Solution-focused counseling (SFC) brings a positive, competency-based perspective to problems experienced by individuals and organizational systems. Instead of looking for what is wrong and how to fix it, this approach discovers what is already working and investigates how to use it. SFC employs five principles: a salutary centerpiece, exceptional…

Paper attempts to show how students can be given the opportunity to select their instructors for valid educational reasons; provides a model showing how students can select the way they will be taught; and how teachers can still do what they feel is necessary to accomplish their teaching objectives. (Author/CB)

A positive climate is characterized by a comfortable, orderly, and safe environment. A healthy culture exists when all stakeholders understand an organization's goals and purposes and work productively to achieve them. This article contrasts the "McSchool" (efficiency-celebrating) cultural model with the spaceship-discovery model,…

To maintain a culture supporting effectiveness, school leaders must carefully monitor the school's climate, collect measures of goal attainment (student performance and student satisfaction), and plan school improvement initiatives based on these assessments. The Comprehensive Assessment of School Environments (CASE) model fosters data-based…

Outlines the findings from the NASSP Task Force on Effective School Climate including clear definitions of school climate and a model illustrating the inputs and outputs of the school environment. Includes a table for the model. (MD)

When teachers become technologically literate, students are the beneficiaries. Principals can ensure that appropriate supports are present and the school climate encourages teachers' professional development efforts. One such program is Computer Assisted Teacher Talk, a summer-institute program that helps teachers learn to use computers to foster…

Before attempting block scheduling reforms, some issues must be addressed, including information retention, transfer students, advanced placement offerings, electives, coordination of teacher and student schedules, and cost effectiveness. There are problems surrounding academic pacing, staff development needs, and time's interaction with other…

Broad-based effective schools research suggests a school excellence model attributing student achievement to principal leadership, a positive school climate, the primacy of basic skills, high teacher expectations, an assessment and monitoring system, and the integration and coordination of the real and ideal curriculum and student assessment. (DCS)