The purpose of this research was to determine how teachers and administrators in a successful North Carolina district perceived the purpose and value of a school improvement plan (SIP) and the planning process. The SIP is the accepted best practice for school-wide improvement, and the perceptions of the purpose and value of the process…

Operational characteristics for successful mentoring programs of new university faculty include clarity of purpose of the program, methods for matching mentors and proteges, mentor training, mentor-protege relationship building, and program effectiveness assessment. Strengths of formal, informal, peer, group or consortia, intra-departmental,…

The author argues in favor of "educational engineers" being grounded in the philosophies of education to understand the social meanings of the ideas with which they work. The leaders must set for themselves a long, continued study of the techniques that will make the idea operate in the learning situation. (CT)