School leaders should realize that consultants cannot substitute for developing collective actions within the organization. The "Consultant from Oz Syndrome" stems from placing undue confidence in external sources, confusing consultants with magicians, and denying their limitations. While journeying down the yellow brick road of…

To benefit fully from the consultants and guest lecturers hired to conduct inservice training for teachers, the McDowell County schools (North Carolina) cultivate a "red carpet" treatment policy for such visitors. Success depends on good two-way communication, efficient hospitality arrangements, administrative presence at workshops, and an…

Based on planning, training, and technical assistance experiences of services providers involved in the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory's (SEDL) Rural, Small Schools Initiative, this guide provides rural school administrators with a resource in identifying, selecting, and negotiating with staff development providers. The resource book…

Offers suggestions for spending staff development money effectively. Ideas include the following: (1) keep your money close to the classroom; (2) use consultants to train your own trainers; (3) beware of embarking on numerous small-scale reforms; and (4) beware of pressure to copy other school improvement methods. (CJH)

A group of professional staff developers committed individually to different movements cooperated to unite five varied programs: Instructional Theory into Practice (ITIP), thinking skills, cooperative learning, teaching styles and strategies, and reading and writing in the content areas. The group rediscovered the big ideas shaping curriculum,…

There are usually three reasons for hiring consultants: to inspire or motivate staff, to provide staff with new ideas, or to glean information from research and evaluation studies to make informed decisions and changes. To benefit from hiring consultants, administrators should know their speakers, consider timing, get their money's worth, verify…

Organizational development (OD) can be of value as a professional development tool in the school, especially where it can broaden the perspective of the teacher so that he can conceptualize the school as an organization with various related units working to achieve the same goal, see more clearly his place in the total educational program of the…

Discusses trends in staff development and cites implications for reading personnel. (MKM)

Although school districts are turning to consultants for help with everything from computer networks to risk management, school reform experts are especially popular. Increasingly, schools are asking consultants to serve as "critical friends" in staff development and teacher-evaluation reform programs. Shortcomings stem from consultants'…

Describes a program in which school district teaching staff members provided inservice training as opposed to outside consultants. Reports the program was successful and met with the approval of the staff. (FL)

Discusses the various roles reading specialists are expected to play in the school. (FL)

Identifies five teacher-assistance models that rely on formal support systems for classroom teachers as they engage in the teaching of reading. States several characteristics of effective support teachers. (MG)

Among the assumed benefits of cooperative ventures between universities and school systems is that the increased knowledge flow between the institutions should result in more relevant university programs and more theoretically and conceptually grounded decisions in the school system. However, the St. Louis (Missouri) area lacks a formal…

This inventory is designed to help educational consultants assess their levels of knowledge and skills in ten broad areas of consulting: communication, entry/intervention, diagnosis, group facilitation, problem-solving, influence/power, resource utilization, conflict management/utilization, and evaluation. The instrument is designed to help…