In a study of Ontario, Canada's province-wide Primary Class Size Reduction (PCS) Initiative, school districts' ability to direct and support schools was related to their experience with planning and monitoring, interest in innovation, and its human and fiscal resource base. Districts with greater "resource capacity" were able to…

Although the use of clickers and peer discussion is becoming common in large-lecture undergraduate biology courses, their use is limited in small-enrollment seminar-style courses. To investigate whether facilitating peer discussion with clickers would add value to a small-enrollment seminar-style course, we evaluated their usefulness in an…

The new institutionalism predicts that professionalism is a key element of organizations' ability to be seen as legitimate. Emphasizing the professionalism and formal credentials of its members lends legitimacy to the organization, protecting it from scrutiny. What happens when this norm of professionalism is absent? How do schools legitimate…

Explores the effects of California's Class Size Reduction Initiative on district leaders, examines initial district-level implementation efforts, investigates how district implementation proceeded, and analyzes leaders' perceptions of benefits and challenges. Districts that implemented the program smoothly operated at a businesslike speed,…