Demystifies the two "faces" of micropolitics. "Policy micropolitics" distinguishes between micropolitics and management and focuses on the relationship between school micropolitics and the wider macropolitical context. "Management micropolitics" makes no clear micropolitics/management distinction and focuses on…

Understanding both process and context is essential to resolving problems. This paper articulates the decision seminar model, a rational problem-solving technique, and uses a hypothetical policy problem to show how various stages of the model might be applied to school issues. Process facilitates problem definition, inhibits fragmentation, and…

All local education authorities (school districts) should have a policy for management development. All staff who manage the work of other adults in school should receive the appropriate training as an entitlement; for many of the teachers involved the training should be school-based. Evaluation of training is also important and deserves greater…

At the present juncture, South Africa is one of the few countries that do not require a compulsory and specific qualification for principalship. This particular need has been part of a discussion among educational leaders for the past thirty to forty years. Despite all the laudable efforts to redesign the landscape of Educational Leadership and…

This booklet explores the major issues involved in creating effective leadership for today's schools. It summarizes the deliberations of 43 participants involved in a 2-day forum on educational leadership. Participants included superintendents, principals, and teachers from urban, suburban, and rural school districts, as well as prominent…

Reviews the changes in management approach that have been implemented at the headquarters of the New York City Board of Education. Discusses individuals' roles in revamping administrative procedures, and considers the importance of urban educational research in shaping new policies. (GC)

A five-step method for evaluating proposed policies for educational reform is suggested and explicated in this booklet. The five steps are as follows: (1) to identify the problems toward which reforms are directed, (2) to identify the policies designed to address each problem, (3) to identify assumptions about the problems and the proposed…

The National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA) recommends a nine-item agenda for reform of the preparation of educational administrators. The agenda addresses reform issues in the areas of people, programs, and assessment. In addition to describing the agenda, this document: (1) depicts the problems to which the agenda is…

The factors for an effective administrative task force are examined in this report on the Syracuse school superintendent's Issue Analysis Team. The team, composed of voluntary potential administrators, acts as a special task force to facilitate informed decision making by the school superintendent. Topics discussed are member selection, role…

The focus in this paper is on political styles, political organization, and political interaction among educational power persons and groups. Recent research studies by the authors have looked at teacher perceptions of their power over curriculum. Questionnaires and interviews were administered to a random sample of teachers in several Michigan…

The purpose of this investigation was to search for new educational policies that would help renew and invigorate old ideas and concepts about inservice and professional development programs in the public schools. The methodology included both qualitative and quantitative functions. The key technique was an interview schedule with Likert-type…

The increasing availability and the highly variable quality of computer hardware and software make it imperative that school professionals become acquainted with issues of legal liability and professional ethics regarding the use of computers in education. This document explores problems associated with the lack of proper training of school…

The materials in this manual are designed to help workshop leaders prepare for and present a workshop for school board members on the variety of variables that must be considered in the course of developing board policy. In the course of the workshop, board members are encouraged to develop stronger self-confidence as policy makers and increased…

The materials in this manual are designed to help workshop leaders prepare for and present a workshop for school board members on the roles of the school board and the superintendent in a systematic cycle of policy management. The workshop identifies the specific mechanical steps that might be considered as a school board moves to identify, write,…

This combined management audit and personnel staffing survey of a sample of Alabama schools reports recommendations for policy changes to the Alabama Education Study Commission. Policy changes in educational management are suggested with respect to school organization, state fund apportionment procedures, curriculum development, test scoring,…