Schools are learning organisations. They continuously strive to do better for the children and young people in their charge. In doing so, they try new things, seek to learn from those experiences, and work to adopt and embed the practices that work best. Implementation is a key aspect of what schools do to improve, and yet it is a domain of school…

Action Research on Change in Schools (ARCS) was a two-year collaborative action research project involving two groups of middle/junior high school teachers, one in Michigan and one in New Hampshire. While the purpose of the project for the university researchers was to examine individual change within the framework of collaborative action…

States, school districts, and schools across the country are increasingly implementing multi-tier systems of support (MTSS) to improve outcomes for all students. Kansas is no exception. The Kansas MTSS is designed to improve outcomes for all students by instituting system-level change across the classroom, school, district, and state. Such…

This paper describes the development and implementation of an evaluation system for a pediatric residency program to meet federal grant monitoring requirements. Continuous communication and collaboration with program participants characterized this naturalistic formative evaluation. Concerns identified through initial interviews of the 15…

Program improvement activities can be classified into four categories based on the source of the impetus and the locus of the change agent: systematic, symbolic, opportunistic, and pragmatic. This paper (1) describes the various approaches to implementing Chapter 1 program improvement activities at the state and local district levels in 13 western…

These proceedings consist of the papers presented at a conference on vocational education research in the 1980s. The first group of papers deals with various approaches to, and priorities for, vocational education research in the 1980s. Discussed in the next group of papers are national perspectives on research programming. Following this group…

The National Center for Research in Vocational Education (NCRVE) was consulted to improve the formative evaluation design for the Principles of Technology (PT) curriculum materials developed by the Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD) and the Agency for Instructional Technology (AIT). Because the NCRVE entered the formative…

The goal of college preparation programs is to help students, particularly underrepresented students of color, to enroll and succeed in college. While many programs focus on strengthening students' math and reading skills, familiarizing them with college entrance exams, and demystifying the college admissions process, there are few guidelines for…

This paper identifies six core principles and recommends strategies that will foster high academic achievement, close the achievement gap, and promote civic and personal growth among all high-school-age youth in the high schools and communities. At the center of the framework is the Alliance's belief that the purpose of high school is to ensure…

Many feel that emotional intensity or attitude toward science and science teaching influences the teaching of science. As a means for changing attitude toward science and science teaching, preservice science education and inservice science education have been recommended. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a yearlong…

A case study approach was used to evaluate the statewide reading improvement project in Louisiana called Special Plan Upgrading Reading (SPUR). SPUR emphasized a change agent approach by providing Technical Assistants and small stipends (approximately $5,000) to participating school districts. During the first two years of the evaluation,…

The development of continuing education programs for school administrators has traditionally relied on the formal survey and the utilization of small samples of practicing administrators to provide direction to program planners in designing inservice activities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility, validity, and…

To illustrate the theoretical dynamics involved in analysis of the process of "metasensing," this paper investigates the language of 22 elementary school principals and their strategic actions during school improvement programs. The study's grounded theory approach frames the principals'"epistemology of practice"--thereby…

The role of the elementary school principal is critical in determining school effectiveness. This study analyzes the thinking and language of 22 "effective change" elementary school principals to discover common patterns in decisionmaking processes. The method of grounded theory delineates implicit theories principals use to make…

A collaborative approach to solving school problems in Maryland emphasizes planned change through organization development processes. Organization development, a process of planned improvement in overall functioning, strives for sustained capacity in problem-solving by communication, goal-setting, conflict resolution, and commitment. The…