The purpose of this study was to explore how college and university presidents perceive the Greek social organizations that exist on their campus. Fraternities and sororities, in recent years, have increasingly been placed underneath a microscope. While a variety of research exists in regards to perceptions of Greek social organizations there is a…

There is a hidden dynamic in schools that is potent, pervasive, and impacts all aspects of a school's function. This dynamic exists among those within a school and has the power to propel or thwart improvement efforts, include or exclude new staff members, and be a help or hindrance to the mental well-being of our educators. Revealing this hidden…

We draw upon the evolutionary model of change in order to examine the organizational transformation of three liberal arts colleges (Albion College, Allegheny College, Kenyon College). Relying on our prior research (Baker, Baldwin, & Makker, 2012), we seek to continue our exploration and understanding of the evolution occurring in the important…

Bent on improving the teaching and learning experience, enhancing the productivity of researchers, and increasing the visibility of research outputs, libraries are redistributing staff, reallocating resources, and reorganizing internal structures, all to better partner campus-wide. Nowhere is the impact of this push for service innovation and user…

Research about organizational improvement has come from several disciplines--business management, organizational sociology, communications, and education. Across these fields, much of the research involves case studies of effective organizations (e.g., Collins, 2001; Johnson, 1996). Review of these case studies suggests several commonalities among…

Many social policy and education programs start from the assumption that people act in their best interest. But behavioral science shows that people often weigh intuition over reason, make inconsistent choices, and put off big decisions. The individuals and families who need services and the staff who provide them are no exception. From city…

Using a stratified random sample and real-time virtual focus group sessions, we evaluated the regional administrative model, addressing personnel supervision, program direction, financial management, and administrative leadership. We concluded that the regional administrative model remains a highly charged topic, there is no common understanding…

In late 2006, the Columbus Museum of Art adopted a new framework that established creativity as the lens for learning and visitor experiences. The purpose of our article is to critically examine the role of evaluation in CMA's reinvention, and in particular to highlight three features of evaluation at CMA that we believe contributed to the…

Project-based learning is a key methodology for the 21st century classroom. The teaching pedagogy is grounded in collaborative learning for students and collaborative teaching practices for educators. When social media and digital technologies are used as aids in the project-based learning approach, it adds a new dimension of learning for students…

In late 2006, the Columbus Museum of Art adopted a new framework that established creativity as the lens for learning and visitor experiences. This shift brought new challenges to the museum's curators. With seismic changes in the internal and external culture of museums, there is no doubt that the traditional curator's role is under scrutiny. In…

Although it has been decades since gender inequality in academe was first highlighted, institutions around the world continue to struggle with how best to address the problem. Policies and procedures intended to increase women's representation appear to have had limited impact in many departments, especially those in science, technology,…

The First Amendment Schools project holds rich lessons in how to change school cultures into "laboratories of democracy"--as well as in how to increase the odds of success for any school reform effort. School reform programs of any sort need to make sure to build in sustainability, to provide ways to spread their lessons beyond the…

Policy makers at the federal level have embraced an educator effectiveness agenda, which in turn has driven many states across the country to rapidly develop and implement new and more complex teacher evaluation systems. It is increasingly clear that the success of these nascent teacher evaluation systems partly depends on the will, skill, and…

Now more than ever, it is urgent that colleges and universities mobilize themselves to produce graduates who are capable of being productive, creative, and responsible members of a global society. Employers want clear communicators who are strong critical thinkers and who can solve real-world problems in an ethical way. To achieve these outcomes,…

The purpose of this report is to document evidence of institutional change in teacher preparation among universities participating in the Teachers for a New Era (TNE) Learning Network. The report is based upon a cross-case analysis of individual case studies of nine universities, conducted by Academy for Educational Development (AED) researchers.…