Roughly 30 years ago, American educators stood at a crossroads, with a decision to make about the future of education. With their ears ringing of warnings that they were facing a "rising tide of mediocrity" and recognizing unacceptable gaps in achievement between disadvantaged students and others, educators set off down a path of reform…

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…

Like the bestselling first edition, this introductory textbook succinctly presents concepts and theories of educational leadership and organizational behavior and immediately applies them to problems of practice. It includes practical case studies, real-world scenarios and analyses, reflection questions, and straightforward explanations of…

How can a school become a place where all members of the staff are learning, growing, and working to increase student achievement? The answer lies in systems thinking and a focus on continuous improvement, two concepts that can transform staff development from something that people merely tolerate to something that they actively pursue to create…

Offers 20 practical guidelines for colleges and universities embarking on large-scale administrative software initiatives or enterprise resource planning systems. Guidelines are based on the extensive experience of the authors and a series of panel discussions at 1999 professional meetings. (DB)

The process used to engineer and manage major organizational change at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University is described. Issues include defining change, gaining support, organizing to facilitate change, staff development, establishing project strategies, and measuring success. The role of the institution's information…

This comment on EC 600 431 addresses the debate about whether public schools are obligated to serve socially maladjusted children/youth. The paper conceptualizes the debate from a "system restructuring" perspective, which takes into account cultural and social forces and organizational structures, and concludes that antisocial individuals should…

The concept of reengineering is examined as it applies to colleges and universities, with emphasis upon information technology units. Covered are the purposes, principles, and process of reengineering; organizational change; leadership; reengineering the information technology unit; and critical success factors for reengineering higher education.…

The management of innovation in instruction in English as a second language can benefit from the experience and techniques of management in the world of commerce as well as from theories and procedures in education. A systematic approach to the management of innovation emphasizes the importance of clearly defined objectives, evaluation that…

Although models of successful school innovations exist, some reformers are giving up on the public schools. To address this problem, some suggestions for educators who want usable concepts to reform education are presented. The book is intended for the busy professionals devoted to education-teachers, teachers, administrators, curriculum…

This guidebook describes large scale change strategies to develop inclusive approaches to educational policy and practice at the state and district levels. The information was developed under the auspices of a 5-year federally funded project, "The Consortium on Inclusive Schooling Practices," which gathered and synthesized information about…

This counterpoint to a comment (EC 601 662) about the authors' original paper (EC 600 431) argues that some educators' lack of tolerance for pupils who are socially maladjusted is not a valid reason for excluding those students from public schools and that change should be accomplished through system improvement more than through system…

Suggestions for restructuring marketing efforts within colleges and universities stress the institution's primary profit center: student recruitment and retention. Techniques such as continuous quality improvement and implementation of a task force concept are recommended as a way of synergistically employing all the institution's assets and…

Argues that to make improvements in sponsored research administration, it is necessary to understand that: it is a system of interdependent components, and improvement requires systematic, highly integrated methods and a holistic view of the role of research administration in the larger research system. Provides a framework for…

Advances made, and not made, in the education of health professionals in the decades since establishment of the World Health Organization are reviewed. A period of more structured work is now recommended, including more objective definition of goals, real program development, and strategic planning with installation of systems. (MSE)