The Common Problems Project (CP2) is an interdisciplinary, problem-based pedagogy that was launched in 2015 by four partner colleges in the State University of New York (SUNY) system (Cortland, Oneonta, Oswego, and Plattsburgh). Since its inception, 100 faculty have participated in CP2 and integrated the pedagogy into 134 courses to implement 47…

This book argues that the international development sector is in crisis which can be mostly sourced to its side-stepping the dominant development question of our age, the neoliberal growth paradigm. It argues that this crisis can be addressed, at least in part, by the sector's re-engagement with the radical development education process that it…

Community colleges enroll almost half of the undergraduates in the United States and provide students the option to earn a degree at a lower cost and offer more flexible class schedules than four-year colleges. However, among first-time, full-time degree-seeking students entering public two-year schools, only about 20 percent graduate with a…

Successful mentors seem to understand and appreciate their mentees, entering their worlds to uncover their unique strengths and capabilities. This sort of empathy and sensitivity goes a long way toward facilitating close relationships, as does the mentee's willingness to fully engage in the mentoring experience. And, since initial resistances may…

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…

This paper attempts to interest principals considering site-based management to examine community education as a model for their implementation efforts. The paper first examines the evolution of the community education movement, focusing on major directions and levels of maturity. Next, the unchanging principles of community education…

Quality circles are groups of people performing similar work that meet regularly to improve their work settings. Since the quality circle is a means for organizational change, it is helpful to place the concept within the literature of organizational change in the field of educational administration. With the use of quality circles, change occurs…

Management drive in both higher education and industry is to offer participation to employees but use such participation to increase management control through identifying weak links in a deliberately stressed work situation. Attacks on faculty unions or senates are all part of management's offensive against any control by labor, and also on…

Site-based management (SBM) is an increasingly popular approach to school restructuring. SBM aims to transfer authority from state agencies and school districts to committees based at schools. To garner a consensus supporting reform, these committees are to be representative of educational and community members. SBM plans are characterized by: (1)…

Principals of smaller and rural secondary schools should think critically about the mix of their goals with staff members' goals. Although very little can be accomplished from the principal's momentum alone, a united group can accomplish great things. Suggestions are given for providing each staff member with meaningful leadership opportunities.…

In 1984, the Utah legislature enacted a career ladder bill encouraging all local districts to develop plans for restructuring teachers' compensation and promotion options. An independent, bipartisan taskforce then created a statewide, decentralized model that increases educators' power, minimizes merit and staff differentiation, and fosters…

A survey of 100 regular classroom teachers found that teacher participation in the mainstreaming process, rather than availability of specific classroom modifications, was an important factor in their accepting elementary-age handicapped students into their classrooms. Of the modifications surveyed, most desired were reduced class size, support…

College administrators have an obligation to educate faculty and staff as consumers of retirement plan services. Employers can face liability if they limit plan participation to overly restrictive investment alternatives. A task force representing employees should be appointed to make vendor selections. (MSE)

This publication examines the situations in which school-based management has worked and, conversely, those in which it failed to meet expectations. It attempts to identify exactly what school-based management (SBM) is and what it is not. Information was obtained from interviews with researchers and practitioners, a review of literature, and a…

Aimed at central office administrators, school board members, staff developers, and state-level policy makers, this document is about restructuring the educational system and the two most prevalent restructuring strategies--school-based management and shared decision making. The document attempts to create awareness of the current system's…