The "State Benchmarks of Quality" is used by a collaborative State Leadership Team(SLT) to assess progress and plan future actions so that Recommended Practices (RPs) are available for providers and families statewide. The Benchmarks are grounded in the science of implementation which bridges the gap between an evidence-based practice…

Part of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) research series titled "Teachers' Time: Collaborating for Learning, Teaching, and Leading," this case study looks at Hillsdale High School, a large, comprehensive high school located in San Mateo, California, a high-tech enclave of Silicon Valley nestled 23 miles…

Good assessment is part of all good learning communities, and this article provides a useful set of best practices for learning community assessment planning: (1) articulating agreed-upon learning community program goals; (2) identifying the purpose of assessment (e.g., summative or formative); (3) employing qualitative and quantitative assessment…

Family involvement in planning and choosing services has become a key intervention concept in developmental disability services. This study (N = 547) modeled patterns of family decision making and assessed benefits to persons with developmental disabilities (DDs) and their family members. A latent profile analysis identified 4 classes that were…

An eight-step decision-making paradigm appropriate for guiding decisions regarding selection of instructional programming alternatives for visually impaired multiply disabled children is presented. Brief case studies illustrate the application of the paradigm. (Author/DB)

This annotated directory provides practitioners and service providers with references to existing programs, tools, and resources that school improvement teams may use to design and implement projects. The directory draws on a variety of products developed or used by state departments of education, school districts, regional educational…

The paper reviews difficulties in special education interdisciplinary team decision making and relates the experiences of one team's efforts to increase intra-team communication. Among problems cited are lack of focus in discussions, unequal levels of participation, and limited abilities to produce recommendations or provide therapy in a truly…

This report reviews the collaborative and evaluative efforts of an Arkansas education renewal consortium comprised of two universities and nine school districts. The reform originated from a smaller project that aimed to establish a broad communication base and systematic planning for meeting student needs. The current project, begun in 1985-86,…

The fifth of six volumes in the "Elementary Principal Series," this booklet clarifies the principal's leadership role in developing an effective school discipline policy that stresses staff involvement and student self-control. As team leader, the principal works with staff to establish standards and insists that they be enforced. A…

The participative model of institutional budgeting is compared briefly with two other common models, and its rationale is discussed. An explanation of nine basic principles of participative budgeting uses examples from a variety of colleges and universities, and concludes with the author's reflections on the approach, based on his experience. (MSE)

Explores the paradoxical role of external leaders of self-managing work teams in a medium-sized manufacturing plant. External leaders' most important behaviors are those facilitating the team's management through self-observation, self-evaluation, and self-reinforcement. Leaders' dominant role is to lead others to lead themselves. Contains 6…

The Preferred Future Worksheet is a planning tool that can assist school members or teams who are dealing with a school problem or issue. The worksheet has been designed to assist in analyzing the current situation, identifying a preferred future, and then creating a plan of action. Introductory material urges heterogeneous group membership and…

The article describes a decision-making model to guide special educators and their colleagues in selecting intervention strategies appropriate for the individual needs of disabled students and applies the model in a case study. (DB)

The typical school system lacks an adequate support system for helping teachers resolve student problems. This paper describes one organizational innovation, the intervention assistance team (IAT), which is a formal group of teachers and other educational personnel who meet at the building level to recommend solutions to specific instructional…

"Collaboration" appears to be a popular trend in business and education as it is discussed more and more frequently in publications. One of the problems associated with collaboration is the lack of clear definition among similar terms such as cooperation, team effort, and partnerships. This paper briefly reviews the literature related to the…