Professionals in higher education face many challenges. Chief among them are increasing leadership and organizational effectiveness. A variety of approaches can be used to build competencies to increase leadership that results in organizational effectiveness. For the purposes of this article, leadership is "the capacity to influence others by…

During the last 20 years, faculty have faced rising workloads, increasing amounts of top-down accountability and oversight, mounting publication demands, decreasing numbers of tenure-track positions, and an increasingly dismal job market. The current recession has exacerbated the pressure by requiring departmental budget cuts, faculty layoffs,…

Some teaching centers flounder while others flourish. This paper provides concrete suggestions for launching or revitalizing a teaching center, drawn from the experiences of these authors and from principles in the literature. Two center directors worked to apply the principles in the literature to their newly launched or revitalized centers. One…

In the North Middlesex Regional School District, located in north central Massachusetts near the New Hampshire border, teachers knew that the district had urgent challenges. Isolated programs provided rigor to only some students, student achievement scores showed room for improvement, and a recent accreditation review had raised questions about…

Workforce turnover in public child welfare is a national problem. Individual, supervisory, and organizational factors, individually and in combination, account for some of the turnover. Complex, comprehensive interventions are needed to address these several factors and their interactions. A research and development team is field testing one such…

In this article, the author shares her experiences on how she came to know about Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia (PESA). The author opines that PESA could develop more positive interaction with both the Federation of Australasian Philosophy for Children Associations (FAPCA) and the Australian Philosophy Association (APA). She…

Describes the process by which the higher education community, working through national higher education association presidents, regional accreditation commission directors, and college/university presidents, created the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), a new national organization on accrediting. The process illustrates the…

Discusses benefits of mentoring for the novice, the organization, and the mentor. Outlines key principles of successful mentoring: proper preparation; formal training; effective pairing of individuals; organizational support; time for reflection and evaluation; and follow through. (AEF)

A case study describes how a rural local education agency (Allegany County, Maryland) developed a comprehensive staff development system. It presents some contextual and theoretical background information, summarizes the problem as perceived by key actors, and then describes a series of activities resulting in the development of the comprehensive…

Although higher education institutions have undergone substantial change in recent years, the transformation they now face will be revolutionary, not evolutionary, and will occur much faster. Campus administrators and leaders must form strategic alliances to map and guide the course of change. The more the leadership team is engaged in the…

The "Teaching/Learning Project" at Miami-Dade Community College (Florida), a process of dramatic institution-wide change, is described, focusing on the leadership, collaboration, and coordination required to bring about desired changes. Examination of leadership roles include those of the change agent (project director), champion…

A discussion of the professional isolation of college administrators, particularly presidents, presents several views of the phenomenon, examines sources of leadership isolation, and suggests ways of avoiding and removing barriers to it. Focus is on relationships between individuals, group dynamics, and establishing organizational systems that…

A case study of a school district/university partnership for school restructuring is described in this paper. The collaborative effort focused on improving educational quality rather than changing the organizational structure; the goal was to turn all relationships within the school into learning relationships. The partnership focused on the core…

The consultation model is applied to institutions of higher education in an approach that involves staff and/or faculty in administrative policies and decisions and that will promote innovative educational programs and generate productive working relationships among colleagues. It is suggested that in applying organizational development (OD) in…

Introduction of the Total Quality Management approach in college administration can create a new awareness of class distinctions among employees and a new demand for respect, dignity, and equity, all essential characteristics of an effective organization. Such employee empowerment has been effective at the University of Rhode Island. (Author/MSE)