A good deal of evidence now suggests that a strong sense of community in schools has benefits for both staff members and students, while providing a necessary foundation for school improvement. This digest in Spanish provides an overview of the literature on schools as communities. The digest identifies the elements of community schools, the…

The literature on administrative style is reviewed. Attention is directed to four basic concepts of administrative style: (1) the structured, classical, traditional model; (2) the participatory or employee-involved operation; (3) a more behavioral scientific style; and (4) the situational or environmental style. These ideas are more fully…

A good deal of evidence now suggests that a strong sense of community in schools has benefits for both staff members and students, while providing a necessary foundation for school improvement. This digest provides an overview of the literature on schools as communities. The digest identifies the elements of community schools, the effects of…

On average, leaders are engaged in one form or another of communication for about 70 percent of their waking moments. This digest provides suggestions for school leaders who want to increase the effectiveness of those interactions. A first step is to recognize that listening is the skill most essential to effective communication. Other skills of…

In shared decision making (SDM), principals collaborate with teachers and sometimes parents to take actions aimed at improving instruction and school climate. While research on SDM outcomes is still inconclusive, the literature shows that SDM brings both benefits and problems, and that the principal is a key figure. This brief offers a sampling of…

The diverse, multicultural population that constitutes today's work force faces ethical dilemmas on the job that bring pressures to protect their own or their company's interests, at the risk of losing their personal integrity. Employers and vocational and career development personnel are recognizing the need for decision-making and…

Part of a volume which explores current issues in service delivery to infants and toddlers with handicapping conditions (ages birth to 3), this chapter discusses issues relating to staffing of early intervention programs and reports the results of a study designed to clarify the staffing and teaming options currently used by selected intervention…

The role of the department chair as the interface between faculty and administration is considered, along with the selection, orientation, socialization, and evaluation of the chair. Attention is directed to constraints under which chairs work that are beyond their control and the way that the resulting conflict, overload, and ambiguity impede…

Although experiential education is really the oldest approach to learning, its practitioners have not had an easy time justifying its relevance in the modern educational world. Recent changes in the methodologies of evaluation have provided useful tools for experiential educators. Such tools can be used to refine programming, enhance student…

This guide assembles examples of staff development used by one large school district, Los Angeles Unified School District, to prepare teachers for the new role of mentor. In an effort to help mentors get off to a good start, the district's Professional Development Center assembled a 30-hour program of discussion panels, skill training, and problem…

Adversarial collective bargaining often leads to lingering resentments. Collaborative bargaining, conversely, is a problem-solving approach to contract negotiations based on common interests and mutual respect. It is estimated that at least 500 school districts nationwide incorporate major elements of the collaborative approach in their collective…

Many college faculty increasingly do much of their work, i.e., teaching, conducting research, and writing, in partnership with colleagues. This is due to such things as rapidly changing technologies and increasingly specialized knowledge. Faculty collaboration usually takes two principal forms, teaching and research, and are often distinctive…

Part of a volume which explores current issues in service delivery to infants and toddlers (birth to age 3) with handicapping conditions, this chapter addresses the nature and challenges of effective administrative leadership of early intervention programs. Basic administrative tasks are identified, such as: building an early intervention team,…

This casebook, developed in collaboration with 22 mentor teachers in the Los Angeles (California) Unified School District, provides illustrative vignettes, written by the mentor teachers themselves, of their work with first-year teachers. The vignettes describe the circumstances of each event, its consequences, and the ongoing thoughts and…

Quality work teams that are based on W. Edwards Deming's business-management theories have proliferated at the school and district levels to handle problem solving and decision making. Teams are said to build stronger relationships among those involved in education and, ultimately, to benefit students because more people with broader perspectives…