Boards can soften the termination blow by assuring employees that layoffs are not personal and offering to write letters of recommendation. School systems should also give early notices and reasonable explanations, eliminate positions through attrition and early retirement, and place certified administrators in lesser administrative or teaching…

Survey responses from 186 of 250 trainers/human resource managers and a Delphi panel of 21 rated companies' basic skills training provisions and the importance of basic skills. Although most stated their companies provide basic skills training, results show most are reluctant to hire, train, or retain workers with low basic skills. (SK)

Discusses the trend toward short tenures for state university presidents, and indeed, for all university presidents, and concludes that evaluations make little difference in decisions to retain or remove presidents. Annual reviews or reports are considered valuable in improving the performance of university presidents. (SLD)

It was only three years ago that Dr. R. Wayne Branch was tapped to take over the reins at Clark College, a 70-year-old private college in Vancouver, Washington. As president of the Community College of Baltimore County-Essex, Branch oversaw the reorganization of the college after it was folded into a three-college system. Those organizational…

The naivete this superintendent displayed was in not asking his school board to put its directives in writing. (IRT)

Provides school executives with due process information concerning termination of school personnel, including teachers. Outlines the usual reasons for termination, ranging from reduction in force to wrongdoing on the job, and explains the burden of proof resting on the employer. (MLH)

Recognizing that termination is viewed by the employee as the equivalent to capital punishment of a career, an administrative contract can reduce the emotional and financial entanglements that often result. Administrative contracts are described. (MLW)

Reasons why 133 competitively employed nonhandicapped and 8 mentally retarded food service workers lost their jobs were compared. The majority of mentally retarded workers lost their jobs for productivity reasons, with some associated secondary social problems while the nonhandicapped lost their jobs for both social and production problems.…

Reasons for 107 job separations of competitively employed mentally retarded persons were analyzed. Employee-related reasons (e.g. attitude problems, skill or behavioral deficits) were responsible for 50% of separations with reasons outside of employee control responsible for the rest. Employee-related reasons were more probable for higher I.Q.…

The causes for executive dismissal are discussed, including the special problems involved in the development of effective administration in the educational field. The importance of ethics and honesty in professional organizations is emphasized. (MD)

Reviews termination procedures of professional chemists and the compliance of these terminations to the American Chemical Society's (ACS's) Professional Employment Guidelines. Provides the ACS guidelines. (DS)

With tongue in cheek, a suburban school superintendent presents tips he has developed himself and gleaned from his fellows on how not to get fired. Included are: cultivate a "low-brow" image, blame the Feds, and schedule your contract renewal meeting to follow a state championship. (SJL)

Major causes of "sudden-death syndrome" for superintendents include mismatched priorities, unseen problems, interference from special-interest groups, and misdirected disagreements. Beleaguered superintendents should be positive and proactive, act and speak as one person, understand agreements, seek help, listen, rewrite personnel…

Begins with a general discussion of downsizing and its outcomes, then offers an analysis of downsizing in higher education with an emphasis on three points: the factors causing universities to consider downsizing, the special nature of universities that makes downsizing particularly difficult, and the downsizing methods used by universities. (EV)

Describes how City Colleges of Chicago is restructuring its work force by outsourcing tasks formerly done by counselors and information-technology employees. (EV)