Provides a model for school organization structured to encourage coordination and communication between specialists, teachers, and principals. (Author/IRT)

Examines the factors that lead to the success of one regional education organization and the failure of a comparable one. The study demonstrates that organizational arrangements and leadership within the centers themselves were much more critical to survival or death than were environmental conditions. (Author/IRT)

Studies in five Missouri districts identified eight characteristics deterring change and constituting an "informal covenant" between teachers and principals. Eight corresponding conditions essential to change include relating changes to a school's culture, knowing local procedures and sensitive issues, recognizing moments when changes are…

Describes metaphorical analysis to help administrators gain organizational knowledge and insights in case study of a hypothetical organization. (Contains 25 references.) (PKP)

To determine the organizational and environmental variables that superintendents perceive as critical to an administrative restructuring process, an action research approach was used to gather data through semistructured interviews with selected Western Pennsylvania school superintendents. The most valuable skill for superintendents in effecting…

Based on interviews with almost the entire population of shared superintendents in Iowa, this article discusses the pros and cons of shared superintendencies. Problems arose concerning logistics, decreased administrator visibility, loss of personal control, keeping district policies separate, and favoritism charges. Participants experienced high…

Argues that school personnel should recognize and understand that the staff development process is a series of interrelated phases that should be followed and that these phases occur within the context of a particular social organization. (Author/IRT)

The five key elements comprising any school organization may be described as structural, professional, renewal-oriented, curricular, and collaborative. School leaders committed to change must recognize three realities: (1) change is hard, even painful work; (2) the parts cannot be treated without treating the whole; and (3) reform starts at the…

The current unrest with teachers is at least a partial consequence of the "fact" that increased levels of teacher commitment and competence have not been matched by corresponding increases in responsibility, adjustment in the pattern of authority, and the distribution of power. (Author/IRT)

Since the "May" and "Gregoire" decisions, school boards must be aware of the courts' change to a more expansive view of free speech. Unless it is clearly a religious service, rite, or ceremony, what was once considered a religious activity (for example, Bible-reading) may now be considered free speech protected by the First…

Outlines a proactive school organization model useful for special need populations (handicapped, and linguistically and culturally different learners) because it enables all participants to collaborate on a systematic, four-phase change process: data collection, needs assessment, development of interventions, and evaluation of outcomes. The focus…

Reports the relationship between the teachers' participation in organizational decision-making and the perceived influence attributed to their administrative superiors, the principal and the superintendent. (Author)