To best train and support school leaders in their evolving roles, they require high-quality preparation and in-service pipelines that both address the changing demands on their positions and acknowledge the cascading effects that well-prepared leaders have on both student outcomes and in school culture and retention. Including school leaders in…

Understanding both process and context is essential to resolving problems. This paper articulates the decision seminar model, a rational problem-solving technique, and uses a hypothetical policy problem to show how various stages of the model might be applied to school issues. Process facilitates problem definition, inhibits fragmentation, and…

All local education authorities (school districts) should have a policy for management development. All staff who manage the work of other adults in school should receive the appropriate training as an entitlement; for many of the teachers involved the training should be school-based. Evaluation of training is also important and deserves greater…

A training and development curriculum for scientific research managers is discussed. Four management modules linked to a typical career profile are described: research management, subject matter management, functional program management, and policy and program management. (MSE)

The objective of the African Capacity Building Initiative is to build and strengthen local capabilities for policy analysis and development management in Sub-Saharan Africa. This report examines the nature and magnitude of the problem, which basically consists of a shortage of development management skills combined with weakness in the area of…

The Task Force on School Leadership and Management was charged with examining incentives that states can develop to encourage effective management at the district and school leadership level. Four papers are presented in this report: (1) "School Leadership and Management" (Cindy K. Currence); (2) "A Policymaker's Guide to Improving…

For years, experts have said that the way to get things done is to schedule them on the calendar and to find a partner to join in the effort. Following this advice, the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) joined the Leadership Initiative at WestEd in inviting superintendents and district teams to think through improving…

The Netherlands has an effective training system for secondary school administrators, in spite of an outwardly complex and compartmentalized education system. Nearly one-third of the schools are Roman Catholic, one-third Protestant, and one-third run by municipalities and by private boards. There is increasing emphasis on the growing complexity of…

This paper provides a description of the Program Manager Workshop, a skill-based management training workshop for managers of group homes. The workshop is an extension of the Teaching-Family Model of Community Based Care, a model used in residential treatment homes for persons experiencing problems such as delinquency, retardation, mental illness,…

The State Early Childhood Policy Leadership Forum seeks to build state capacity to develop and strengthen statewide, cross-system early childhood policies and programs. The Forum provides intense leadership retreats, professional development opportunities, policy discussions, and one-on-one technical assistance for individuals who are leading…

Beginning with a definition of open learning as flexible learning systems in which people study how, when, and where it suits them, this summary reports on activities of the Council of Educational Technology (CET) that are designed to promote open learning systems; explains different forms of open learning systems, such as flexistudy, learning by…

The administrative problems of public sector research programs in developing nations include lack of major public policies and too many minor ones, inadequate or haphazard planning, budgetary constraints, inadequate evaluation and monitoring, inadequate or obsolete equipment and facilities, trained manpower shortages, and limited motivation. (MSE)

The 1979 report of a working group of the World Health Organization (WHO) in cooperation with the West German government, on the design of training in health planning and management in the European region is presented. The working group consisted of 15 temporary advisers from 11 countries, in addition to WHO staff and a consultant. The group was…

Given the discrepancies between the format of graduate programs in educational administration and the actual demands of the administrative work setting, instructors should refocus instruction to bridge the gap between administrative theory and practice. This document describes one instructor's use of an interactive experiential learning activity…

This brochure, part of a series about good practices in vocational training in the European Union, describes 12 projects that use distance learning to promote lifelong learning in adults. The projects and their countries of origin are as follows: (1) 3D Project, training in the use of IT tools for 3D simulation and animation and practical…