Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is a difference in the perception of the presence of the 5 attributes of a learning organization between site leaders and teachers. Senge (1990) used the 5 areas of mental models, personal mastery, shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking to describe the necessary…

As researchers, decision-makers, and practitioners focus on continuous improvement in education, local-level change is gaining importance. Yet, many local school improvement efforts fail to be fully implemented. Even those that are fully implemented often fail to sustain improvements because the schools are embedded in systems that face multiple…

The purpose of the case study is to describe how one large school district in the United States has expanded their expectations for students based on the perceived need for graduates to compete in an increasingly global job market. The study "summarizes" the processes for establishing districtwide systems to support these expectations. The case…

The implementation of a planning-programing-budgeting system (PPBS) of educational management has implications for teachers, legislators, and taxpayers, as well as for administrators. Teachers have a major responsibility for instructional improvement that can be accomplished by their writing behavioral objectives and planning instructional…

Management-by-objectives (MBO) focuses attention on objectives stated as end accomplishments rather than the activities which bring about those accomplishments. MBO identifies eight major areas of management which become involved in the process: (1) planning, (2) performance appraisal, (3) individual motivation, (4) coordination, (5) control, (6)…

Present and past efforts to enhance school efficiency have failed. Progressive Era reforms of a half-century ago contributed to the creation of a publicly insensitive, professionally dominated education system. Accountability enthusiasts of the '70s failed to understand the fundamental misalignment between the assumptions underlying private sector…