The idea of a continuing association of principals assisting principals brought about the formation of the Learning Environments Consortium, discussed in this paper. The principals involved in this association, the paper notes, are committed to developing student-centered programs. They work together in such activities as school site visits,…

A practical approach designed to reduce energy waste by schools is to improve the knowledge and upgrade the skills of school building custodians. This paper discusses an operation and maintenance training program for custodians developed by the Will County (Illinois) educational service region. The major parts of the program consist of skill…

This paper discusses global budgeting--a concept devised by the Lanark County Board of Education in the Province of Ontario--which involves more staff participation in determining how budget dollars are spent. Staff is required to create a list of priorities for programming. Then the principal and the staff collectively, with the principal…

This paper discusses the structure and process of an A.R.C. workshop, an innovative approach to inservice training. Following a general introduction, including impacts on workshop participants, the paper details four basic components of a workshop: (1) the opening session, (2) examining readiness for professional development, (3) exploring…

The author is presently engaged in an action research experiment in two school districts in the Southeastern United States that is focusing on the role of two variables in determining the effectiveness of community advisory councils. The two variables are the objectives the advisory councils are supposed to achieve and the factors, some…

This paper proposes viewing students as full-fledged organizational members who participate in school planning, problem-solving, and decision-making about school curriculum, grading policies, teacher evaluation procedures, budget, and the like. Three tested strategies are described that help students increase their understanding of how the school…

Results-Oriented Supervision (R.O.S.) is a system for teacher supervision that focuses more on instructional improvement than on teacher evaluation. The supervisor and the teacher join together to formulate teaching objectives. After a period of implementation, a postconference is held to assess and restate or renew objectives. In the school…

The Dallas Independent School District has tried to address the problems involved in providing appropriate education for diverse communities by establishing minimum long-range goals and annual objectives in priority subject areas. The Campus Level Planning Project was a program to encourage program planning at the local school level. Each…

This paper is the result of a symposium called to discuss a two-year, multiuniversity development project which attempted to assist in advancing the role of women in education. The purpose of the project, commissioned by the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), was to design, develop, validate, and disseminate instructional…

Because of fast changes in educational theory and methodology, behaviorally threatening atmosphere, changes in student responses and attitudes, administrative expectations, and general tensions, most teachers need more support relationships than ever before. Tensions in many schools are high and daily frustrations exist. Teachers are concerned…

The purposes of this paper are to describe a data-based organizational renewal effort in a school district, explain the application and utility of the collaborative process used, and discuss the implications of such activities for building-level delivery of educational services, particularly in the area of decision-making. Although the project was…

In spite of a diminishing amount of money available for educational research, a demand still exists for research and evaluation. This paper discusses how to initiate cooperative research between local education agencies and neighboring universities and educational labs and centers. First, the paper identifies problems in the development of…

The speakers' bureau, one component of the Human Resources School's career development program for physically disabled children in grades 4 through 12 is described, and information and materials for program development, implementation, and evaluation are presented. In addition, the use of speakers' bureaus both outside of career education programs…

Presented in outline form, this paper describes a special program for gifted and talented students at a Massachusetts junior high school. Some of the topics discussed include goals of the program, design, implementation, evaluation, use of teachers as mentors, and identification of gifted students. (Author/LD)

This paper addresses problems in research on urban education and outlines several National Institute of Education (NIE) proposals for dealing with these problems. It is argued that research should not stray too far from the basic educational goals of inculcating literacy, that educational research must become more diverse and sophisticated in its…