Superintendents and key executives from 22 California districts were asked to interpret and evaluate 8 restructuring approaches. Viewpoints expressed offer contrasting assessments shaped by the issue's salience and explicitness, interest in performance improvement versus public confidence development, and concern for accountability versus…

Provides a qualitative analysis of the Kentucky school-based performance award program at four elementary and two secondary schools. Teachers were motivated to modify teaching approaches to enhance student performance, but seemed to be experiencing high stress levels. Teachers and principals at the six award-winning schools reported attitudes and…

Early education reformers attempted to take the schools out of politics and turn over educational decision making to professionally trained school administrators. Postpositivist epistemology, however, suggests that all knowledge is political. This article reviews the knowledge/politics linkage, reformulates program evaluation according to a…

Examines how a social humanities (a mix of social science methods and the humanities) view of educational administration might take shape and provides an example of how such a view might be used to improve educational decision making. (Author/IRT)

Reviews empirical studies that have been conducted on program evaluation in large United States school districts. Provides information for use in assessing and improving evaluation studies and systems at the precollege level and in providing direction for further research. Sixty-seven footnotes are appended. (IW)