This study focuses on the profile of principals who seem to be able to shape the school culture to best encourage teaching and learning. Data from a representative sample of primary schools (N = 46) were collected through questionnaires for principals and for teachers (N = 700) and semi-structured interviews with the principals. Functioning,…

Three major professional associations for research administrators (National Conference on the Administration of Research, National Council of University Research Administrators, and Society of Research Administrators) are described and compared in terms of their objectives, group membership, and activities. The three are seen to serve different…

The goal of this comparative study was to explore the online interactions among members of two learning communities. The two cases examined two different cohorts in the same professional preparation program for school principals and administrators: a distance-learning cohort and an onsite university-district partnership cohort in which online…

A former college teacher's eight-year experience in the business world taught him valuable lessons about audience awareness, risk taking, honoring social and political differences, teamwork, civility within an organization, preservation of standards under duress, and humane and productive use of evaluative information. (MSE)

A group of 81 primary school teachers enrolled in a Bachelor of Education conversion program in Australia was surveyed in 1985 and a similar group of 55 was surveyed in 1987 to compare the numbers and variety of microcomputers purchased and how teachers used them. This study suggests that, because political changes unexpectedly brought reduced…

This study examined workplace correlates (departmental and college) of scholarly performance in 296 college faculty members from 67 schools of pharmacy in the United States. The study estimated a model of 3-year scholarly performance through the exploration of six sets of correlates: demographic; affiliation; collaboration; research experiences…

To determine if women or men have lower aspiration levels for school administrative positions, male and female administrative certificate holders were asked for their ultimate career goal. The most frequent response was superintendent (36 percent), followed by elementary principal, out of education, and professor (12 percent for each choice). The…

This paper reports on a longitudinal study of four urban schools that sought to develop professional community as part of a restructuring process. The study focuses on how restructuring affected teachers' work over a 3-year period. It reports that the absence of structural conditions can impede the growth of professional community; however, their…

In this paper, a companion piece to "Strategic Designs: Lessons from Leading Edge Small Urban High Schools" (ED544382), the authors analyze small high school spending in three urban districts--Baltimore City, Boston, and Chicago--to understand whether it is higher than in larger schools; if it is, why it is different; and the policy…

A study in a new university investigated the relative importance of six factors (job security/promotion, availability of research resources, contribution to university mission, personal stimulation/challenge, colleague relationship, and professional recognition/development) on research commitment and productivity. Discipline, rank, and gender were…

This document provides guidelines for designing mentoring programs to facilitate the professional development of adult basic education (ABE) and English-as-a-second-language (ESL) instructors. Chapter 1 discusses the rationale behind mentoring in ABE programs. Special attention is paid to the following topics: how mentoring fits with adult…