In her full essay exploring the Leadership standard in "Reach the Highest Standard in Professional Learning: Leadership," author Karen Seashore Louis offers keen insights into the question of how leaders affect the learning of other adults in a school. She writes particularly about how "school leaders can create a school culture in…

In a recent 334-page report, "Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning," authors Kyla Walstrom, Karen Seashore Louis, Kenneth Leithwood, and Stephen Anderson discuss findings from the Learning from Leadership study. This study was designed to identify and describe successful educational leadership and to explain how such leadership at…

A four-year study of urban high school renewal found that the leadership and management of change meant dealing with uncertainty, complexity, turbulence, and the cussedness of many different people. This article discusses four study topics (context, vision building, resources, and problem coping), explores will and skill issues, and provides…

This report presents a description of findings from a study of the Research and Development Utilization Program (RDU), which emphasizes a research-based approach to local school improvement. The major objectives of the report are to describe the similarities and differences that exist among the seven projects or schools of the RDU program, to…

A model of organizational change is applied to long-term planning at the University of Minnesota. Results suggest that, although planning began in the 1970s, the 1980s saw a model change that increased centralization in strategic orientation and a reduction in size and programs. Implications for organizational research are examined. (Author/MSE)

This article argues that the U.S. dissemination system in education is unresponsive to organizational improvement needs, and that development of this bias is exacerbated by political, organizational, and programmatic thrusts in federal agencies. It is suggested that systems in the Netherlands and Denmark could provide useful models for adapting…

This article addresses conflicting statements about the impact of accountability policies in which some argue that testing undermines good teaching, while others claim that it stimulates improvement. The authors begin with the assumption that it is important to explore implementers' cognitive perspectives in order to understand a policy's effects.…

Prepared to assist teachers who are using the case in class discussion, this case study describes a suburban, college-preparatory high school located in the pseudonymously named "Northwood," a midwestern "rust belt" city characterized by rapidly shifting demographics and a growing commercial tax base. Although the city is now…