How important is a high-quality curriculum? A school without a quality curriculum is like a car without an engine--neither goes anywhere. One responsibility of a school administrator is to ensure that quality curriculum is designed, adopted, and implemented. The No Child Left Behind act (NCLB) has focused the attention of an entire nation on the…

To be effective instructional leaders, principals and assistant principals need to know what's new in secondary school curricula. Education associations representing 14 subject areas outline the current focus, likely trends through 1990, and new practices in their respective disciplines. (MLH)

The principal must analyze curriculum content and instructional methods and correlate these with instructional objectives and outcomes. (JM)

Presents an Instructional Development model based on the concept of a personalized competency based self-paced system of instruction which allows for the shifting relationship between instruction and management for educational outcomes. Guidelines are provided for planning curriculum projects, learning processes, administrative duties, learning…

Claims that, in the rush to reform schools in response to criticism, certain aspects of curriculum development and instructional improvement are being ignored. Discusses six resulting problematic aspects of school reform and concludes that decisions concerning reform are casually and quickly made and that a comprehensive conceptual framework is…

After listing 20 desirable character traits for the principal, the authors detail more than 50 functions and competencies of the principal in the areas of the learning environment, student learning needs, the instructional program, staff development, community resources, building management, and financial management. (Author/JM)

These papers represent the efforts of individual researchers from five countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, The Netherlands and the United States. Each paper reports on educational change in a different country, based on the Concerns-Based Adoption Model developed at the Research and Development Center for Teacher Education at the University of…

Data from needs assessment surveys administered to building level administrators, supervisors, and classroom teachers in a large urban school district (42,000 students) before and after a major staff development initiative were analyzed. The primary focus of this study is the impact of the training effort on participants' perceptions of district…

This collection of readings on secondary school principalship consists of selected articles published in the NASSP Bulletin from 1980 to 1985. The book is divided into eight topical chapters, each consisting of articles by different authors. The introductory chapter consists of five articles that focus on the role of the secondary school…

This handbook provides resources for curriculum directors and other instructional leaders in Georgia school systems to assist in reviewing, evaluating, and updating their instructional programs. The first section lists the various roles of the central office instructional leader, presents a model of the domains of instructional supervision, and…

This textbook provides a curriculum for administrator preparation courses based on guidelines established in 1979 by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) Advisory Committee on Higher Education Relationships. Each chapter provides ideas for successful practices and suggested activities to provide actual experience in each area…

The theory of comprehensive educational development is explored in terms of a plan for its implementation at Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC). The report first discusses the curriculum development model proposed by Taba in 1961 and identifies its curricular, instructional, and faculty development components. A rationale for a…

To discover whether school districts can develop highly rationalized forms of instructional management, this study gathered data from a telephone survey conducted in the school year 1983-84 of administrators in 30 western districts. The instructional management practices of these districts were then compared with an "ideal type" of…

This report is an overview of a conference on the reform of urban schools, focusing on the Chicago (Illinois) public schools. Panel discussions included the following: (1) "Parents' Role/Parental Involvement"; (2) "School-Based Management"; (3) "The Principal's Roles and Responsibilities"; (4) "Teacher…

This document examines issues in schoolwide application of career academies. Part 1 reviews the three defining features of career academies: (1) a career academy is a small learning community in which a cluster of students share several classes each year that are taught by the same team of teachers over a period of 2-4 years; (3) each academy…