In January 2012, the West Virginia Governor's Office released an influential report, "Education Efficiency Audit of West Virginia's Primary and Secondary Education System," written by Public Works (2012), a management consulting company headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Based largely on this report, the West Virginia…

This article explains two components in the review process of a university's principal preparation program. A superintendents' focus group session and an analysis of other universities' program profiles revealed a need to eliminate dated courses, include certification in the degree requirements, update the program curriculum with best practice,…

In 2009, the federal government committed over $3 billion nationwide to help states and districts turn around their worst-performing schools. The U.S. Department of Education intended for the School Improvement Grants (SIGs) to spur dramatic change.This report looks at the results of a field study of the first-year implementation of those grants…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of principals whose schools were granted innovation status in accordance with the "Colorado Innovation Schools Act of 2008" (CISA). The CISA created a statewide system that allowed individual schools and entire districts to increase autonomy and…

From setting the stage to engaging the community in understanding the purpose of collaborative professional learning teams, this volume covers what leaders need to know to implement more effective professional learning. Chapters focus on changing school culture, scheduling time, planning, using data, designs for professional learning, facilitating…

Two schools in Michigan received ARRA SIG (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act School Improvement Grants) funds to enable them to implement their improvement efforts. This paper describes the outcomes of these two ARRA SIG recipient schools: (1) Phoenix Elementary-Middle School; and (2) Arthur Hill High School. The experiences of these…

Schools can achieve humanistic goals, assert these writers, by providing students more options and therby meeting their diverse needs. Showing how widespread the mini-concept is, they report in this article a three-state survey that indicates how principals feel about their programs. (Editor)

Summarizes results of a nationwide survey to determine secondary principals' attitudes toward selected aspects of block scheduling. All 69 participants (from 10 states) expressed full support for block scheduling. Many principals expressed concerns about student maturity, sequential course offerings, and time spent on homework. Schedule…

As confirmed by two case studies of pilot IPI programs conducted September through December, 1967 in two elementary schools in New Jersey, participation in the innovation of Individually Prescribed Instruction requires a certain level of commitment by school district administrators, principals, and teachers. One of the pilot schools was graded…

This bulletin brings together from several sources information on the "what" and the "how" of core curriculum practice. Many articles and brochures are in print describing aspects of the core in individual schools and school systems. Information about characteristics of the core curriculum is readily available in the…

This investigation had as its objective to collect relevant information in a systematic fashion concerning the actual, implemented four-quarter program. The investigators sought to identify what was currently operational in cooperating metropolitan school systems and to assess the degree to which the operational four-quarter plan meets the…