership, legal constraints, size,…