An overview is provided of the development of quality/performance circles at Lakeshore Technical Institute (LTI), Wisconsin, and of the projects undertaken through the quality/performance circle program during its 3-year history. First, background information is provided on the use of quality circles in Japan and the United States, including…

Outcomes of a mainstreaming program implemented in 1984 by the Winooski Public School District (Vermont) are presented in this paper. All children in the community receive their education in general education classrooms and community settings. This paper identifies the evolutionary processes and key organizational and instructional practices that…

This paper describes a process for determining priorities within an extension unit. The process involves pooling the judgment of extension programmers to produce a valid "average" judgment, even where considerable diversity of opinion exists. Discussed first are the stages involved in program priority-setting, the budget-setting process,…

The Staff Development Team of the Columbus City Schools (Nebraska), composed of three teachers and three administrators, emphasizes the need for long-range planning in its design of an inservice model for the school district. Emphasis was placed on identifying and addressing the unique needs of teachers within the school district. The model also…

A description is given of a client-based approach to staff development that emphasizes ongoing professional growth and learning for teachers. The underlying assumptions of the program are that teachers possess important clinical expertise, and that professional learning is an adaptive, heuristic process that is long-term and nonlinear. The program…

The Minnesota Extension Service sought to have adult learners provide local leadership for establishing educational priorities as well as to have them become actively involved in the organizational change and program-planning process. Because it was found that many citizens are unprepared for such leadership roles, the extension service developed…

The Baltimore County Public School system implemented the use of quality circles in its school improvement programs to facilitate change through increased involvement of faculty in decision making. The program increased the productivity and the motivation of the staff in their efforts to strive toward excellence. This paper describes the program…

Teacher empowerment means that teachers participate in policy decisions and have real decision-making responsibilities in the direction of their own professional activities. A description is given of an intensive 2-week, 5 hour per day instructional and workshop summer inservice program. The primary objective of this program was to develop an…

This five-part paper provides an overview of the use of quality circles as a participative management technique in community colleges. Section I offers an introduction to the technique, reviewing the history of quality circles from their development in Japan in the early 1960s to their introduction in American higher education in the early 1980s.…

This paper discusses how the University of Minnesota's College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) is meeting challenges related to the changing nature of professional development programs, focusing on programs featuring a system of shared decision making on matters of design and governance of program elements. After a commentary about CEHD…

Development and implementation processes of the Beginning Educator Support and Training (BEST) program, a teacher evaluation and support system in Connecticut, are described. Purposes of the BEST teacher induction program include facilitating the acquisition of effective teaching behaviors, supporting new teachers, and developing veteran teachers'…

This paper describes a professional development effort designed to revitalize, remotivate and reactivate an experienced staff of teachers. This program creates an organizational culture in which each individual is perceived as a learner and a leader. The program is designed to meet the needs of the teaching staff at any place in their career cycle…

An educational program was developed to assist family groups with adolescent diabetics to improve their problem-solving skills. The program is based on theoretical assumptions and research findings from a study of family problem-solving, which involved nine intact, well-functioning families (five families with a diabetic adolescent and four…

In 1971, a management consulting firm undertook a case study of the Columbia University libraries to improve library performance by reviewing and strengthening the organization and recasting staff composition and deployment patterns. To implement the study's recommendations, an administrative structure was proposed which would emphasize functional…

The Staff Development for School Improvement Program (SDSI) at Eastern Michigan University (EMU) and Wayne State University (WSU) is an exceptional undertaking, designed to promote school improvement through the cooperative actions of EMU and WSU, and public schools. In the program, a university faculty member (facilitator) is assigned to work…